Things are happening pretty fast. Finished two wooden armatures today; took about 4 or 5hours each. Only one minor screw-up to slow me down. I've got my design routine pretty down; I scaled him down (this is Lord William, slightly shorter and pretty hefty), built my armature components, drew them to scale in photoshop, and then figured out the foam body contours. Which I then print out and use for reference. His top chest-area is going to be a bit thicker, neck will be thicker, as will the arms. But this is enough to start carving.

The clay head is an earlier version of Lord William, but you get the idea. He's since become a little less 'The Penguin'-esque. But i've got the jowly over-fed big-gut baroque thing going, I think.