Sculpting an anthropomorphic toad - Shaolin style

[Peithetairos]

This side project turned into something a tad more intense, so I thought a workbench thread might be more appropriate.

Currently I am working on an Ent and want to sculpt a few options for creatures residing on his outstretched hand.

One candidate is an anthropomorphic toad.

I started out with the rough shape, but I wanted to make a frog first, so the head shape was initially smooth and the cranial ridge went around the ear. I first roughed out the head. Eyes and ridges were added in a second session.



I bulked the body out with a 50:50 mix of greenstuff and Milliput. This provided some strength to the armature and was easy to smooth out with water.

At that point I decided to make a toad. My real world reference became a cane toad.



Now it was time to texture the skin. A combination of micro beads, poppy seeds and pustules formed by using a super glue applicator needle.



Now the head needed fixing, to resemble a cane toad more. I added cranial ridges and shaped the lip. Eyeballs, the lower maw, ears and poison glands are still missing. I thought it was not worth the trouble with the head being uncured.







If this turns out well, I might consider making a few more poses and casting the set. If you are interested pop me a PM, might be a good idea if there is demand, otherwise I may just sculpt them as one-offs.

[Peithetairos]

Small update, the head got some more love adding eye balls, glands and ears. I also decided to depict the toad croaking, so the chin sack got some more volume.

I will refine the belly texture to better separate it from the back. All in all coming along nicely.

[OSHIROmodels]

Looks good 

[duhamel]

it reminds me of the wind in the willows 

[Spinal Tap]

I'm always in awe of people who can sculpt.

[Peithetairos]

Added the arms tonight. I think the belly is too busy and overall I may reduce the warts in some areas. I will sculpt the weapon and hands separately.

[Peithetairos]

Refined some sections more and worked on the weapon options.

[OSHIROmodels]

Looks good 

[Captain Harlock]

This is lovely! Now you need a rat faction and you can have a miniature version of Batrachomyomachy 

[Peithetairos]

Actually not a bad idea. I would also need some crab people. 

In the meantime I started another sculpt, based on the red eyed tree frog. Hiya!

Definitely more dynamic posing and surely a challenge to cast.

[Captain Harlock]

Thats a great pose. Are you going to cast it yourself? I can see that this is going to be a challenge with those tiny frog fingers.
I read Batrachomyomachy again recently and I could stop laughing. It was even funnier than what I remembered from highschool. I was amazed that a probably 2500 thousand years old epic parody, could still make people laugh today.
I say give it a go and arm the factions with Bronze Age style armour, it will be hilarious 

[Peithetairos]

It will be a challenge, but I think I leave it to the professionals. Presumably a resin cast might  work. I will thicken the arms some more and gladly the red eyed tree frogs hands are pretty thick, so they don't need to be super tiny.

I first thought about Aztec and Polynesian inspired weapons, but Bronze age ones would work, too. Only catch is that I won't give the frogs armour. The reasoning is that they would face a secretion build up underneath due to the protective coat on their skin. Same goes for clothing. I may add some arm and leg wraps however, to emphasise the martial arts theme.