Livia Martin
This is an interactive set piece prop statue of the bug creature deity Miola, imagined, designed and created for a dark fantasy genre film. She has a moving arm and glowing resin staff, set on a stone-effect plinth with carved text and narrative inscriptions.
My piece tells the story of a culture of bugs who gained mutated human sentience from The Divine Miola - a humanoid woodlouse creature with a magical staff she used to grant these abilities to the creatures. In honour of Miola, the bugs built a stone statue shrine in her likeness, a place of great importance and magic where it was said the spirit of Miola would move the stone body if a worthy offering or being was presented to her...
Inspired by the characters of Star Wars and shrine statues, this project aims to blend the familiar and the alien in a unique piece that gives the feeling of being in another world & culture from our own. The magical aspect of this character, shown in the story carved on the side, her glowing amber-effect resin staff and miraculously moving stone hand explain the reverence the bugs had for their benevolent goddess Miola.
My project aims to showcase a high level of conceptual and physical design skills, as well as strong abilities in sculpting, moulding, casting, texturing and finishing. In the beginning I hoped to have achieved a high level of realism and complexity in the paint and finish of the stone texture and lichen. I aimed to achieve a realistic, fluid, and easily operated puppet arm that can be swapped out as needed. I also planned a light-up element for her staff topper, which I hoped to achieve in an easy-to-operate and discreet way. I also hoped to create and clearly execute original stone-effect carvings around the base depicting a bug language on the front and the story of Miola on the sides. Finally, I wanted to create an empathetic and unique character, with a somewhat-believable anatomy and a familiar, calm elderly face, all with an interesting alien touch to the design.
Miola was sculpted in Chavant clay over polystyrene, moulded in silicone with a custom fiberglass jacket, and cast in Jesmonite, reinforced with fiberglass and backfilled with foam. The base was sculpted in foam, textured with Jesmonite, with laser cut mural panels. Her staff is wood and Opticast resin, the topper cast and finished by Kathleen Walsh.
This project allowed me to hone my skills as a sculptor, modelmaker and painter while challenging me, particularly with sculpting semi-realistic stone fabric. I am glad I was able to incorporate my love of puppetry into a mostly static piece in a natural way, and develop my skills in realism on a larger scale. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of this project, from design to finishing, and hope I have made something both endearing and perplexing that gets you thinking about the worlds that could exist beyond our own.
My name is Livia, and I’m a modelmaker from Dublin. Studying modelmaking at IADT has expanded my passion for sculpture and painting to include a wide variety of techniques and materials, with a particular interest in puppetry and creature design. I have worked on various projects, both internal and external to IADT, that have allowed me to hone my skills in design and modelmaking in precise and fast-paced environments, and I look forward to continuing this work after college!
