An alternative to fabric for making clothing that "defies gravity"

Question

I'm currently sculpting a model for a character that is falling from a great height. Its clothes are blowing upwards and billowing out in a way that I cannot replicate using normal sculpting materials such as clay, and which are too complicated to create using resin and silicon molds, and too thin for polymer or epoxy sculpting materials.

I would normally use cloth soaked in UV resin to stiffen things like billowing cloaks, and hold them in place while they hardened, but the shape is too complicated for that this time.

I'm looking for a stiff cloth analogue that can be shaped to appear that it is being pushed upwards by the wind, strong enough to hold its own weight and shape while I apply a stiffening medium, but thin enough that it would look like cloth on an 8" sculpture.

Thick lead foil was the previous go-to, but that's no longer an option.

Answer 1

First advice: If the clothing is billowing up like the example shown below, try sculpting it upside-down. Instead of fighting gravity, it will help you pull the clothing into a natural-looking shape until it's hardened and you can turn the sculpture right side up again.

Whatever you use to sculpt, the clothing probably needs some support or scaffolding to put it into the correct shape until it cures / hardens. Use whatever you have and what seems most practical as scaffolding - aluminum foil or sculpting clay come to mind. Cover the surface with some plastic film the actual material won't stick to and you should be fine.

For the actual clothing I would probably try real cloth. You'll want to use a thin and drapey cloth for such a small sculpture. Maybe an old, thin t-shirt or flowy summer dress would work. To stiffen it, you could use UV resin (please wear gloves!) or white glue. Strips of plaster bandage would probably work well at this scale, too, and they already contain a fabric and a stiffener. If you sculpted the scafolding with clay, you can probably create the clothing with paper maché (glueing small strips of paper together, not mushing paper into a pulp).

If you use resin or glue, soak the fabric in as little resin/glue as possible and position the fabric over the scaffolding, pulling it into the shape you want. After curing this first layer, remove the scaffolding and plastic foil, then apply more layers of resin/glue as needed to give the clothing a clean finish.