Sculpting a fox based on my younger-self's stories ^^

Hello dear STS friends.

I think I haven't made a topic on this forum since a very long time actually looking at the 'stats'  I discovered that I joined the forum 8 years ago and from that moment I've been a bit on and off of being an active member, but I've always regularly checked the forum and been a silent stalker  Anyway, all statistics aside, I've now started a new project and I think STS is the perfect place to share the process of it with

Lately I've been thinking about wanting to sculpt more, but I realized that I've so far with my sculptures dived a lot into the technical side of it: understanding anatomy, keep the proportions in check with complicated poses and making sure the muscle structure was right for good accuracy. And I think that now I have a better feeling for all these technical aspects of animal figure sculpting. But inspired by my love for world building and stories and by some the courses of my study (I study Industrial Design Engineering, which means designing products that fit people), I decided that I wanted to focus a bit more on the why/background/story/character of a sculpture. Without compromising the realism of the sculpt. If you don't have any idea what I mean by that, I hope it will become more clear as I show the process of this project

First off a little background:

When I was younger I would make up little worlds for my animal figure collection, give all figures names and a role in their own universe. And I still do that in some way for some customs and other figures, but for this particular sculpting project I will be building on a story that I made up a long time ago when I got my schleich 2012 (?) arctic fox mother and cup. The world I imagined my foxes to be in was is a sort of fox kingdom with a fox Queen as their monarch. The throne would therefor also be inherited by the female offspring of the queen. I imagined them as a little kingdom living somewhere in Lapland. But they had to flee. (in one version it was because of a (polar)bear attack, in another because of food shortage I think, I haven't settled on what I prefer). During the flight the foxes eventually end up in Austria. Here the Queen's daughter, still very little then, finally gets her name and that brings us by the first character in figure form: the walking arctic fox adult by schleich. She was named Edelweiß. She grows up there, officially becomes the next queen (in waiting maybe), finds a mate and is expecting a little cup of her own, but then disaster struck. A terrible snowstorm happend and Edelweiß lost all her kingdom friends and family and ends up being lost and alone. She ends up settling on a mountain and there her little daughter was born (the schleich arctic fox cup) and she decides to name the the fox cup after the mountain: Zimnitz. (I googled on mountains in Austria that had a cool name that I liked. So Zimnitz is an actual mountain in Austria). That's the background story. I'm sure I have though about more events or adventures that they encountered, but I can't remember any that are relevant for their character building at the moment.

So, maybe Edelweiß was born during the journey from Lapland to Austria cause it is quite the journey and maybe there are some other backstory issues that might be resolved, but I made this up when I was younger and might add more elements as the projects progresses

So where does the sculpture come in?

When I though about how much I liked my foxes' characters and the little story I made up for them I decided that I wanted sculpt something that would fit right in. So since I had never had any figure for Edelweiß's mother I decided she would be a perfect candidate for a sculpture. I hadn't named her yet, she was still a past, nameless queen in my head, so before starting the sculpture I looked up names that could relate to Lapland. I came across some Sami names and one in particular caught my eye: Lieđđi. I still don't know how to precisely pronounce it, but it's meaning is: Flower. That fitted so perfectly with the other names that I didn't really have another choice (my logic: lieđđi (meaning flower) calls her daughter --> Edelweiß (which is Austria's national flower that grows on mountains) and she calls her daughter --> Zimnitz (a mountain in Austria) )

The sculpture that I will be sharing the process of with you is therefor that of arctic fox Queen Lieđđi

It feels kind of strange to put these thoughts out there online, but I feel like STS is a safe place to do so. I know this is a different type of sculpting process to share, but I hope you will enjoy going on this sculpting journey with me

and so it begins!

I made the typical wire frame structure first:
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and decided on a sitting, somewhat royal :), pose and so far I've been working on blocking out the basic shapes and slowly letting Lieđđi's personality emerge  

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Here's all the ''generations'' together
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keep your eyes out for future updates!

Surely STS is the perfect place to you share your project. We love to see what you’re doing and it is a joy that you want to be more active here. I am particularly excited because it is a fox and it was very interesting the reading about the background of this project.Not only because of the “geographic” references or the story around the model but also because you touch some important points of what means to sculpt a figure. Sculptors are artists, not 3d scanners thus, each model needs each criator’s personal signature and each sculptor should explore his own identity.

I'm so excited to follow this story! What a creative mind you have, I can't wait to see the old queen "in the flesh" so to speak.

What a wonderful backstory! Can't wait to see the queen in flower!

Hello, Anne-Joke , so good to see your active again , and to see that you haven't forgotten your old friends
And great that you have started on such an interesting study, - I can imagine that it exactly the right thing for you

Also, it is a joy to read the unusual story of your royal fox family, and see that you are still making wonderful models

I remember your beautyful Greenland dog, and I am sure this new Arctic beauty will be just as wonderful

What a wonderful, wonderful idea and I'm so so excited to see how this progresses, and that is such a unique and interesting idea for a sculpture!
You are so talented and have been such a help to me that I am really looking forward to seeing what you make! I am sure I will learn lots from it!
The best models are the ones from our imagination, and I am very very excited to watch the progress of this royal fox!

Thank you all dear STS friends I'm glad you are enjoying it so far.

