illumination5: August 2011

I was messing around with a few robot stories and concepts on paper over the last year and I reached a point where I wanted to flesh something out as a model. One of the concepts I was mulling over I called Jacobean Robots of the Sixteenth Dimension, and I was imagining them as some primitive clockwork robots in suits of armour but there was nothing too fantastical about that. So I tried something different and came up with this look which I really liked.

I settled on the name of Sir Jack for him and here is his little story.

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Back in the day, when lived the Kings and Queens of old, there was a robot knight, one of many, who was knighted, for the sake of this story, as Sir Jack, by the King for his many gallant deeds. Sir Jack was fond of the Lady Maria whose beauty had a tendency to cause his light to blink in a blushed fashion if you know what I mean.

Lady Maria was aware of Sir Jacks affections for many a fair maiden would often tell her of words and poems they had overheard Jack recite of her. So one evening, during a dance at one of the courts partys, the Lady Maria offered Sir Jack a great challenge. To search the earth and skies for a flower as fair and lovely as herself, and if he succeeded in pleasing her, she would be his lady. So Sir Jack set off on his quest, he travelled to many places, both on Earth and in outer space and had many an adventure, before getting trapped in a rift due to the exploding ripple of a distant galaxy which sent him into the Sixteenth dimension, which, as we all know, is the plain where the Hades for robots is located.

It was here, in this realm of sorrows and the seeming infinite darkness and hopelessness, that Sir Jack traversed the plains of burning winds of rust and decay and saw the sight of a flower while roaming the eternal desert.
Now, the universe has many flowers ofcourse, but to find such simple life and colour succeed in this unpleasant place proved an immeasurable sight, and how could one not deem its bringing of hope the most fairest and loveliest of all the flowers that have ever been.
Sir Jack carefully scooped the flower and its patch of wretched earth and kept it safe inside his shell, and with new hope processing thru his circuits managed to escape the desert and the realm and he eventually found the course back to our Earth. But when he returned, the Earth was much like Hades. Clearly several years had passed since he began his quest and something, perhaps a devastating battle of some sort occurred and had wiped away its life and people, including his beloved Lady Maria. Sir Jack was sad in that way only robots can feel, he was all alone with the silence and pointlessness of it all.
Sir Jack was drained and went to sleep and never wanted to switch on his eye again.
As he slept, a strange discomfort stirred his circuits and caused him to reactivate. He decided to investigate what this feeling was and it was the flower, which was safely incubated in his shell, infact it had grown stronger due to the minerals that comprised much of Sir Jacks structure and its roots were wrapped snugly around some of his internal circuitry gaining warmth and light and nourishment. Once more he found it fair and lovely to his eye and processes. He decided he would find a pleasant spot and he would plant it in the ground and he made a pact with himself that he would stay active for as long as the flower lived.
He planted it upon a great mountain and went to find some water to feed into the ground around the flower which was not an easy task.

When he returned, taking care not to spill any of the delicate water as he climbed the mountain, he saw that the flower was withered and crumpled and no more coloured by life.
Sir Jack had been too long in finding water. He sat to contemplate his fate, ofcourse, he could leave, this was obvious, but there was a saying that home is where the heart is, and his heart was here in this world. So he sat in his despair for a moment. Perhaps two moments. His memory circuits journeyed his attentions to his many travels, from his inception time to the scenario that brought him to this Earth initially, and ofcourse to the Lady Maria. You see, this is how it is when Robots prepare to die, for they are quite sentimental at heart and tend to wonder if their life of service was a worthy one and if they had any meaning to the world and universe around them whatsoever.

As Sir Jack was concluding his process of reminiscing and his circuitry could lax a little, thats when his sensors became undistracted enough to notice a peculiar sight. Beside his leg was the flower, bright and fresh and in the peak of its life. And then another, and further still another.
Sir Jack re calibrated his sensors to make sure they were not malfunctioning, which they were not, but how could this be, he did not have the ability to replicate facsimiles. But for the many seasons that he had not noticed pass while reminiscing, that certain magic that only mother nature is so good at, even when so very weakened, had taken place. Somehow, the flower, as all flowers do, had inspired her to breathe life unto the world once more, and guided her hands to the seeds contained inside its heart and spread them from the mountain into the landscape around, and the flowers had grown and mother nature spread more seeds from them, and soon the seeds engaged eachother happily, and were further carried in the air to other landscapes and before long, just a few hundred years, they had populated enough of the landscape to the point that stirred Sir Jack to notice them. He was now a happy robot and his happiness pulsated into the air, like a type of music and the music was most welcomed by the world around which had been silent for so long. Soon enough, and with the help of the broken darkness, and the guidance of the sun and moon, the first insects and birds appeared aswell as the first trees, and they brought forth the first spring, which led to summer, and soon the world was seasoned and lush again and many other wonderful creatures appeared and roamed the land.

It was somewhere around this age, that Sir Jacks internal source of power eventually began to run out. But he was not sad, for he had found his meaning in the universe, and even tho she was long gone, his love for Lady Maria had clearly inspired a great purpose, from something that at first seemed shallow, into something greater than the small wantings of a human and a robot, and this comforted him as the light in his eye dimmed truly for the first and last time and would shine no longer, at least, not in this universe. But who knows if it is not shining in some other place, perhaps amongst the stars above us, but these are thoughts for some other time. For now we have Sir Jack to thank for all the wondrous life upon this earth of ours, and it would be fair to say, that if any beings wished ever again to destroy it in any way, they would be very silly beings indeed.

Here's some pictures of a post apocalyptic car thing I was messing about with.

First up the car itself.

I wanted to add a figure to stand alongside the car and had a go at making one at 1/24 scale. I drew out a basic shape to have as a guide and template and used Sculpey which is a material I struggle with as it's a bit soft for me. (But I would like to add this is not a criticism as I am pretty useless at sculpting).

The facial features were too softly realised in the Sculpey so I sculpted another one out of Milliput. This was going okay, but unfortunately the Milliput did not blend with with the Sculpey and the head became damaged and could not be used.

So I reverted back to Sculpey and once again the end results of the face came out too soft and undefined with my efforts.

Some things I've learned about all this. I like Sculpey as you don't need to mix it with a hardener and can just get on with it. It won't air dry or harden and sets only when you oven bake it which allots anyone a lot of time to work with it.

Milliput is a nice material to work in, but you have to mix it with its hardener, which is easy in small pea to marble sized doses, but can be a little challenging in larger doses. It is very firm and works wonderfully with water smoothing and does not crack like reguler Clay might, especially in very thin densities, but you have at best a 3 hour window to work in before it hardens.

My overall thought is that I would very much like to try this exercise again using what I believe is called Firm Super Sculpey, which is a grey color and perhaps more akin for this sort of thing. Hopefully I will be able to track some down in the near future and give it a go.