Hey,

Allow me to introduce the mad hatter. Well actually, I thought he was going to be the mad hatter, but he’s actually turning out to be one of the henchmen for the queen of hearts. I had just watched New Moon when I started him, and having rather enjoyed Laurent as a character:

(used without permission, no challenge to intellectual property implied)

I thought I would draw inspiration from the whole bare chest/Armani suit thing. I also haven’t ever done a black man before, and this was my opportunity to experiment somewhat. I started as ever with an armature:

And I then went on to bulk out his chest and legs in particular. Because he’s going to be spinning around surprised, I knew that the bottom of his chest and his thighs were going to be the hardest bit to get right. So, that’s what I nailed down first. I’m not normally one to go in for the super-muscles on show thing in regular humans, but this could be an exception, and it was great to sculpt something that was a little different from the norm.

Following that I added his suit over the musculature. I’m getting better with every sculpt in knowing how much definition to give the musculature below the clothes, to make them look right, but still not use superb amounts of time working on them. As such, he’s probably taken no more than 10 hours so far.

While he doesn’t look totally right, he’s still one of the best faces I’ve ever done in my humble opinion, and when he has flying dreadlocks/cables, I think it should work rather better. He’s going to have a katana in a reverse grip in one hand, and a scabbard in the other like this:

(picture copyright Games Workshop, used without permission, no challenge to intellectual property implied)

Just as soon as I can get around to sculpting his hands. I don’t like hands and feet. I can do them, but I don’t enjoy them. This isn’t the only reason I’m leaving them until last you understand!

Here is where I’m at so far:

I think when he is done he’ll make a great soldier for the Queen of Hearts, much better than he would have been a mad hatter (I couldn’t think of a hat to fit him).

As ever, thanks for reading, please get in touch and let me know what you think of these projects, good or bad, we only improve through feedback from others, right?

James