Kenneth Kornfeld: Who Will You Feed? - Pepakura

 The next part of the Who Will You Feed? project will be to create a 4 foot Pepakura bust

As a reminder:

    "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."

You can read more about the project here:

You can read more about the project here:

Kenneth Kornfeld: Week 1 Who Will You Feed?

Kenneth Kornfeld: Who Will You Feed? - Serial Slices

    The first step was deleting the base to the bust and bringing in the model to Mudbox to create a reduced mesh of my original model. From their a drew out the curves for my edges so that the retopology tool will have some idea of where I want some of the more important edge loops in my model. When that was done I used to tool and try to reduce the mesh as much as I could. This took a lot of trial and error to get it just the way I wanted it. 

Once I got the model reduced as far as I could I exported the model to Maya and tried the reduce mesh tools a few different times. Once I again this took some trial an error with me tweaking the setting each time. I could only get it down to about 1600 faces with out loosing some of the more important details. So I had to go back in by hand and do a lot of manual retopology. The whole process took about 2 weeks.

    Once the model was finished in Maya I brought it into Keyshot and rendered it see what it would look like made of metal.

     Now it was time to bring it into Pepakura and unfold the model onto a 2' x 4' sheets for the laser cutter. To do this I drew out every single open edge and then told it to unfold. After that I seperated and joined edges so that they would better fit the sheets and be in bigger pieces so that it would be easier to put together. I made sure all the edge ID's were the and the flaps where the way I wanted them. The teeth around the front of the nose were the most difficult and had many little piece in the long run. Joining them together would not have worked for this model.

      Once I was finished with Pepakura I exported the file to Adobe Illustrator and then to rhino. Illustrator only acted as a bridge between the two programs. Once in rhino I reformatted all the lines to be what they needed to be in order to be cut accurately by the laser printer..  I had to make sure the line where the right thickness and all the colors were correct. While also making sure I can tell the difference between a valley fold line and a mountain fold line. This way it will be easier to assemble.

Once it was laser cut I brought it home and started to assemble my statue. It was important to plan out where you start when assembling a Pepakura project. If you choose the wrong spot it will be a lot harder to put together. The tools I used to put it together were Loctite Professional, scissors and ruler to help fold the lines. 

After all the cardboard piece were put together it was time to apply masking tape to seal the edges and I coated it with Shellac to protect the statue.

     Once the shellac was applied it was time to paint the sculpture. I had to paint it 2 coats of silver and 3 coats of copper for it to get its full effect. I added turquoise paint to the copper using a dry brush technique to add more texture to the piece and I used a dark gray to the silver.

     To stabilize the bust I added a spray foam called "Great Stuff" to the inside of the chest cavity and a few pieces of styro-foam to the base of sculpture.

     The Silver metal represents the super ego which is the part of our personality that developed to live in society standards. The copper represents the core of our personality including the Id and ego. The Id is the part of us that is driven by instinct and the ego is the part of us that develops when we start make choices on our own. In other words the steel hoodie covers up an hides the true self, the copper mask.

Kenneth Kornfeld: Who Will You Feed? - Serial Slices

     The next step in the Who Will You Feed? Project is to create a 16 inch version of the relief using Serial slicing with a laser cutter.As a reminder:

    "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."

you can read about the first half of the project here
Kenneth Kornfeld: Week 1 Who Will You Feed?

     The first step of this process was to create the rhino file for laser cutting. To do this I brought the obj file for the relief into rhino and scaled it up to my desired size. After that I inserted two  1/4 inch rods to the model and used the Contour command to slice up the object into thin slices. When that was done I carefully laid out the slices on a flat plane within a 2' x 4' rectangle that represented the card board that it will be inserted cut from. I also numbered every piece and made sure that all the pieces laid flat within the card board sheet it was assigned too. When I was done I took it to the fab lab to be printed.

In Keyshot I created a rendering of what the serial sliced relief should look like, this rendering is a different from my final concept. I chose a wood rendering because a few people suggest that I make a wood version and leave it as is. The final version will have cardboard or wood with stone and moss elements.

     Next I Laid out all the pieces on a table and made sure every piece was there.

     Then slid two 1/4 inch wooden dowel into the two holes on my first piece that were create when I added the two 1/4 inch rods to my model. Then I applied Loctite Professional Super Glue to my second piece and slid through the dowels until it was pressed cleanly against the first piece.

     I repeated this process until the relief was completely assembled

     After the relief was assembled it was time to get it prepared for the hard shell, to do this I covered the entire model in masking tape except for the sections that I did not want to cover in the shell. When I was done applying the tape I mixed up some aqua resin and applied it the entire taped surface. Once the first coat was dry I went back and mixed up another batch of aqua resin but this time I added some thickener to give it a harder bumpier shell.  Once the shell hardened I brought the relief outside and sanded off the most elevated parts of the surface. This gave it a more stone like feel,

     After I cut off the excess parts of the shell the relief is not ready to be painted.

     The first layer of paint was the most important layer of paint since it will add texture and a better surface to paint on. I mixed a dark grey paint with a sand medium to create a more stone like texture over the entire piece to make it feel more like stone. This layer took the longest because paint had to be thick and could not be thinned out with water. I also had to make sure every spot was thoroughly painted

     After the texture layer was done I then added 7 more layers of paint the first 4 layers were to tint the first layer in the multiple gradients. The fifth layer was added to darken the recesses of the sculpture and the last two layers were to add a sense of wear to the sculpture by highlighting the elevated points of the sculpture. 

     Afterwards I coated the cardboard with XTC - 3D to add more durability to the cardboard, this also gave it a more glossy wood look.

3rd Layer    |       5th Layer    |    7th Layer

      The Next step was to add a little moss using a glue and some foliage for making scenery models. This will give it a more stone like feel and add an additional element to the piece.

      The concept behind this versions of Who Will You Feed?  was to create this artifact that would feel like it could be found by a future civilization a "temple" from our civilization. To do this I wanted to create an contrast between ancient forms of sculpting (stone) and modern sculpting(cardboard).

      Also I wanted to use a contrast of Realism art where you are trying to be precise an accurate as possible and the most recent form of art that I can only describe as "Retro Stylized Art". This from of art I would describe as being a form of art where the piece can  be more refined and precise that what it is, so that you can show the grit of how it is made and use it as a texture. I would describe Pepakura and Pixel Art as part of this latest art genre. I used this contrast to describe the two side of the wolf skull. The "Good" side being the smooth refined half and the "Bad" side being the ridged half.

     I wanted the moss to give the viewer the chance to ask themselves "Which side is really the bad side?" since the moss only grows on the ridged ruff side of the sculpture, if it is so bad why would life choose to grow their. The left side has more flat surface and shade due to the ridges and the right side is smooth and exposed to the son. It own perfection leaves next to no room for the moss to grow.

Kenneth Kornfeld: Week 1 Who Will You Feed?

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?