SUSANNE wrote:

... and to see that you haven't forgotten your old friends

Of course not. STS was one of the first places where I encountered the lovely international animal collecting community and found inspiring sculptors of which I learned so much, how could I forget

Roger wrote:

... Sculptors are artists, not 3d scanners thus, each model needs each criator’s personal signature and each sculptor should explore his own identity.

yes exactly!!  I think all artists unconsciously put their unique signature and personality into an artwork, but I also I think it is good practice to try to do that consciously from time to time. And of course it will differ per artist how much of that is visible on the surface of the sculpture/art piece.

Magical imagination and looking forward to the sculpting journey of the fox, a friend of mine here in India sculpts different wildlife species and on some figures he sculpts the subjects have scars, injuries, and when I spot them out he reveals his imagination of what might have happened to the animal and how they have got those injuries!! So very interesting to follow your foxes sculpting journey

JamesPanda wrote:

... a friend of mine here in India sculpts different wildlife species and on some figures he sculpts the subjects have scars, injuries, and when I spot them out he reveals his imagination of what might have happened to the animal and how they have got those injuries!!

That is so cool! I might borrow that idea to show that Lieđđi has had a long journey. Now I just need to find out what difficulties she went through to make up some marks that I can add to the sculpture

The progress is slow, but here is some progress in picture form:
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but also, I looked through some old drawings and found this:
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it's a picture of Lieđđi back when I was making up my foxes' stories.     (I'm not going to include any accessoires to the sculpture btw.)
Hopefully I will be able to recreate some of her expression in sculpture form.

It is beautiful so far! I absolutely love it!
I can really see the character coming through in her face, and the drawing of Lieddi is so good, she had such a sweet face!
I can't wait of rmore!

It is really beautiful and how nice that you shared your old draw.

A-J wrote:

JamesPanda wrote:

... a friend of mine here in India sculpts different wildlife species and on some figures he sculpts the subjects have scars, injuries, and when I spot them out he reveals his imagination of what might have happened to the animal and how they have got those injuries!!

That is so cool! I might borrow that idea to show that Lieđđi has had a long journey. Now I just need to find out what difficulties she went through to make up some marks that I can add to the sculpture

The progress is slow, but here is some progress in picture form:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

but also, I looked through some old drawings and found this:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
it's a picture of Lieđđi back when I was making up my foxes' stories.     (I'm not going to include any accessoires to the sculpture btw.)
Hopefully I will be able to recreate some of her expression in sculpture form.

Let the imagination flow! The old drawing is like a classic Potrait I was watching the series His Darks Materials few weeks ago and the protogonist of the book/TV series, has a daemon named Pantalaimon who switches forms between an Arctic Fox-Moth-Ermine-a bird and even a mouse..

My friend once sculpted a Bengal Tiger with lean body (starving) and with an open jaw I seen it had lost some dental work suggesting the Tiger was now old and finding hunting hard as well as feeding a problem.. My friend added a striped Hyena running away with a piece of Cervid leg to the tiny diorama..
Hopefully nature is kinder to Lieddi than it was to the
Bengal Tiger.. Many Tigers that live long and survive poachers and other tiger attacks suffer similar fates when old..

It's been a while since I've worked on Lieđđi. But I've worked on the face a bit more. She's currently got yellow eyes because that was the colour eyeballs I had laying around and I'm now slowly building up the layers of fur.

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storywise:
I'm thinking about giving her a scar on one of her hind legs, or maybe even on her back. The story behind that would be that that means she was attacked from behind, which might show that she was attacked when she was fleeing her home rather than defending it. Even though at the time fleeing was the only option since they were badly outmatched and therefor fleeing was the wisest option, she still feels ashamed for not being able to defend the home she and her fellow
foxes lived in for generations.

so the story and the sculpting continues slowly

Oh she has such a gorgeous face so far!
I am so excited to see the finished result, already she is beautiful and such a creative idea for the eyes!
There is so much imagination in this project, I just love her!

Looking beautiful this project in progression. I enjoy the idea of a scar somewhat a signature as Harry Potter has.

Lovely progress so far.

A-J wrote:

It's been a while since I've worked on Lieđđi. But I've worked on the face a bit more. She's currently got yellow eyes because that was the colour eyeballs I had laying around and I'm now slowly building up the layers of fur.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

storywise:
I'm thinking about giving her a scar on one of her hind legs, or maybe even on her back. The story behind that would be that that means she was attacked from behind, which might show that she was attacked when she was fleeing her home rather than defending it. Even though at the time fleeing was the only option since they were badly outmatched and therefor fleeing was the wisest option, she still feels ashamed for not being able to defend the home she and her fellow
foxes lived in for generations.

so the story and the sculpting continues slowly

Nice, wishing Lieddi an adventurous journey but also a safe one

A new beginning in a new world for Lieddi and her fellow foxes.. just like most of the world's people are now facing challenges of changes in the face of uncertain times.. Some of us have to retreat and flee and restart, reinvent ourselves!

thank you all!

JamesPanda wrote:

Nice, wishing Lieddi an adventurous journey but also a safe one

A new beginning in a new world for Lieddi and her fellow foxes.. just like most of the world's people are now facing challenges of changes in the face of uncertain times.. Some of us have to retreat and flee and restart, reinvent ourselves!

I think 2020 has been quite the journey for a lot of us... hopefully 2021 will be the 'new land' with a new start for us too

Here's another little update of Lieđđi:

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Looks very promising! I can't wait to see more! It's already bery cute
And what a lovely story, you have such a great imagination! Thanks for sharing here!

Oh soooo gorgeous, I'm so excited to see the end result!
Her wonderful face is already starting to take shape- she is so cute!

Wow  This is so exiting Can,t wait to see the end result

Snow fox is finished. I hope you like:
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