Oozhu Grand Duc of Hashoot
Having returned from a 15 year break from the hobby, I was more than excited to get back into making things from scratch. Albeit unsure if I could still sculpt to a degree that would hold up to the amazing creations above. It only took a few mentions of Hashoot around the community and I was engrossed with the idea of doing my take on the Bastard who worshipped It.
These days I only have a few hours an evening if I’m lucky so I was set on going with my gut and not get stuck trying to get everything perfect this time around.
Sketches
I never sculpt without any reference so I drew what came to me when thinking of the owl theme.
Happy with the second sketch, so I moved on to getting an armature going and a first rough body.
Next (evening) I put on the bottom part of his cloak. I still have difficulty getting the folds to look natural.
Next, his cape/apron/caperon? It’s somewhat eastern influenced, although I kind of improvised. Also a basic face. My goal was to get a barn owl looking nose with beady eyes. Did not quite hit that mark in the end, but it was fun to try. Oh, and clawed feet.
Things started to look a lot better when the fun details came in. This round: beard, belt, eyeballs and braid. Note on the glossy look: after getting the basic shape and adhesion I want with GS I usually lightly brush on some vaseline to do smoothening passes. The next day I heavily brush these areas with IPA and use compressed air to blast the liquid off. This leaves a very clean surface and I do this all the time.
Next evening, I added some of the beard ornaments and attempted a mouth and moustache I ended up scrapping, which is never fun.
Shifting focus to the hat shape, I was ready to do a second try on the mouth. Also added a satchel and belt buckle.
Next evening I could put in a ton of details that I really enjoyed including moon phase / owl hat, eyebrows, eyelids, beard tip, schnozz and ears.
Next up, right hand and kris. Hands are difficult is all I can say. I did it in two phases, doing the nails after the hand had cured. Ended up carving the kris rather than sculpting it.
For the other hand I wanted a staff, but I had no concept. So for the first time I asked an AI for support and it gave me this:
It’s crap, but interesting crap and I worked with it and managed to get to a decent result in a couple of passes. I glued it to his armature and sculpted the hand the next evening.
After the staff I was in the home stretch and mostly just needed to cover him in feathers. The feathers were pre-sculpted on a strip of GS. I cut off pieces of the strip when still soft and tacked them onto the cloak with a dab of superglue. Big feathers first. Oh, and you may have noticed that I dropped the bugger and I damaged the staff and his kris, oh well…
Last pass on the feathers before we’re done!
