# Jabberslythe Sculpture



## JI7 (Mar 10, 2011)

I don't know really where to put this. I wouldn't consider it art exactly since I am sculpting this piece as an actual playing piece. Anyway, this is my current project and it is of course in its infancy (work in progress). At this point you can see the armature, some underpinning, fleshing out and an unfinished head. I am keen for any feedback so please give it. I am sure that there will be some issues with scale for him when finished but I figure that there has to be some flexibility for a large target creature like the Jabberslythe. I will continue to update as I progress the sculpt. I am sculpting primarily in Super Sculpey Firm with some features being made from Milliput or Pro Create. Also, if this belongs on another forum then please let me know as I am new here. And lastly, if you like it (or don't), let others know about it as I really do want as much feedback as possible.


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## wombat_tree (Nov 30, 2008)

That's a very good start and to answer your implied question, this should be in Modelling and Painting or possibly Project Logs.


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## JI7 (Mar 10, 2011)

So, do I delete it here and repost it in modelling and painting? If I do need to delete it how do I go about doing that? Thanks for your feedback by the way.


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## aquatic_foible (Mar 17, 2010)

Hopefully a Moderator will move it...

By the way, awesome looking sculpt, sir. Looking forward to seeing how it progresses. With regards to feedback - 

How do you envision the creature _moving_? Will it's head be dragging on the ground, "pushed" along by little legs? Or will it be able to raise it's head? It's a bit hard to tell from the armature at the minute...If it's the latter, you need a big, powerful back end [big muscular legs / spine], capable of supporting the upper body.

Obviously, these are just my thoughts, based on the images posted so far...


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## Viscount Vash (Jan 3, 2007)

*Moved.*

Looking good from the start.


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## Master of Sanctity (Nov 11, 2010)

Looking great so far, will be interesting to see how it finishes up. Keep the pics coming.


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Great start! Going to be watching this one.


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## gwmaniac (Sep 1, 2008)

looking good for a start, i'll be paying attention to this thread! have some rep. and welcome to heresy =]


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## Varakir (Sep 2, 2009)

Looks very freaky and interesting. Sculpting is very nice too, the head looks great!


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## Hudson (Jun 3, 2008)

+reppy rep rep 

looks good but I WANT MORE!!!! so get back to work :laugh:


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## TheSpore (Oct 15, 2009)

Hey regardless if its for gaming or not its is still art and i looks good so far. one question can anyone tell what a jabberslythe is.I know that just sounds bad but Ive never heard of it before.


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## LukeValantine (Dec 2, 2008)

Quick where is my vorpal blade.


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## xenobiotic (Jun 7, 2008)

From the looks of the armature and your choice of materials I assume you've done similar projects before, is that right? If so, do you have any examples of what you've produced before? You're answer would effect my approach to what feedback to give you


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## JI7 (Mar 10, 2011)

Thank you all for your feedback. I am a member of several other art forums and it is great to finally be a part of one where people actually make replies and give feedback. I will definitely be posting more pics when I make some significant progress. This is likely to be slow though so please be patient with me. I have some other creature sculpts that you all might like to see but I don't know where I should put these pics since they are not specifically Warhammer. If anyone is interested let me know where I can post them on the forum. Only one is actually in a finished and painted state though.


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## JI7 (Mar 10, 2011)

TheSpore said:


> Hey regardless if its for gaming or not its is still art and i looks good so far. one question can anyone tell what a jabberslythe is.I know that just sounds bad but Ive never heard of it before.


I am not an expert on all things Warhammer but Jabberslythe is part of the Beastmen army and you can get a detailed description of it in the Beastmen army book or maybe you can find it by googling?


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## JI7 (Mar 10, 2011)

xenobiotic said:


> From the looks of the armature and your choice of materials I assume you've done similar projects before, is that right? If so, do you have any examples of what you've produced before? You're answer would effect my approach to what feedback to give you


Your reputation points are insane so I am thinking your feedback will be technical and very much welcome. 
I have been dabbling in sculpture for years but only got serious about improving myself in the last 2 years. It sounds like a long time to be doing something but there have been long periods of time that I didn't even touch my tools or sculpt anything. 

I now focus my efforts on sci-fi, fantasy and horror genre subjects. I mentioned in a reply here that I would like to post some of my other work and I have done that in the painting and modelling forum under the title  'Behemoth - Defiler of Lands.'  Actually, it is only one example of my previous original work. I have other stuff too but much of it is in a semi-finished state - meaning that I finished the sculpts and baked them and then decided later to add features to them so that technically I consider them unfinished. I suppose you could say that I sculpted some original works and now I am wanting do a sort of conversion on them. Looking forward to your feedback.


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## wombat_tree (Nov 30, 2008)

TheSpore said:


> Hey regardless if its for gaming or not its is still art and i looks good so far. one question can anyone tell what a jabberslythe is.I know that just sounds bad but Ive never heard of it before.


It is a creature available to a Beastman army. Simply put it is supposed to be some sort of huge incomprehensible horror that drives onlookers insane.

