Spectacular Sculpture: LIVE ON TWITCH
By Christopher Notbusch aka cnotbusch
I started sculpting about twelve years ago. When I was 10 years old, my grandmother, an oil painter, bought me a book called "Modeling with Polymer Clay" by David Kracov. This book became one of my favorites; I really loved it and I sculpted on and off throughout my youth.
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(Some of Christopher Notbusch's favorite personal sculptures. From top left to bottom right: Orc, portrait of Gimli from The Lord of the Rings, Owl, and Lemon Face.)
It was a very humble start using two wire coat hangers as my first armature and an old "Employee of the Month" plaque as the base.
(Daenerys Targaryen & Drogon from Game Of Thrones; sculpted and painted by Christopher live on Twitch.)
(Christopher's version of Almond Cookie from the Cookie Run: Kingdom.)
I fell into doing commission work early on. The fact that I could make some extra money on the side while pursuing my passion really helped to keep me on the artist's path. Eventually, I got more serious about the work.
(Ravenguard Paladin that Christopher made for Ravendawn Online.)
How Cnotbusch Became a Full-time Artist on Twitch
In 2011, I discovered live streaming and created my channel on Twitch. I started streaming using the game categories because, at that time, no other categories existed.
(Some of the characters Christopher created live on Twitch. From left to bottom right: Viking, Boh Mouse and Bird, Lalafell from Final Fantasy XIV, and Tauren Shaman from World of Warcraft.)
I became the very first non-gaming "artist partner" on the platform. Once Twitch made me a partner, I was able to use the income from my community support, combined with commission work, to support myself full-time as an artist. This allowed me to really dive deep, and my life has revolved around my work since then.
Check out the short video of how Christopher became a full-time sculptor:
Sculpting The Siege Giant
The Siege Giant began as a commission by one of my long-time clients to create something unique and original. This was a wide-open commission, and I was given complete freedom in design and background story.
I always try to tell a story in my sculpture. The Siege Giant is an old evil wizard who acquired the remains of a fallen giant. Using dark magic and engineering, he brought the giant back to life to be his worker, tasked with building siege equipment that the wizard sells to neighboring kingdoms who wage war on each other.
Character Sculpting Contest 2022 winner creation, The Siege Giant:
The giant is primarily made out of a medium firm Cosclay. I try my best to exploit the fact that you can bake polymer clays multiple times.
(Work-in-progress images of the Siege Giant sculpture by Christopher Notbusch.)
(The Siege Giant sculpture ready to be painted. It took about 120 hours for Christopher to create this original monster sculpture.)
The flexibility of working in Cosclay really helps me isolate small areas and put in the fine details. The rendering of detail and texture is a part of my style that I think makes my work stand out.
(Details of the arms and hands from The Seige Giant by Christopher Notbusch.)
(Some leg and back details from The Siege Giant by Christopher Notbusch.)
I used LED lights to achieve the green glow with the spinal column using a piece of side light fiber optic cable. The base is made from wood, pink foam, and epoxy clay to make things solid.
(The Siege Giant sculpture showing the installed green LED lights.)
The catapult is made from wooden dowels combined with rope and Cosclay.
(A close image of the painted back of the Siege Giant sculpture by Christopher Notbusch.)
I painted the sculpture using Reaper Miniatures Master Series Paints.
(The finished Siege Giant sculpture before installation.)
(Some details of the painted sculpture of The Siege Giant by Christopher Notbusch.)
(Christopher created accessories live on Twitch for The Siege Giant installation.)
(The finished Character Sculpting Contest 2022 winner creation, The Siege Giant by Christopher Notbusch.)
The entire creation of the Siege Giant was streamed live on Twitch. You can rewatch it on Twitch or on Youtube.
- Christopher Notbusch
Check out the Grand Prize unboxing video here, featuring products by Chavant and KensTools!
You can follow Christopher on Twitch, Instagram, Facebook, Deviantart, TikTok, Twitter, Youtube, and Teech.
Check out the Character Sculpting Contest 2022 Winner Announcement here: The Siege Giant by Christopher Notbusch.
View all the entries here: Character Sculpting Contest 2022.
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