Sculpting the Night King, Game of Thrones - IN CAKE! Facial Sculpting!

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Watch 'Diary of an Extreme Cake Artist' These videos take you through the process of making one of my character cakes.
http://heididahlenburg.com/diary-of-a...

Before I get into the sculpting of the cake, I wanted to go through all the things that I need to get ready for this part of the process

I make sure I have plenty of modeling chocolate ready. Running out of modelling chocolate is not ideal as you have to wait for it to set.

I have all of my references there and I laminate them as well as they do get covered with oil and other things which makes the ink run. A laminated reference will last you the whole way through. I have a cork board for my reference photos that I sometimes use, other times I like to just have them by my side.

I have my anatomical skull handy for referencing the facial proportions for the piece. Along with the skull I have a ruler to assist in the same.

I have all of my tools at the ready, the main tools I use are just the spoon tool and the knitting needle tool. Find my tutorial here.

Coffee

I start with a flat face for sculpting the reason for this is because I start at the bone structure of the face and build from there, if you don’t leave the face flat then you will end up with a much bigger face and then be forced to add mountains of modelling chocolate to the top and back of the head to compensate. I still do this! But not the extent that I used to when I began sculpting busts.

The video below takes you through the process of sculpting the face . Obviously I won’t post the entire video as the sculpting hours part takes around 20-30 hours. I have shortened the video just adding the pounding parts.

Video

Take home notes….

Start with a flat face
Build the skeletal Facial structure first then add your face over the top

Draw a midline or stick a skewer or knife on the top of the head keep you on track with symmetry.

It’s up to you where you start it I often start with the nose as this is the part that protrudes out the most.

Keep turning your work!! Too many times people keep working from the front and then turn it to the side and the face hasn’t been filled out far enough. I turn very often but always start with the front of the face.

I always add mock eyes to my sculpture even though I take them back out before I cover. This just gives a good gauge at the proportions of the face

On the day I feel like I have added and subtracted all that I need to and the sculpture has the likeness I am after I then spend another whole day going over it again.it is amazing how different the sculpture can look with a good night's sleep and a pair of fresh eyes . Highly recommend walking away from a piece of you are frustrated or just can’t get it right. Go and do something else and then come back to it later, I promise it will (at least) be less frustrating after a break. I this last day I will generally watch some clips of my character in movies and make sure I have captured not only the physical look bit captured his personality as well. If I have an angry character have I captured that emotion? I always see if I can enhance this part.

One I am happy with the piece I then think about smoothing it down. To do this I use a butane torch that is used in certain food finishes. I lightly wave the torch over softening the chocolate but also being careful not to burn any pieces. The heat will smooth off any rough parts, you can use a finger wrapped in cling wrap to smooth if the rough parts are too big.

So that wraps up the sculpting face portion, Next I will be discussing how I cover a large cake