Expanding foam test

I poured expanding foam into a mold to see if I could use this material for some of my robots body parts. Unfortunately,  I discovered that the foam does not cure in enclosed spaces and therefore the face was lost, so it is not ideal for my robot.

Latex test

I cast this face out of latex to see if I could use the material for creating my robots face. My main problems with latex are that it shrinks by 17% during curing and it is not as flesh like as Silicone. After comparing this with my Gel-10 silicone experiment I think I will stick with silicone.

Mannequins

Hands

I have been looking at parts of mannequins as they are very similar to some part of robots. I have bought two mannequin hands that I may use in a sculptural piece further on in the project or in digital work. I have also taken note of how the lack of texture makes the pieces look so artificial.

I also experimented with creating a hand out of wire mesh. I found that it is very difficult to shape the wire into the correct shapes and if I do make a metal had in the future I will make it out of sheet metal, more like a knight's gauntlet.

Body

I bought this mannequin body for a previous project but I realised that it could come in handy when creating robots later on in this project. Like with the hands, it is easy to see that it is the colour and lack of texture that makes the piece so artificial looking.

I have also photographed a Ken doll as this looks very similar to a full mannequin. If I create a mannequin in the future I could look at the body shapes and the articulation of the Ken doll.

Creating my own mannequin

I have creating this duct tape body in case I want to create a mannequin in the future. I created by wrapping myself in duct tape and then cutting the clothes off. This way I know that the body is very close to the shape of my own. If I follow up this idea, I will create a frame for it and stuff it with newspaper and polystyrene.

Robot Head Sculpt

This is the plaster life cast that I made with new open eyes that I have sculpted on with plasticine. First I had to dremmel out the old closed eyes and then I could sculpt on the new eyes. I have also re sculpted the right ear that fell off during the original casting.

Robot Self Portrait

I drew this to show what a robot modeled off myself would look like in the Kraftwerk style. I really like the mixture of mechanical arms and the realistic head and I think I will follow this idea further.

Life Cast Photo Edits

I particularly liked one of the photographs that was taken whilst I was having my face moulded so I decided to experiment with it in photoshop. I used curves, brightness and contrast and the invert tools to edit these photographs, and although they don't fit in with the robot theme very well I think they look good and they do show the creation of a robot.

Raw Life Cast Plaster Cast

This is my life cast straight from the mold. I need to smooth the back of the head by sanding it and filling any holes with filler. I also need to resculpt one of the ears and dremmel away the closed eyes so I can sculpt open eyes on top.