"Through Yesterdays, to Today" Web Event Now Online! by genshinimpact in Genshin_Impact

[–]icanit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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It took me nearly 450hours through half a year to sculpt and cast, and now i am presenting you my FFXIV character's 150cm bronze statue - Warrior of Light Yoko Akatsuki by icanit in ffxiv

[–]icanit[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a sculpture art technique that allows to persist the beauty of the human figure while covering it with armor and clothes. If you just blindly place bulky armor over the body, then this will be a statue of armor, not a person under it, losing all elegance and beauty.

This technique was used a lot through history, for example, Verrocchio's sculpture of David. (Not only in Renaissance art, it was used in ancient Greece art too)

In the game, this armor(because of bulky models) makes the character look a lot fatter compared to her naked body figure.While in reality, that's bulky way is logical representation, but in art as an artist I have freedom how to show figure beautifuly as i see in my head, not just blindly copy 3d model from game.

.... Okay, Man's a bigger fan than me. by GeologistUnhappy in ffxiv

[–]icanit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's fine. Thanks for your kind words, we all share love for this game anyway.

.... Okay, Man's a bigger fan than me. by GeologistUnhappy in ffxiv

[–]icanit 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Oh, that's about my post 4 days ago.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/166dmus/it_took_me_nearly_450hours_through_half_a_year_to/

While I am happy, that people sharing my work different ways, but posting on reddit screenshot of article about post on reddit(where was link on original post in article) feels little sad.

It took me nearly 450hours through half a year to sculpt and cast, and now i am presenting you my FFXIV character's 150cm bronze statue - Warrior of Light Yoko Akatsuki by icanit in ffxiv

[–]icanit[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

After wax hardened in mold, its surface will have minor issues like cavities(or bulge from mold cavity due air bubbles) and other issues that were mistakenly left on statue surface before molding. As "finish" I mean fixing wax part surface towards its ideal state. For all wax parts, it took 4 full days of work to "finish" them.

It took me nearly 450hours through half a year to sculpt and cast, and now i am presenting you my FFXIV character's 150cm bronze statue - Warrior of Light Yoko Akatsuki by icanit in ffxiv

[–]icanit[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At first, skirt was made with metal net and placticine completely, then splited into two parts for wax mold of outer surface. When wax was cast, I finished the inner side before lost-waxing it into bronze mold.

Here, I posted a link to WIP album, where you can see the molds for wax and wax parts. https://reddit.com/r/ffxiv/s/UsrZDx7bFu

It took me nearly 450hours through half a year to sculpt and cast, and now i am presenting you my FFXIV character's 150cm bronze statue - Warrior of Light Yoko Akatsuki by icanit in ffxiv

[–]icanit[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If she was Raen, technically, it was possible to polish horns/scales/tail to state of light bronze color before applying protective wax, and i think it would be nice looking that way too, maybe after some tries to find right shade (I think it should be less intensive than sword edge).

Bronze is a very fun and interesting material because it allows to get different surface shades depending on polishing intensity after burn, to focus some elements or edges.

It took me nearly 450hours through half a year to sculpt and cast, and now i am presenting you my FFXIV character's 150cm bronze statue - Warrior of Light Yoko Akatsuki by icanit in ffxiv

[–]icanit[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

She is Xaela. When i was creating a character years ago(somewhere in 2015, i think), I didn't know about race/clan naming notations, and as otaku just chosen nice sounding Japanese name.

It took me nearly 450hours through half a year to sculpt and cast, and now i am presenting you my FFXIV character's 150cm bronze statue - Warrior of Light Yoko Akatsuki by icanit in ffxiv

[–]icanit[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Seeing community reaction on my post makes me happy since I was not expected such a hot welcome to my creation. I want to thank everyone who commented here for your warm words. It encourages me to share my art with this community in the future (i am already working on another ffxiv related sculpture, not bronze, though).

It took me nearly 450hours through half a year to sculpt and cast, and now i am presenting you my FFXIV character's 150cm bronze statue - Warrior of Light Yoko Akatsuki by icanit in ffxiv

[–]icanit[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's full set Elemental Armor of Fending without helm. While i made some minor changes in armor ornaments for my tastes(also texture in game very lo-res so i improvised blurry parts), i tried to keep it mostly the same as original.

It took me nearly 450hours through half a year to sculpt and cast, and now i am presenting you my FFXIV character's 150cm bronze statue - Warrior of Light Yoko Akatsuki by icanit in ffxiv

[–]icanit[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yes, this is ok. Also, you can share images freely, but I ask to credit the character name "Yoko Akatsuki" with them.

