Who Will You Feed? was inspired by the Cherokee parable known as the Two Wolves (First People). This parable tells a story about a boy and his grandfather who teaches his grandson a concept that their is two wolves that exist in all of us who are in a constant state of battle. One wolf represents everything that is good and selfless while the other wolf represents everything that is evil and selfish. The boy asks his grandfather "How do you know which wolf will win the battle?" The Grandfather replies "It is the one I choose to feed"(First People).
To represent the Two Wolves parable I sculpted a wolf skull onto a bust in Autodesk program Mudbox. The left side the skull is dirty, scratched and scared to represent the bad wolf and the right side is almost untouched to represent the good wolf. After I finished the skull I brought it into the Autodesk program Maya to remove the skull from its original bust because the model had become to dense with polygons. When I was done removing the skull from the but I imported back into a mud box and placed it on top of a new bust. I kept the face of the bust featureless so that it would be more ambiguous and I added a hoodie to add an influence of Little Red Riding Hood and the Grim Reaper. I felt that the Grim Reaper was an appropriate representation of the wolf in Native American culture since the wolf is often represented as judge, jury and executioner. I sculpted wolf ears onto the hoodie so it would look more like a wolf.
When I was done with the bust I imported it back into Maya and used a Boolean to combine the skull and bust into one object. From there I built a stand for the bust and closed both objects so that they would be ready for to be finished up in Rhino.
In Keyshot I added Paint Matte Red material to the hoodie to create a red velvet texture so it would reference Little Red Riding Hood and a Paint Matte Beige material to the wolf skull so it would look more like bone. I wanted the stand to look like it was for a traditional bust so I added a Concrete Kerbing material to make it look like stone and I added a Amazon Moss material to the face so that it would look more like an ambiguous mannequin.
After Creating the bust I went back into Maya and created a relief using the bust. To do I first deleted the stand and I used a flat surface with a Boolean on the bust to create a flat back to my sculpture. After that I created a frame using Edge loops, Extrusions and Bevels on a Cube Primitive. Then I used triangles and squares to create a Native American quilt pattern that would lay between the original sculpture and frame.
When I imported the relief into Keyshot I kept almost all the materials the same as the bust except for the frame, inner frame background, the triangles and the squares. I added a Concrete material to the inner frame background and I added a Cherry Wood material to the frame, the triangles and the squares. I wanted to create a contrast between nature and society to represent the contrast of modern and traditional.
Source:
"Native American Legends Two Wolves." First People - The Legends, Oct 6, 2016,
Kenneth Kornfeld: Week 3 Who Will You Feed?
After 3D printing the bust and relief it was time to clean up the 3D prints so that they will be ready for me to make molds of them.
First I coated them both in XTC-3D to get rid of the ribbing created from the 3D printer and then I used grit 220 sand paper to give the Hoods, Skulls and Frame a matte finish. I kept everything else glossy because I know a mold would capture little details like that.
Before After
Next I used Sculptex clay to rebuild some of the teeth and patch in holes on both prints, but I also used the Sculptex to build a small layer of clay on the skull of the relief. I did this so I can add the scratches and cracks back onto the skull. For the Bust I decided to use a Dremel tool to carve in the cracks and scratches onto the skull.
Bust 3D Print
Relief 3D Print
Kenneth Kornfeld: Week 4 Who Will You Feed?
After I was done cleaning up the 3D prints it was time for me to start making the molds. For the relief I made a simple block mold since it was so small using Moldstar 30.
First I used a hot glue gun to mount the print onto a laminated board and used some Sculptex to fill in the area between the board and the print. Then I sprayed some ease release onto the 3D print and then I used sheets of Sculptex to build a barrier around the 3D print, while making sure that their was at least half an inch between the print and the barrier.
When that was done I stirred up Part A and Part B inside their separate containers. Then I measured out 10oz of both Parts and mixed it together in a separate container. After it was thoroughly mixed I slowly pored it into the space that was between the print and the barrier. When I did this I pored it from a foot above so that it would poor slowly releasing any trapped air. I also wanted to make sure that I at least had a half an inch worth a of Moldstar 30 above the 3D print to make sure it would be a durable mold.
I left it to sit over night and when I came back I pulled out the 3D print and I was ready to start casting sculptures with that mold.
When it comes to the bust I used Rebound 25 and some left overs of Moldstar 30.
First I mounted my bust onto a laminated board and sprayed some Ease Release onto the print and the board. after that I mixed the Rebound 25 Part A and Part B within there own containers. Then I mixed a small amount of Part A and B into a separate container and then I used a chip brush to dab a thin coat of the Rebound all over the 3D print to create what is called the "Print Coat". I used the remainder of the Rebound to create a flange. After 30 min I measured out so more Rebound 25 and Mixed some 2 drops of thickner and Sostrong dye to part B. After mixing Part A and Part B together I used a second chip brush to brush on a thicker layer all over the last layer to create a "Fill Coat"
3D print "Print Coat" "Fill Coat"
Next I built up a bearer around the print like I did for the relief, while keeping to the same half and inch gap as before. Then I cut up some scrap Moldstar into cubes and piled them up around the relief, while leaving about an inch of space free within the mold so I would have an area to poor into.
Next I mixed up pored Rebound 25 into the mold like I did with the Moldstar for the relief. Then I left it there over night.When I came back the next day I cut back of the mold open using a S pattern so I could safely remove the 3D Print.
Kenneth Kornfeld: Week 5 Who Will You Feed?
