I did mean my current skill level. I am pretty optimistic. But.
I have to say I am way beyond "attempt 6" and my sculpt work hasn't reached table top quality let. I am improving from my "attempt 1".
That was an example of what I meant, it will be more than 6 conversions before you get somewhere.
you do actually have some talent man. It's not all stubbornness fueling your creations.
You mean like that time I sculpted 40 female heads over the course of a week, one after the other until I got something that was okish?
Yeah, I'm glad talent was behind all of that, I would have hated having to practice and learn how to do it for myself, that would have been a real pain.
Sarcasm aside I cannot agree with you, I know exactly what's rattling around in my head, but I don't believe talent (or indeed the idea/notion of talent) to be the cause, I
KNOW it's all to do with attitude and approach. There is a wargaming club over here and many of the guys sit in when I sculpt and so get to see what I'm doing, things I have noticed however is people will comment on how I pay more attention to individual parts than they would (like scales) and each time I say:
"that's because there's a certain look I'm trying to achieve".
In the same vein I get comments such as:
"You should leave part "X" because it looks good enough as it is"
But again I don't, I work on that part until I reach a certain level, one that
I am happy with, if you leave everything at a basic standard, then even a good model will look basic, because basic is what you aimed for.
I got a B at GCSE for Art and a D at A-level.
My sculptor tutor at uni wanted to fail me but I was awarded a "Pass" in the end, doesn't sound like the sort of thing that happens to "talented" people does it?
Even the greats have to practice and fall down to get where they are. But not everyone can be that good.
There's two major problems with that sentence.
1. I'm not great, I'm persistent.
2. Giving up before you start.
2 in particular is poisonous because you admit defeat without trying, imagine being told "you won't be able to do it" by someone before you do anything, very quickly you will feel awful, worthless and depressed, you certainly won't do things to the standard you are capable of and you won't enjoy it. This is why I will keep bashing on and on about trying, it's also why I do these tuts, too many people give themselves far too little credit and it needs to stop!
When I first started doing full sculpts I was getting asked by people for more "progress" shots, you know 3-4 in between shots with some brief info on what I did and why.
- - This then turned into requests for small tuts on specific parts.
- - Which in turn became requests for full blown stage by stage photos and explanations.
- - Which has now become full blown requests for filming and commenting from start to finish.
See the progression there?
I do my best to fill some of the gaps for people to encourage them (look at some of the threads + posts I've made on this site), but people keep asking me for more and more without even trying to meet me half way. How long will it before I start getting emails from people asking me to fly over and conduct one on ones with them?
If I do an in-depth tut from start to finish then a sculpt will roughly take me twice as long to complete, which is why I refused for so long. Admittedly I do kind of enjoy it, I really don't get a lot of thanks for helping on places like Deviantart, people can in fact stay eerily quiet, even with regards to what they want to see next. However none of this is about glorification, or gratification, it's about getting people to realise their inner potential, I would love nothing more than to see people try, ask if they're stuck, or want feedback, or best of all, actually shatter misconceptions they've developed about themselves.
I'm pretty motivated and giving a fair amount of effort. There is no doubt in my mind that one day I can at least present pieces that are table top quality. I'm getting there. And when I do, I'll make sure you know asap.
This sounds like more of the correct attitude.
It's not that I haven't tried. I'll list a few "works" I've done.
1. See my earlier comment, 40 heads over a week to get something that was okish.
2. Weapons need milliput or apoxie sculpt, you can sand it afterwards to get smooth edges.
3. Do more conversions and make the amount of changes you do increase over time.
4. Photo is a bit too blurry for me to make out the images clearly, but I will ask you this, if you had to re-do that again, what would you try differently?
5. Constantly re-think your approach, if something constantly doesn't work, try it again, but change your approach. An enemy fort that is impregnable on one side, will always be impregnable if you keep attacking it on the same side.
That's why you do heads as one whole stage, so you can adjust and smooth both sides at the same time, it's what I do.
