Tomb Kings Khalida diorama: Sculpting process

As promised, here are the images showing the process of sculpting this piece (see the finished product images in the "Finished Images" post from Saturday).



I started out with the basic white sculpey, as it is an ideal medium for carving elaborate designs once it is baked.  The other versions of sculpey (sculpey III and Super Sculpey) are too hard to carve.  White has that perfect balance that allows just about any carving tool to create that weathered look.  It is more fragile than the Sculpey III, but when the columns are this thick, you don't have to worry too much.

These images show the clay after baking, but prior to the carving process:





Now we begin to carve.  You can see a few of the tools nearby...






Here we have the carving mostly complete, and all the pieces glued in place...





The top of one of the fluted columns (this was very fun!):




Then it was time to plan where the painted figure would go..


That meant that it was time to start painting!






Here are some completed views:




Again, the thread immediately after this one has about 17 images of the painted version!