Here is the start of the fluff on Jabberslythes in the Beastman codex:

'Jabberslythes are amongst the most ancient and foul of all the creatures of the Deep Forest. They are truly repugnant to look upon, having such grotesque and 
twisted features that even the clearest pools of water will not offer up their reflection. A sickening fusion of toad, sludge-drake, and many limbed insect, the 
Jabberslythe encompasses all that is unwholesome and vile about nature and magnifies it a hundredfold.'


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## JI7 (Mar 10, 2011)

aquatic_foible said:


> Hopefully a Moderator will move it...
> 
> By the way, awesome looking sculpt, sir. Looking forward to seeing how it progresses. With regards to feedback -
> 
> ...


It will be able to raise its head. The Jabberslythe is described as being part toad, part sludge-drake (no idea what a sludge-drake is) and part insect, or something to that effect. For this reason his anatomy will incorporate exoskeletal features and some fleshy features. As far a musculature goes, I won't be sculpting any in really. This is because his forward and largest limbs are insect-like and therefore do not operate with the use of muscles and anywhere else on his body you might expect to see muscles such as in his hind legs (four of them) he will have quite wrinkly, loose and bumpy skin which will cover up any underlying muscles. I like to look to nature when sculpting my creatures and in most relevant examples I could think of such as frogs, toads, lizards etc. you don't find a lot of obvious musculature like you would in say a cougar. That is not to say however that toads, frogs, lizards etc. are not powerful and strong for their relative sizes because most of them are. Even crocodiles are not rippling with muscles but I have seen them literally drag a wildebeest off land and into water. As far as how he moves, he has wings and can therefore fly although not very effectively. My sculpt has a forward centre of gravity which will no doubt cause him to nose dive in flight. To compensate I have given him very long forward limbs with several joints for broad range of movement. In flight the Jabberslythe will be able to thrust down with his forward limbs propelling himself forward and up whilst his wings keep him flying just within reach of the ground. In flight his back legs are of course suspended and only find use when the Jabberslythe is crawling along on his belly. When crawling his hind legs push him forward whilst his front limbs bend and stretch forward as though he is crawling on his elbows. His pelvic region with four limbs can be flexed down or even partially straightened to aid in movement as necessary. Hope this helps and hopefully it will become more evident as the sculpture progresses. Thanks for the question.


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## xenobiotic (Jun 7, 2008)

JI7 said:


> Your reputation points are insane so I am thinking your feedback will be technical and very much welcome.
> I have been dabbling in sculpture for years but only got serious about improving myself in the last 2 years. It sounds like a long time to be doing something but there have been long periods of time that I didn't even touch my tools or sculpt anything.
> 
> I now focus my efforts on sci-fi, fantasy and horror genre subjects. I mentioned in a reply here that I would like to post some of my other work and I have done that in the painting and modelling forum under the title  'Behemoth - Defiler of Lands.'  Actually, it is only one example of my previous original work. I have other stuff too but much of it is in a semi-finished state - meaning that I finished the sculpts and baked them and then decided later to add features to them so that technically I consider them unfinished. I suppose you could say that I sculpted some original works and now I am wanting do a sort of conversion on them. Looking forward to your feedback.


I am far from a specialist or a jack-of-all-trades but I have dabbled in most artistic fields and I'm very interested in the creative process and the challenge of producing a vision into a finished product. I have done a few sculptures in super sculpey myself but most have been gifts to others (so I don't have the sculptures) or have been quick projects with low levels of details (compared to what can be achieved if you spend a huge amount of time on it.

I started dabbling a few years ago and as such I did some research into possible materials to use which was when I came across super sculpey and via that product came across this faboulus sculptors tutorials
Smellybugtutorial1 on Conceptart.org
Smellybugtutorial2 on Conceptart.org
From them I extrapolated a good foundation of tools to use and how to use them which I have expanded upon since then. I learned a lot about texturing from his work - I recommend reading those two threads a lot for that very reason.

I took a peek at what you had done before, and I have some thoughts at this rather initial state (it's possible you've learned a lot since this chosen image, if so just ignore my advice or do what you want of it):








From what I can tell your texturing looks good and convincing, the surface of the sculpture has a very distinct feel to it which is very useful when doing "organic" creatures since they look odd without it. There are however a few things that I think could have been adjusted slightly in this particular sculpt considering the movement of the sculpture.

The legs are lacking convincing movement from this particular angle. What I mean by that is that the sculpture as a whole has the appearance of moving forward yet the legs in particular are reversing the effect by looking as thought they are standing still. The hip joint should portrait some kind of angle to show that the legs are in movement. It might be the anatomy of the sculpture that fools me since I'm more used to muscles - well, it's just something to consider for your next sculptures.

To convey movement convincingly you should always look at reference materials such as photos online or books of creatures with a similar anatomy of what you're trying to produce. It's also great to have some kind of reference material to know how muscles in the human body works - the more knowledge you have of form and function the more convincing your product will become.

