Project Timespan
March – April 2018
Inspiration
When I was a child, I loved going to the local public library, roaming the aisles of shelves and browsing through collections of books and movies. I soon found that the library contained a sizable collection of graphic novels, and being a year or two beyond picture book reading at the time, the next logical point of progression was comics.
Here, I should note to the reader that I will use the terms graphic novel and comic interchangeably, though I am aware that they have differing connotations (and perhaps even definitions).
Anyways, one of series that first caught my eye was The Adventures of Tintin, the famous comic by Belgian artist Hergé. I would spend hours and hours flipping through the pages and going in adventures to faraway lands with Tintin and Snowy, catching criminals, busting gangs, and solving mysteries.
Project Overview
The Adventures of Tintin has been quite influential in my life, and the character himself – his daring and courage and moral compass – has served as a great inspiration to me to take risks, push the boundaries of who I can become, while staying true to myself. I wanted to highlight this through a set of ceramic busts depicting various iterations of myself as Tintin.
The set of completed Tintin busts is part of a larger series I made when I audited a ceramics hand-building course over the course of a year at university.
Making the Mould
Each figurine bust begins with the same base model, a design from Thingiverse user Misterdid. They described the model as “Makes for Best hero bust,” a phrase which I find quite apt for the character. I scaled the model to a reasonable size, approximately 4” in height from bottom to the top of the tuft of Tintin’s hair, then 3D printed the model out in PLA plastic.
For casting a ceramic model, I needed to create a plaster mould. Fortunately, this process was covered by a lecture in the ceramics course, and I was able to make one without too much difficulty. A nice summary of these steps are covered in a PowerPoint I found from this link.
1. Draw out moudling lines on the model to cast that will eventually define the demarcation between the two plaster halves. With a single-part mould, take extreme care to limit undercuts or the eventual slip cast will not separate well from the plaster. A two-part mould enables more geometric complexity, but this principle still holds for each of the two halves.
2. Decide on the shape of the mould. For a block-like mould, one can use intersecting wood planks or slabs to form a rectangular bounding box for the plaster pour; for a cylindrical mould, one can use a length of thin sheet metal wrapped around into a circle. Press clay into the boundary bottom.
3. For the two halves of the mould to fit well, there should be registration features. These typically are indents formed from cubical or spherical objects. Simply press the object into the clay and it will form an indent (female half) after the plaster pour.
4. Brush on a soapy solution onto the model so plaster does not adhere, and press the model into clay, up to the level of the moulding line. Care should be taken to ensure there are no undercuts. There should be a border of clay around the entirety of the model.
5. Mix water and plaster of Paris in appropriate ratios; the consistency before pouring should be viscous but still flowing. Let the plaster harden before removing the clay and border material. At this time, one can tidy up the mould half if desired.
6. Flip over the plaster, reapply the border material, and then brush on the the soapy solution again. This will prevent the two halves of plaster from adhering to each other. Remix and repour the second half of the plaster mould.
7. One needs to create a tunnel from the boundary to the main cavity of the mould to allow for a way to pour the clay slip! This can be done with a sharp pointy tool.
To make a ceramic cast, one has to use ceramic slip, which is watered-down clay slurry. The key is to use strong rubber bands to hold the two halves of the mould together, then pour slip into the tunnel leading to the main body of the mould recess. Plaster naturally has an absorbent effect and thus can wick away water via capillary action from the clay slurry contacting the inner body of the mould. As the clay : water ratio increases at the boundary, the material hardens and becomes more similar to actual clay. Thus, after twenty or so minutes, there will be a thin shell of clay that forms around a body of clay slurry. At this time, simply invert the plaster mould, and the remaining clay slurry will drip from the funnel and out. It is best practice to recycle the slip by pouring it into the slip container; I found it easiest to use two long square wooden dowels as resting points for the mould to sit upon as I went and did other things as the slip steadily dripped out.
Sculpting and Firing
I’m not an amazing sculptor by any means, so I took my time with it. After a cast, I waited at an hour or so or even overnight to allow for air-hardening before work. I used a sponge and knife to remove any mould lines or 3D-printing line impressions, and then I hand-built any additional features with porcelain. All the pieces were bisque-fired before being painted, though some people prefer to paint before firing. I used underglazes from Amaco, a company that produces a thick and viscous texture ideal for ceramic painting.
I sprayed the first four figurines with clear, gloss-finish glaze finish. For the last figurine, I left it with crackle paint.
The Completed Tintin Lineup
I made a total of five Tintin self-portraits, as seen in the lineup:
Self-Portraits of Tintin
Tintin the Professional
Dress for success, or so the saying goes! I put on my best James Bond impression, complete with a tuxedo and sporting a handkerchief and boutonnière.
I so rarely have the occasion to put on a suit, so I actually do enjoy dressing formally when I have the opportunity arises. Feels great to look great!
Tintin the Physician
Here I wear a white coat with an undershirt of Cornell Red. I am putting the cart before the horse in this instance, as I am still in medical school (though nearer to the end than to the start, so there’s that), but my career of choice is to practice as a physician. Besides, you can’t tell if this is a short white coat or a long white coat.
Without the whole rigmarole of explaining “Why medicine??” in this section of the post, I’ll leave it with a pair of six-word phrases: Everyone has a story to tell; I have the ears to listen!
Tintin the Sportsman
I sport a green sweater over a yellow polo, and if that was not obvious enough, the cheesehead should tell you all you need to know about my football preferences.
Go Pack go! And Bucks, Brewers, and Badgers as well. Oh, if you are a Green Bay Packers fan and are curious as to the top 10 regular seasons in the storied franchise’s history, I wrote up a post on that as well.
Tintin the Artist
I don a messy artist’s smock with smudges of dirt and streaks of dried paint serving as badges of honor. A brush sits nestled securely atop my ear.
Over the past few years, I have gradually explored my artistic side, and with the start of my clogging and personal website this year, I strive to continue improving on this part of myself.
Tintin the Dreamer
Call it lazy, or abstract, or anything you want. Beyond cleaning of mould lines and applying a special paint called “crackle,” an apt term for describing its effects, I barely set hands on this figurine.
My idea when creating this figurine was that my story is not yet complete! I hope to expand upon my interests, skills, hobbies, and goals… I know not what the future holds, but I eager and exited to explore this mystery!
Lessons Learned & Improvements
Better technique and sculpting, perhaps? I cannot fault any of the costume selections I made, and I would probably still sculpt the same five figurines if I am working on this project today. One small observation I have is the the last figurine, that with the crackle paint, is actually larger in volume than the others. Not that I would want to improve upon this or anything, but something I noted nonetheless.
I used standard bisque underglaze for the figurines, so none of the colors were crazy unique, but I did experiment with a spectrum of glazes: using the base casted model, I applied glazes on unpainted bisque-fired porcelain clay. If I recall, the layer of clear glaze spray I added on the artist figurine was insufficient coverage so the end finish is noticeably rough, but this is a matter of technique rather than design.
Reflection
It was a enriching experience of self-reflection as I went through the process of design, composition, and crafting of this project.
If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to read the Adventures of Tintin or watch any of the adaptations in other media, I highly encourage it! For even if you have an unfortunate day when it feels like you’ve been hit by ten thousand thundering typhoons, a Tintin comic album will cheer you up!