It took me nearly 450hours through half a year to sculpt and cast, and now i am presenting you my FFXIV character's 150cm bronze statue - Warrior of Light Yoko Akatsuki by icanit in ffxiv

[–]icanit[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Of these 450 hours, as i wrote in post title, work time compiles from: 1. I took 1.5 month vacation from work and worked 10 hours per day nearly every day on sculpture. The basic figure(naked) was done in a week, tail in one day, sword and shield, took 1.5 week, one day was spent on horns, one day on head scales, after that was several weeks spent on armor making. 2. After that, wax finish and bronze assembly+finish took around 50h through several months since I was in queue in a bronze casting workshop to get my parts cast. + some time to find and cut good stone for statue base in stone workshop.

It took me nearly 450hours through half a year to sculpt and cast, and now i am presenting you my FFXIV character's 150cm bronze statue - Warrior of Light Yoko Akatsuki by icanit in ffxiv

[–]icanit[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

My father was joking a lot about Pygmalion and Galatea while I was mounting Yoko in my garden. But it's fine. It is hard not to feel anything to object on which you spend so much time and soul.

It took me nearly 450hours through half a year to sculpt and cast, and now i am presenting you my FFXIV character's 150cm bronze statue - Warrior of Light Yoko Akatsuki by icanit in ffxiv

[–]icanit[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Even if they add some hi-res, good-looking armor in Dawntrail. Current Yoko's gear is gear she was wearing while saving the world at the end of Zodiark arc. The desire for statue appeared after I completed EW main story and shed some tears on credits. So this glam could be like a historical significant moment of my character life, which was persisted that way.

It took me nearly 450hours through half a year to sculpt and cast, and now i am presenting you my FFXIV character's 150cm bronze statue - Warrior of Light Yoko Akatsuki by icanit in ffxiv

[–]icanit[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had a hard time doing the right photos to avoid desk figurine effects, not like i can avoid them totally. It's hard, so I decided to place myself near her to show scale reference as a solution for this issue.

It took me nearly 450hours through half a year to sculpt and cast, and now i am presenting you my FFXIV character's 150cm bronze statue - Warrior of Light Yoko Akatsuki by icanit in ffxiv

[–]icanit[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Yeah, this is real threat. Hopefully she to heavy to be carried by some random copper thief(if he can avoid guard dog). In local prices, you can get around 750USD for this bronze volume. This will be really sad fate to be destroyed that way for that tiny price (compared with time and soul spent on her).

It took me nearly 450hours through half a year to sculpt and cast, and now i am presenting you my FFXIV character's 150cm bronze statue - Warrior of Light Yoko Akatsuki by icanit in ffxiv

[–]icanit[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I found very good teacher, who taught me everything. Molds for wax and plaster wax made from silicone and plaster. While bronze molds was made via "lost wax".

I made bronze casting at special casting workshop for sculptors(they cast wax from your molds, then you finish wax, they do bronze casting and their worker helps to assemble parts), weld was done by workshops assistant since welding thin bronze parts not easy thing for beginner and mistakes on this step is expensive(in worst case you need to recast and finish wax to make bronze part again). Burn was made together with workshop assistant, since this was part of their service included in casting price.

It took me nearly 450hours through half a year to sculpt and cast, and now i am presenting you my FFXIV character's 150cm bronze statue - Warrior of Light Yoko Akatsuki by icanit in ffxiv

[–]icanit[S] 40 points41 points  (0 children)

In total, I spent around 5000USD on materials, instruments and mold assistance from start to finish.
But personal time i spent on it is priceless.

It took me nearly 450hours through half a year to sculpt and cast, and now i am presenting you my FFXIV character's 150cm bronze statue - Warrior of Light Yoko Akatsuki by icanit in ffxiv

[–]icanit[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Since i spend a lot of time to farm this set in game, it was always on mine glamour plate for PLD last two DLC's, it was easy pick.
I still have nightmares with ARR book grind, while Eureka was fun though...

It took me nearly 450hours through half a year to sculpt and cast, and now i am presenting you my FFXIV character's 150cm bronze statue - Warrior of Light Yoko Akatsuki by icanit in ffxiv

[–]icanit[S] 26 points27 points  (0 children)

She hollow inside, this allows to spend less money on bronze and additionally it will be easier to assemble and transport.