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The Jabberwocky |
Apr 14, 2003 |
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The Jabberwocky is an obscure mythological creature from a poem in Through
the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. It is briefly described nested within
a jumble of nonsense words.
The Jabberwocky
By Lewis Carroll
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought--
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One two! One two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy. |
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Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass were both
illustrated by Sir John Tenneil, a British political cartoonist for Punch
magazine. Tenneil had a very broad artistic license with the illustrations
for the books, which he used when creating the Jabberwocky: a hodge-podge
of the worst parts of different creatures found in nature. A fish head,
beaver teeth, tarantula claws, etc, pieced together to form a new and unique
beast. The illustration has been in public domain for years, but no one
has sculpted directly from the original woodcut of the Jabberwocky before.
I found this rather amazing considering the richness and applicability of
the artwork, and was inspired to sculpt a vignette of the scene.
My first decision I had to make in preparation of the actual sculpting would
have to be the scale. I wanted it to be large enough to be a good showpiece,
but I also decided that it should be at a small enough scale to be used
in gaming if that what the owner wanted to do with it. So I went with 30mm
scale for the "Beamish Boy" and "Jabberwocky".
The first step in doing the piece was the armature, which was a challenging
proposal. It had ten soldering points (as opposed to the normal two or three
on most armatures). I measured off of the original when I could, and extrapolated
from there. It was a bit of a challenge going from a single 2D illustration
to full 3D model, but it worked out fine after a lot of wire bending and
experimenting.
 After
I had the wire armature bent into the approximate shape I desired, I added
a base layer of a Green/Brown epoxy mixture. This gives it a blend of the
hardness of Brown, but a little rubbery give of Green, so it won't snap
on me while I'm working on it (this also gives me a little bit of power
of repositioning the limbs/wings after the epoxy is cured). Before the epoxy
cures I get the Jabberwocky into its final pose.
I made the base to simulate the ground in the illustration, with the pathway
leading off into the distance, and the boy upon the rocks, ready to strike
at the Jabberwocky's neck. The original art set me up perfectly on how I
was going to handle the flight of the Jabberwocky. I balanced the piece
on his tail that he drags upon the ground.
The Jabberwocky was bulked up to it's full size, then I had to dive into
the detail work. It was more of a challenge than I thought it would be,
mainly because I had to mimic Tenneil's illustration techniques. The most
problematic textures were the chainmail leggings on the boy, his lush hair,
and the scales on the beast himself. This is what the green looked like
before breaking it down.
After all the details are done, it's time to break down the model for casting.
Having to get the piece in the same pose as the original art made it more complex
than most castings, and I had to break it down into many pieces to achieve that
goal. I took off the arms, legs, wings, and head. I left the tail and torso intact
to preserve the strength of the tail since it would be supporting the weight of
the whole piece. After the initial mold was made and a few runs, I went back in
made some final adjustments. The tail needed to be bent to bring the pose back
to 100% on target. The joint sockets also needed to be more unique to avoid mix-ups.
The largest cosmetic difference was the spider hands details needing to be retouched.
After the remastering it was sent off to be mass produced by Valent Studios. The
resulting mould can be seen here.
Some professional painters have been asking about the Jabberwocky's release
for some time. This is a great piece for painting, since the original woodcut
was black and white, the color selection is totally up to the painter. Here
are a couple paint jobs and their approach:
Dave Gulczynski decided to base paint the Jabberwocky with brown blending
around the underside with yellow and eventually lightening up to white on
the appendages as a means of adding more variety and eye catching appeal
to the figure. The focal point of this figure is the area where the "Beamish
Boy's" sword is about to connect with the neck. "I decided to
frame the area in a color which would be sparse in other areas of the diorama."
To carry the eye through the figure better however Dave also painted the
stripe on top of Jabberwockys' back red. "I did not wish the eye to
settle on the focal point but to have an easier means to carry through the
rest of the figure." Click here to see Dave's Warpaint Studio online
gallery. http://www.warpaintstudio.homestead.com
Gary Leitzell did some research and came up with a color version of the
Jabberwocky art. He incorporated some of that color scheme into what he
did. The artwork he based his color scheme on is inset in the picture of
his piece. Click here to see Gary's online gallery. http://hometown.aol.com/wgnetwork/minipage.index.html
If you would like to have a go at the Jabberwocky yourself, it is currently
being cast and sold at Valent Studios. Be sure to tell them that you saw
this article at Total Model. http://www.jeffvalentstudios.com
For more details - a closer look at many other examples of Drew's sculpture,
please visit his website.
NB: For closer look at the images in this article, please click on the individual thumbnails above.
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