Well, that's about it from me for now.
Keep up the good work!


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## JI7 (Mar 10, 2011)

xenobiotic said:


> I am far from a specialist or a jack-of-all-trades but I have dabbled in most artistic fields and I'm very interested in the creative process and the challenge of producing a vision into a finished product. I have done a few sculptures in super sculpey myself but most have been gifts to others (so I don't have the sculptures) or have been quick projects with low levels of details (compared to what can be achieved if you spend a huge amount of time on it.
> 
> I started dabbling a few years ago and as such I did some research into possible materials to use which was when I came across super sculpey and via that product came across this faboulus sculptors tutorials
> Smellybugtutorial1 on Conceptart.org
> ...


I have a gallery on conceptart.org but I haven't come across the tutorials that you provided links for so I will check them out. Have you ever heard of miniature mentor? If not then give it a google and see what you think. It is the biggest and most well produced archive of tutorials for both miniature painting and sculpting that I have thus far found - although it isn't free. Thank you for your feedback. I can agree with your assessments on the whole - the sculpture does lack a certain dynamic that gives it a look of idleness. As for the texture of his skin - most of it was applied entirely by tooling such as on the root-like feet and some of it was applied with home made texture sheets (actually I used the dried skin of a cantaloupe) such as on his armoured haunches. It is the advice I think artist hear the most 'use references' that I probably failed on here although I am not sure what animal I would have thought to use for reference for this creature. Usually I collect photos etc in a folder on my computer when I start a project so I have some reference material and I have an anatomy book for artists for when I do human sculpts but when I made Behemoth I was still doing things my own way and hadn't gotten into the technical side of sculpting really. Also I think photos kind of put sculptural works at a disadvantage which you can probably appreciate. 
Lastly I think of Behemoth as a lumbering creature - very slow and mechanical in his movement. The idea that evolved when creating him was that he is beyond the weaponry of man to be hurt - he doesn't have to be evasive. He appears on the horizon of the battlefield and plods through the scene feeding on the gore and crushing all in his path - the best thing to do then is to make a path and let him through. And in his wake he leaves a toxic slick a kind of dividing line on the battlefield. He is gargantuan in size and his origin unknown - some say he is an ancient and forgotten God who is indifferent to all. He simply comes and goes - he feeds and leaves the land defiled with a toxicity that forever leaves the land marred. 
As I said, not a Warhammer inspired sculpt but certainly of the fantasy genre. Again, thank you for your critique. It was very well made and I will take note to the things you said - even if it is too late for Behemoth.
As for sculpting mediums, I started off in ceramics so I used earthen clays a lot when I wanted to sculpt, which was usually only to add sculptural features to pottery. I gave that up and focused entirely on sculpting when I no longer had access to a kiln and because I was more interested in it than pottery. I discovered polymer clay when working in an arts and crafts store and originally used Sculpey III; then I went on to Super Sculpey and Super Sculpey Firm. I also use Milliput, Green Stuff, Brown Stuff and Pro Create. I bought some Chavant recently too so that I can do some sculpts for mould making and casting but I have yet to get around to trying it out. One medium that I am intrigued by and interested to try is wax - I have seen some really awesome work using wax. Have you ever tried it?


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

So bizarre, i was following that link to the sculpting tutorials and seeing what i could learn from it and came across this link in the gallery. Just from pure cooincidence. 
http://www.conceptart.org/index.php?artist=JI7&cat=updated


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## JI7 (Mar 10, 2011)

*More Jabberslythe pics*

Some more pics of my meagre efforts on the sculpt. I am now more or less at a point where I can start detailing one side of the sculpt and the head - I will detail one side first and then mirror it over to the other side. I have decided to start the detailing process on the body and head before I have entirely fleshed out the limbs because I don't want to have them in the way of getting at the body - wings and tongue will be last. A couple of these shots are macro so that the texture of the skin can be seen. There is still some work to be done to the skin that I have been working on so far before it can be called finished. Actually, I am not sure that I like it so I may just scrap it and start it again - the skin on the neck that is. Something doesn't feel right about it and I can't place it. I have looked at a lot of reference to decide what kind of texture I want on the neck and I am trying to replicate to a degree eel skin - the skin below the jaw and head of an eel. Anyway, I am feeling quite frustrated as I can't seem to get a result I am happy with:suicide:. As for the rest of the sculpt, there are going to be different textures for the exoskeletal regions and the belly region as well so I have those to decide too. Let me know what you think or if you have suggestions let me know. Additional elements of the sculpt will be applied after skin detail is finished such as spines and bristles which will be made from Pro Create and perhaps wire for finer bristles. Will keep you posted.


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## wombat_tree (Nov 30, 2008)

The skin looks really realistic. Good work.


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## JI7 (Mar 10, 2011)

For anyone interested in seeing current pics of the Jabberslythe sculpt, I created a new thread in this forum titled 'Current Progress on Jabberslythe' where they are posted.


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