The first part of the skull armature is now built. I’m flying blind in the design a little as the framework is rather complex, and I have no guarantee that it will function the way I want. That said, J came by to help with the first stage (check out him working in the video snippet on YouTube). We got it done while watching “Alien” and eating pizza.

After much deliberation I’ve worked out what I roughly want the Alien skull to look like. As you can see from the sketch I plan on putting an infrastructure in place to show off the inner mouth function. I’ve set it up to explain the movement in comparison to our elbow joint structures. Also, I kept the spinal structure appearance from the Predator II skull in the lower back half. I may create this spinal structure a bit wide to show placement for the tube-like structures on the sides of the Alien’s head. Also, I’m putting in cavities strategically to show tubular connection points; though, I decided the tubes should not be part of the skeletal structure. The swept back skull appearance is a slight variation from the original design which had a clear dome and a human-like skull beneath it. By changing the angle of the cranium I can make the design look more aggressive and less “blind man with wrap-around sunglasses”. The angle of the jaw will likely change in the sculpt, but I think this is what I’ll shoot for.

Many of these parts, including the back spine and inner-mouth framework with be sculpted and cast separately to be assembled after casting. The skull will have an inner ridge separating the brain cavity sections; speaking of which, the brain cavity is open on top, beneath the dome. In many of the books the dome is removed showing brain tissue directly beneath it, so this is my concession to that idea.

I do intend on making a full dome even though the picture only shows a cross-section of it. I’m thinking the dome is not bone but more like a tusk (or nail) extending from the upper lip to cover the whole head and curl, like a nail, beyond the cranial ridge, thus protecting the back of the head.

Anyhow, this is the design for now and I have a lot of work ahead of me.

Next up: Armature.

In college I used to doodle variations these creatures all over my notes and some of those doodles I’ve kept, but in an effort to bring something new to the table I’ve decided to begin by researching the designs that are considered “the originals”. First off, is the alien from the first movie.

This skull would be the simplest design due to the basic exterior presented and the idea that this represents more of an exoskeleton, like a beetle. Being a fan of the comic books (my initial exposure to the Aliens universe was reading the first Batman vs. Aliens book), I would love to expand upon the original design a bit in order to create a more interesting “skeletal” skull. In Predator II there was such a skull displayed.

This design was based on the alien warriors’ head depicted in the movie “Aliens”. Their head did not have the same shell, or dome, as the first movie design. Although it has the detailed skeletal look I’m going for, it doesn’t use the dome which I feel is a bit more iconic. I had considered doing an Alien Queen skull (1/1), but it would be much longer than my work table; and as I only have a limited space to work with, I thought it best to start “small”. The queen can happen later (I really badly want to do one as it seems no one has).

I’ll start sketching the basic substructure of the alien skull based on human skeletal structures and then expand that into a more exotic look. Theoretically, I want to make one with a semi-translucent dome and semi-translucent teeth, but details like that will emerge as the project gets underway.

Rarrr!

My thumbs are blistered and my muscles are tired, but after six hours I have successfully converted all my old used medium brown NSP into useable easily re-moldable discs for the build-up process. Yes, the alien skull is in the works. Also putting together a logical sounding explanation of the alien’s skeleton/exoskeleton. We’re talking Aliens comic book style, not movie prop copy (those were pretty crappy anyhow).

René Trebing of Asheville, NC is creating equine art with a personal touch. I personally really like the window pane pieces. René recently bought one of my unicorn horn creations online and promptly sent back pictures of her application. I was thrilled to see a real world, non-display function for my art and thought I should share it with you.  She is still playing with a couple ideas for implementation, and I’ll let you know how it goes. If you’re in NC and interested in having René do a photo-shoot with any of your horses just click the picture above to find out how to get in touch with her.