DuckTective is a character sculpture I created as part of my university application portfolio. I wanted to explore storytelling through form and costuming, and this odd little duck detective quickly became the perfect vehicle for that.

Sculpted in cold porcelain and dressed with real fabric, DuckTective is part noir, part cartoon, part Victorian mystery. I was interested in blending a stylized anthropomorphic figure with tactile, miniature tailoring—something that feels like it could walk off the table and start solving imaginary crimes in a rainy alley somewhere.

The process involved hand-sculpting the figure’s base form, designing his curled smoke trail, and sewing the trench coat and hat to fit precisely. Combining materials allowed me to explore scale, character design, and the intersection between sculpture and fashion.

This piece helped me enter university and continues to be a reminder that sculpture can be playful, expressive, and cinematic—all at once.