The Re-making of Aragorn (Step 1)

Hello again! Well, through a little debate with myself over how dissatisfied I have been with my Aragorn sculpt, I have decided to start him completely over.

What more, I have decided to more closely document the re-sculpting process as I take him from rough clay all the way through the finished piece. Welcome to the first in my series 'The Re-making of Aragorn".

As with all of the other models, I must first sculpt the head and do a better job of capturing Aragorn's likeness. I will be utilizing "Super Sculpy" clay this time around instead of the white "Sculpy" that I used on all of my others. I used "Super Sculpy" on Legolas's hand re-sculpt and I was much more impressed at the amount of detail the un-hardened "Super Sculpy" clay could hold as opposed to the un-hardened "Sculpy". "Super Sculpy" is much firmer and is flesh-toned, which I am finding cool for sculpting the new face.

My tools of choice have always been ordinary round tapered toothpicks and a small tool that I have built myself (dowel and a curved wire). I also use a small assortment of cutting/scraping tools and a plastic smoothing wand with a pointed end.

With these and my own fingers, I am able to sculpt nearly any shape and edge that I wish and am comfortable using these.


This time, I made sure to get photos of the actor's face in a right-front-left turn around and with as little facial hair as I could possibly find. I took these and scaled them down to the exact size of the model's head-to-be and gave myself a version (seen at the top of the image to the right) with guide lines across all of the features.

*I only wish that I had gone to this length on all my others. I believe it would have helped me be more accurate with the likenesses than just eye-balling photos of different scales. Oh well, live and learn. This web-blog is one of progress and all of this sculpting has only made me better and better.

This new Aragorn is going to rock!

Start by molding a face-shape with a neck; making sure to get the proportion and size right according to the size charts. (I have to be incredibly careful to follow my original proportion chart in order to have all of these models be in the correct proportions to each other and to have all of their body parts to the correct scale to the model size).

I like to inscribe the blank face with the guide lines to match the model head of the chart and the turn-around.

I then begin adding the facial features in an additive method, by following the facial anatomy. I carve sockets and lay in the eyeballs, then add the eyelids, cheeks, lips, etc.

This helps me construct the face anatomically and get a more realistic face that feels like it has volume.



After adding all of the features and smoothing them into the face, I have my new Aragorn head! (Albeit without the facial hair), and bald.

Notice that I am not going to be spending any time sculpting details on the ears. I added them just to be anatomically correct and help me ensure that I captured a good likeness this time around. The ears will be covered over with Aragorn's long hair in the final model and will help to make the hair look like it is flowing over real ears.

Wow! I love "Super Sculpy" and will never go back! In just two nights time, I have the best head that I have ever sculpted and probably the best character likeness of all of my models!

Step 1 is complete. Next, I need to design an all-new pose and start the body frame.




























Aaaah! Much better than my original "horse-faced" Aragorn!