Now it was time to start poring my casts from my molds. The first few cast were "Junk" casts, they are called this because in the first few casts their are going to be some bits of the mold and the Sculptex left in the casting when I pull them out. I also used these "Junk" casts to experiment with my methods for poring a successful cast out of these molds.
For the Relief mold I found that the mold worked best if I pored slowly to not get any air bubbles or use a slush cast to create a detail layer and then poor a fill in behind it so that I would get the most detail.
But for the Bust mold turned out to be more complicated. I first tried a slush cast the turned out to be unsuccessful. Instead I had to poor half the mold and lay it down so that the nose of the model would be pointing down towards the table. Then I could go in and poor the rest of the mold. The problem with this mold is that the removal of the casts from the model tended to tear away at the mold leaving holes in the mold. I compensated for this by using a little bit of Sculptex to fill in the holes before casting each time.
After I made my first few Junk casts using Smooth-On Onyx Fast. I started experimenting with SoStrong Dyes and Smooth-Cast 325 which creates a see through resin with some bubbles. I also used some Bronze Powder and Smooth-On Onyx.
One of the most common things I was experimenting with was two part casts. One example of doing this is that I would measure out equal parts of both A and B for Smooth-Cast 325 and mix some so strong dye in to Part B. After that I would thoroughly mix the two parts together and then carefully poor the resin into the mold so that it was exactly where I wanted it.
Bust Relief
Before the cut
After a few minutes I would go back in with a knife and cut out any access resin while it was still soft but not sticky.
Bust Relief
After the cut
After that I would powder the inside of the mold with Bronze Powder and the tap the molds on the table to get rid of any piles of powder from within the mold. Then I would measure out equal parts A and B for the Onyx fast and I would add half the amount of B worth of Bronze Powder to Part B. After thoroughly stirring the Bronze into Part B I would mix Part A and B together and slush cast the remainder of the molds. After that I would just fill in the rest of the molds with some Onyx Fast with a little bit of the Bronze powder in it. I would let the molds sit for about an hour or two before I pulled out the cast.
Kenneth Kornfeld: Week 7 Who Will You Feed?
Now its time to select my final casts to paint and get ready for presentation.
My first composition from the bust molds is based off the original concept with a slight change. I chose to use a multi-colored cast to paint on so that Mannequin underneath the mask might come off as less important than the mask it self. I painted the hood red so that it would make a reference to Little Red Riding Hood and I kept the skull bone color while trying to make the left side more dirty than the other. When I painted these two sections I started with the darkest color and worked my way back to the lightest color by adding medium and white acrylic paint to the original color. When I was almost done with each section I went back in with darker browns, blacks or red, to add back some detail. there are about 4 to 8 layers of paint on each section.
The stand was painted to resemble stone of concrete for a tradition feel. I did this by painting a base layer of a bluish gray and then I added white and black dots on top with a fine brush. After that I mixed the original gray with some white a medium and painted a wash all over the base. Then I highlighted some spots by adding a little more white to the wash.
After It dried I sprayed it with some crystal clear so that the paint would not come off
I wanted the Artifact to come out looking like an old Artifact from a forgotten civilization that someone found and cleaned up. To do this I pored a multicast in the bust mold with an emerald color in a transparent resin. I wanted the emerald part of the cast to come out a little damaged so I added a little clay around the chin area of the mold. Then I pored the a bronze mix for the base.
After I pulled the cast from the mold I buffed out some of the damage with grit 220 sand paper and then painted some pure acrylic medium onto the buffed out parts to hide the scratches in the plastic. Then I painted the skull to look like bronze but when I finished I noticed the bronze paint was a more red while the bronze powder. So I mixed some of the bronze paint with the acrylic medium and then painted a thin wash over the base. After that I touched it up with some black paint mixed with medium to add some dirt and grim to it.
For this one I used one of my Onyx cast reliefs I did everything the same as I did with the Bust Original, but for the from and quilt pattern I add a wood texture. I did this very carefully by using a fin tip brush to paint it all in one solid Brown color. Before it could dry I add some streaks of dark brown and light brown. When that was done I used a hard bristled brush and painted a light brown wash over the entire piece. I made sure to make my strokes in the same directions so it would imitate the texture of wood grain.
With Good vs. Evil reliefs there was not much work that could be done afterwords the majority of the extra work toke place while poring the casts using a multicast process. I had to be extra careful while poring these since they are made of see through materials and if I messed up I could not repair them easily.
I wanted the Good relief (blue) to feel like a water spirit coming out of the bronze plate. I achieved the bubbles in the blue resin by accident I pored half the resin into the bust mold and then I pored the rest of the resin into the relief. whether it was the moisture in the air or the time it took for me to get around to poring it, I was very satisfied with the results.
When It came to the Evil relief (red) I knew I wanted it to come out more damaged than the Good relief. To accomplish this I pored the red part of the relief very quickly so that air bubbles would get trapped around the ears. Then when making the bronze back I skipped the step where I tap out the excess bronze powder. As a result the bronze part of the relief had missing pockets of material.
I choose to make the Good vs Evil pieces to better represent the contrast of the two wolves in the Two Wolves parable. I wanted to make them appear to be Fire and Water spirits coming out of bronze plates while making a reference to the scene in the Matrix where Neo makes the choice to take the red or the blue pill. I wanted to make this reference since in deciding which wolf you feed you have also made a choice, did you choose to feed you good side or your bad side?
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