Why am I sculpting with clay now?

A little while ago I was told to look up the name Jordu Schell.  I did and found all sorts of goodies! The guy is an amazing sculpture of little creatures and the like.
I have been sculpting in Zbrush for a few years to date and have kind of got how it works.  So as I found Jodu's webpage, on it, he has a thing called NERDcast.  Which is quite entertaining.  Basicly a podcast of him and some friends with special guests and they sit around talking crap about the film industry.  One day Im sitting there Zbrushing away and listening to the podcast and Jordu starts to mock people who use Zbrush.  I, naturally was kind of offended, having spent a few years trying mastering a program only to get there and hear that Im among a group of foolish hacks.  (Jordu didnt say that but thats how I felt from the mocking)
Anyway, I wrote him a letter saying that 3D printing will come down in price and that Zbrush will be the wave of the future.  I mean, once you can print it all you can make your masks from molds of the prints and so on.
Anyway, I saw a demo Jordu did for Dreamworks (here) which made me think, that was what I wanted to be able to do.  Not demo for Dreamworks but to sculpt a wicked creature in an hour or so and have it convey a convincing element like Jordu can in his work. So thats where I am...on the way to sculpt like that, hopefully.
So it was Jordu Schell who made me sculpt in clay and Im glad he did.
Thanks Jordu!!
I just wish there were more demos from Jordu on the web or for sale.

Speed sculpting marquettes

I threw together a little 1hr clay marquette.  I actually took 1hr 15mins.  I need to get faster.  I find I spend a bit of time fiddling with the initial form and then some time thinking about design.  This one I kept reminding myself to just go with whatever presents its self.  I like the outcome, hes like a super moron or something.

3 Fingered hand

Back to sculpey now.  I havent done anything in Zbrush for a little while now.  Im liking my little collection of marquettes that are accumulating on my desk too much at the moment.  So today I spent a bit of time creating this 3 fingered hand.  Was quite a fun sculpt, simply created the wire armature posed it and loaded it up with sculpey.

Marquette of My Little Four Eyed Fella

Ok, Im back with a new little fellow.  This time I have created a marquette from an old drawing I did.  Its pretty close to it but I didnt give him nostrils, I just liked it better without them.
The one thing I dont like about Zbrush is that the things I create are not real 3D objects.  Im going to end up with a lot of these little guys around my room. 
Anyway, here below is the drawing and under that you will see the sculpture.

Work in Progress of a Scupley Sculpture

Hi there, since my last post I had on the Smellybug Tutorial, I had also found a downloadable multi hour lesson on sculpey sculpting which I payed just 7.99$ for!!  It was by Smellybug AKA Peter König.  Turned out this website that I bought it from was dodgy and were selling it without Peters permission.

Anywho, the tutorial was/is Great!!  I learned heaps. 

So I also found this other guy who is crazy good Spiderzero AKA Simon Lee.  You can find a demo from him here.  One of the main things that he domos is that he uses a flexible armature which he sculpts onto in a neutral pose, then poses it once he has it all blocked in.  He then goes on to say that you can bake out the posed block in sculpt and then detail it in sculpey or chavant (which is a clay I have yet to try). 
Anyway, Its pretty cool, have a look.
Now below is my 5th attempt with sculpey.  Its not complete yet, will add some more to the neck and some other parts, still have to smooth and detail it and Im not sure if Ill keep the head like that too.  The head was just thrown on so I could see how it would look with a head.  I will add a more angry monster alien type head.  Maybe like this guy!

Cool Tutorial for Sculpey Users

I just came across this great tutorial in using sculpey if your interested.. Smellybugs Tutorial
Its pretty cool stuff as far as using wire mesh for supports and how to use bondo on tips of armature to help with pointy bits.  Also has a look at detailing and a bunch of other handy stuff and then paints it.

The above image is from the Sculpey tutorial page.

Clay maquette

Weeeell, Ive been playing with sculpey for a bit and I have really not been liking it so I went out and bought some clay.  I got white earthenware which feels like silk, Unlike sculpey which feels like wax.  The white earthenware is filtered and is very smooth and heavy or dense which makes it great to sculpt marquettes with so, see ya sculpey...for now.