Bear-ly finished! - a segmentation project + patterns & flash tutorial

[jim_mex]

Bear-ly finished! - a segmentation project + patterns & flash tutorial

Hi - My third delve into segmentation work with a couple of new challenges and yet more lessons learnt.

The pattern files can be downloaded from the link below. I've also produced a flash tutorial showing how I made the piece. This is a 11.3 Mb download and runs for 6 mins. I made the video a good size so its clearly viewable. Please take a look - this was almost as much fun to make as my project and if it helps I'll make some more in the future

To download pattern files and the video right button click on the link and choose "save as" ...

Finished project





pattern files in zip

Flash tutorial - 11.3MB - 6 mins duration

Time take for this project - over the course of a day - taking it relatively easy - with the final topcoat applied 24 hrs later

My objectives - a) gain experience using natural wood stock as opposed to man-made board, b) improve on my previous cutting errors and try new cutting techniques and c), shape, rather than simply round over, some of the parts during finishing.

The design - is a modified piece of vector art I found on the internet. Originally less than 1" in height I redrew it and scaled it up to 12 1/2". I'm not sure if the original was copyrighted but just to make it look a bit different I gave the bear some pants and a towel, changed the eyes and docked the tail.

Materials and finish - all pieces were cut from a piece of 3/4" thick pine board. Finishing is a matte polyurethane top coat over alcohol based wood stains and PU sealant coat. (Why do I always seem to use polyurethane? - well, its available where I live, reasonably inexpensive, very fast drying and I don't know how to use anything else!!)

Problems encountered: - the harder sections of the pine gave me some control problems when cutting. The first time I hit a piece of resiny grain my blade developed a mind of its own and shot off pattern. I now treat grain with more respect and feed with care!

When altering the design I left the distance between the towel and the bottom of the shorts too thin and snapped the shorts twice during sanding. Luckily "glue works wonders" so the pants got stuck back together. Note - The pattern I've supplied has been modified to make this area wider Also,the thickness of the body shape which joins to the head and between the neck and mouth area are also a bit thin so care was needed here. I've not changed the pattern for these areas as the design would look a bit odd.

My rough sanding sucks! - I was too aggressive and use a very rough grade paper which gave me big trouble when trying to remove the resultant deep scratches in the soft pine during the smooth sanding. Mental note - Wood stains are great for highlightly poor sanding errors!

Once finished I noticed the nose detail carving is a bit skewed to one side. Something I missed by not checking it in place often enough. A case of not seeing the wood whilst focussing on the tree!

Varnishing is something I need to work on. The brush applied PU varnish dries incredibly fast and easily picks up the slightest traces of dust. I reckon I need to invest in a spray gun pretty soon. The good news is that the matte finish covers a multitude of sins and I also prefer it to a gloss finish as the latter tends to be a bit too reflective and blinds out the detail to the viewer.

Advice needed please The eyes were a last minute change. I first painted them with acrylic paint as per the original design but they looked terrible. I then tried carving them direct into the head - better, but still not to my liking. I finally settled on simply recessing two half spheres into the head. I'm still not convinced by these but I was stuck for alternatives.

If someone can suggest better 'eye'-deas please let me know! Failing this all my future figures will be wearing sunglasses - LOL!

So that's it - another project under the belt

A big thanks to various forum members for all those valuable tips and gems of advice which have helped to get me this far. As usual I'll be happy to take any constructive criticism and ideas for improvements, so long as they're BEARABLE!

Happy scrolling

[Ramjet]

Jim . What I do for eyes , as I suck at painting is buy the packages of eyes at Walmart . They come in various sizes . . I'm going to watch your video now and I'm sure it will be awesome .
Roger

[jim_mex]

Hi Roger
I also thought of buying eyes but it seemed a bit like cheating - not that I'm adverse to that! Unfortunately locally the ones I found were pretty crap.

I think I'm going to have to get out of my shell and head for Mexico City where I'm hopeful of finding some shops which specialize in craft items.

Failing that I might have to resort to knocking up a small hobby kiln and making some porcelain ones although this will be a last resort cos' I don't want to mix my daytime job with pleasure - LOL!

ref the tutorial - hardly awesome, but I hope you find it serves its purpose and maybe makes you smile. Thanks for the compliment

Cheers

[greatdane2]

You are catching up real fast. well done,glad you are having fun. Next time try to sand the sides down more to get away from the flat middle section.
That traslates into "you need a new tool" a drum sander is great for shaping and contours.

Alan.

[jim_mex]

Hi Alan - thanks for the tip for my next item on the Christmas list!

Just a question (not again he says!) and I hope I can explain myself well. Assuming for example I thin the head down and bring the circumference thickness to less than the outer ear thickness. How do I then mate the ear and the head?

Do I shape the thickness edge of the ear to exactly match the head contour? I assume I would have to cut the pattern slightly oversize to give me some wood to do this.

Or do I cut into the head slightly until I reach the ear thickness and recess the ear in?

Or have you another secret you'd care to share !

Thanks again

[greatdane2]

I am not quite sure what you meen but will explain how I would sand that bear. I would draw a line down the center of the face, and another across the face. this line would be where I want the top of the head to slope down to the top, just above the eyes. Where the lines cross would be the highest part. I keep a pencil handy and mark out my next step.
I would then switch to the ears, sand them down as thin as possible, and like you did the inner ear is lower than the outside.
The body would get the same treatment with the lines and sanding the arms and legs down first.
I will mark on the side of a part where I wamt to sand to. Then put the piece on a flat area and laying a pencil flat mark all around the piece.
If I am doing a more complex piece I will sand the highest piece first and then switch to the lowest piece next. With the highest piece I then start cutting shims to raise it up. By using different shims I can see how high I want to go.
When sanding I also draw a line around the piece where I think the piece is good. and with arrows draw where I want to sand next. To me its like a dance with all the pieces able to move up or down as I go along.
Hope this is what you are asking.

Alan.

[jim_mex]

Thanks again Alan for going into detail and even though you may not have fully understand me your answer is much better than the question I asked.

This is really helpful guidance and much appreciated. I'll be using it on my next project and see how far I can go without the drum sander!

And yep, as you guessed, I'm having fun!

[greatdane2]

Jim you missed the point. You NEED MORE TOOLS.

Alan.

[Janette]

Finally got to sit down and watch...that's great! Thanks for going to all that trouble!

[jim_mex]

You NEED MORE TOOLS.

Honestly Alan - I got the point - LOL!!!

I spent a couple of hours on the internet searching in Mexico City for a drum sander but not much luck. Now I plan to talk to an engineer friend of mine to see what we can come up with.

I don't think we can make one which is inflatable but I have an idea to try wrapping a cushioning core of medium to high density foam around a steel shaft and I think that will do the trick.

Failing that my next idea is to use a double length sanding belt between two flat belt pulleys, fixing one with a tensioner to control the harshness of the belt - a bit of a Heath Robinson approach I know but interesting to try. Wish me luck!