[Work-In-Progress]: 1/8 Xenosaga Ep. 1 KOS-MOS

Hi! Josh here, again. Ok, Ok, I kinda feel that I have not made too much of an effort to present what would be my actual personal works. Right now actually I have exactly one plastic model, one resin kit and one sculpture in progress. In the meanwhile that I can arrange some photos, I'll comment a little about the sculpture. In this WIP I intend to bring to life the character of KOS-MOS from the Xenosaga series of games.

There are quite many characters (both male and female, and maybe "others") in Japanese popular media, that is no wonder that events such as WF and TF (to name a few) house some big fans who portray there good impression of those characters in statues, figures and kits for the enjoyment of many others who might share similar thoughts and feelings about the same subject. This is one very important aspect in art in general, in my personal honest opinion. Nevertheless, many times, lots of times, many characters are just not that diffused in a sense that we would never see even a PVC from now and then. In the other hand, we would the opposite in the most exaggerated way possible (*ahem* Asuka and Rei from Evangelion).

A portrait of the character and subject of this work. Not the actual pose intended, though.

 Sometimes, like in the case of Sheena Kanon, I just wish there was a kit of my favorite characters and maybe someday have them somewhere in the house as "conversation pieces" that can really bring some good memories of my childhood and some other moments. However, that is not always the case. So, whenever that happens, I thought I would just remind myself that somehow by the grace of God I had the ability of make lots and lots of clay figures back in the days when I would spent my allowance the material rather than candy. While there do actually exist (or existed) some resin kits of KOS-MOS that can be found, it is my personal judging that none of them have portrayed the character in the exact way that I see it. That's why I think it is a very good opportunity to give it a try in making my own.

I intend to sculpt KOS-MOS as seen in her "victory pose" at the end of each battle in the game. 

A clean stand with her head turned over her right shoulder. 

Right now I'm at the starting stage of building the main body. I'm using New Fando, a paper-based clay that works a little bit like pottery clay and dries on air. After it is completely dry, it can be carved and sanded easily; but, not that easily molded as school clay, though. Even though school clay is such a excellent material, and I had tried to revive this skills of mine, it is also guilty of being very ephemeral. During my undergated I remember making dinosaurs, horses and even bears with "acceptable" results. Never actually did too much about human figures in my life, though. 

I never understood very well why I was so reluctant towards the human figure, but I kinda think that I always want that my works carry some kind of "story" or background (at least to me in my mind) in order to consider it worth-it. That's why I think I never actually related the very exact human figure (i.e. something out of the Renaissance) with the actual stories I wanted to tell. More recently while talking to someone, I think that I conclude that it might be just that I was never good a capturing the "expressions" I wanted in the human figure. Somehow I see a little of what I want in figures like the ones I intend to show you here. That's the reason I have considered this approach. You see, to me anime-game characters, even expression-less in their faces, always give me the feeling that they intend to say something.

To be totally honest, I kind of consider this as a little failure because I keep adjusting the proportions too much. It  seems I still just way too used to school clay (very easy to add and remove) that I'm in the middle of changing my "paradigm". But I see that I can make this basic form again from zero very easily. This time I will use "reference", because I also noticed I'm a little bit rusted in my memory of the female body. However, at some point of the end of next month I will moved from the University Dormitories into an apartment. So, I'll be living there for the next year before finally finishing my Doctor studies. I looking very forward to having more space to work, so I just ask you to be patient and I'll do my best to have updates of this work this summer.