Cyclops

This sculpture was created as a tribute to the game I played most as a teenager: Heroes of Might and Magic 3. I guess a Cyclops throwing stones goes all the way back to the Odyssey, but I specifically had the HoMM3 version in mind.

I wanted to capture the Cyclops in the position of throwing this huge boulder. I was going for the cliché action pose, but I don't mind it. Just to improve it and create a bigger scene, I added a human trying to control or subdue the beast with a rope, only to end up getting dragged and thrown along with the boulder. (The rest of the crew isn't visible, but I would assume the human wasn't stupid enough to try and submit a giant all alone.)

I made many mistakes in this sculpt. The posture and legs are not great for the actual mechanics of a heavy boulder toss, and the armature inside the Cyclops wasn't strong enough, which caused breaks. Even with those structural issues, I tried painting it, but failed many times.

I actually knew the importance of texture while sculpting it, and my intuition was to add some kind of clothing or armor, but I couldn't figure out a logical reason to add any. Since a Cyclops throwing a boulder means there was a boulder nearby, I imagined the scene in the wilderness, maybe close to a cave like in the Odyssey. So what kind of Cyclops near a cave or out in the wilderness would have clothing, and what type? Rags? Full armor? I was checking out the "Cyclops King" armor suit from HoMM3. It's majestic - the kind you would feel a pro blacksmith made - but it didn't feel right, and I didn't have the skill for that anyway, just for a "worn out" or "beaten" one (that's easier to sculpt because imperfections are inherent). Besides, a creature out in the wilderness would definitely not have much clothing, and a Cyclops isn't the type of creature to wear armor or clothing. My mistake was not pushing harder to figure it out. I think it can be solved from where I stand now, but at the time I just let it go.

That left me with an almost naked Cyclops in the wilderness, meaning the figure was almost entirely pure skin without any surface texture. As I learned early on, texture makes life much easier when painting because you can rely on easy techniques like washing and dry brushing. On pure, flat skin, you are forced to paint and blend everything manually, and mistakes are very visible.

After failing the paint job multiple times, I put it in a drawer for now, but I might go back to it eventually just to practice.