The Magdalena Statue Part 5: Completed Figure & Base (without cape)

On most of my sculpture projects, there is rarely a stage at which the figure is complete and fully intact.  It happens, but on a complicated figure like Magdalena, the arms were finished separately, the figure was hardened and sanded before adding the armor and there were other minor details added after the figure was molded. To smooth the figure before baking, I use a metal tool that is squared off with a flattened taper at the end. I draw this over the figure until it has that smoothness that is essential to the look of the piece.

It’s best to look at the figure as a completely assembled casting prior to painting to get the full effect. There are some small adjustments to be made in the positioning of the swords, but the full figure is here, less her cape and scabbards, which are being molded. When you see the cape on the debut of the figure on our site, it might be of interest to those sculptors reading this that the cape was done by building up layers in Super Sculpey on a wire mesh armature in multiple bakings.

The scabbards were interesting to sculpt because Top Cow gave free rein on their look, which in the comics are fairly simple in design. I used a book on samurai armor to research the details, and centered the decorative features on a plum blossom motif. You’ll see them in the full color photos soon as soon as Jim Rowell has completed painting her.

The base has a cross design done in mosaic form, reminiscent of Byzantine architectural art of the early Christian period. I used Nelson Blake’s design for the base cross and worked up the design at one-quarter scale. The base was then skillfully executed by Josh Sutton with my art direction.

If you have questions about any aspect of this piece, just write us at service@csmoorestudio.com. We expect to have photos of the fully-finished piece in the next week or so.

Thanks for reading this blog and we’ll see you next time!

CSM