I made a Yogurt sculpture from Spaceballs

I grew up watching Spaceballs. I can quote most of the movie by heart. I love the scene where Mel Brooks walks out on his knees as Yogurt so that his is the approximate size of Yoda.

I really wanted to see the behind the scenes view of Yogurt from the side. I wanted to see Mel Brooks feet sticking out the back. Well, I couldn't find that photo, which is why I really wanted to sculpt this.

And if I have total creative control over reality and can do what I want with this feet, am I going to try blend the feet in, or at least have green sock to match the robe? Of course not! White gym socks it is! It seemed like the most ridiculous option. Which seems like the right choice for SpaceBalls, the movie.

I started with a print out of Yogurt. The grid is in 1" increments. I drew over it, the rough idea I had for the wire structure. This will make him about 6" tall when I'm done.

Next I wrapped a bunch of aluminum foil around the wire to bulk out his body. I used rolled out pieces of Super Sculpey to cover all of the foil.

Lots of little bits of clay and lots of tweaking. I was really proud of how his head came out.

Full of confidence and arrogance, I moved on from his glorious head to his hands... And I had to fight the urge to take the whole thing and throw it into the street. I must have redone his hands a dozen times, only for it to get worse and worse and worse. The first ones were fine!!!, but nooooo.... I had to go smash them thinking they weren't good enough.

So, I baked him as he was, a polymer clay reject. And that is how he sat. Unfinished. For two years!!! I couldn't take him sitting on the shelf like that. So, I blew off the dust, and got back to work. Time to put off the hands again and start on the feet. The whole reason for the sculpture.

Back to little tweaks and stepping back, tweaking again, stepping back again. This time doing my best to ignore the little voice that says this sucks.

Okay, well, the hands still suck. But my plan is to just ignore the hands and focus on all the parts of the sculpture that I do like. Like the fabric. Definitely my best fabric yet. It's not perfect, but it is perfect enough for me.

Time for painting. This step I feel much better about. I primed him white, then gave him a base coat of a dark green. The darkest shade of the robe. I like to start with the darks and work my way to the lighter shades adding a variety of colors to give it some depth.

Lots of dry brushing and tweaking. And lots of getting up and moving across the room to see what it looks like from there. Also, coincidentally, where I can get more coffee. I painted the face and hands a dark brown, then dry brushed on gold paint. The gold was a little more tricky trying to add shading. I had to go bak to darker and lighter a few times until I was happy.

The hair was a process... Not as bad as the hands though. I actually like the result of the hair. I tried cotton balls, no luck. I even tried some halloween spider webs. Disaster. What wound up working the best for me was grey yarn. I am a knitter, so of course I have a yarn stash. I found some merino wool in grey. It was freakin' perfect!

I took a needle tool and teased apart the plys and pull off skinny bits. I didn't cut any of the fibers. Once the the plys were untwisted I could easily just pull apart the wool into the lengths that I wanted.

Gave the glue a day to dry and look at the hair!! I think it makes up for his hands!

And of course his feet! Don't forget about his feet!!