It’s been a couple days since my last update on this project and here’s why…

As always, I took the weekend to go hang out with my wonderful fiancé, Jean, in Brooklyn. While there, and in conjunction with eating pizza, I suddenly realized that I had been going about the project all wrong. I have an idea in my head (which is where I hold most of my ideas) about the shaping and details of the skull, but I am having issues creating the armature in a way that defines the sculpture outcome properly. Due to the sheer size of this project I’ve wasted many hours building up the clay around the current armature only to discover that I have done it wrong. As I said in earlier posts, “this was a shot in the dark”. Well, my “shot” missed the target, so I’m reloading.

Pizza. Everything can be solved with pizza from which I derive my powers. Just kidding… about the powers. Pizza boxes, when unfolded, just happen to be roughly 38″ long from inner crease to crease. Why does that matter? Well, that’s how long this particular skull is. I plan on taking a couple weeks to build up some cardboard supplies (which should be easy with Litte Ceasar’s at the corner) from which to create a fuller armature to build on. I’ll just cut the shapes and slot the thing together to get a better sense of the whole before I add clay to it. In the mean time I have to tear down the current structure and re-mold the clay into usable pieces. Using my handy-dandy study lamp, I’ve found a way to soften the NSP to a workable temperature, so the process should go more quickly than it did two weeks ago.

This weekend is Mother’s Day, thus creating another delay in the process…

Grrr Arrrgh.

ADDENDUM – 5/29/10:

The Alien skull is canceled for now. After much deliberation I’ve opted for finishing up some smaller projects first before my wedding. After which I have to move to a new place and I don’t know if I’ll have much space for large projects or not. I really want to make one still, but it will have to wait.

Since I panicked yesterday, everything has gotten much better.

First off, I tore off the stuff I put together yesterday.

Following some rough sketches I drew up at work, I progressed into adding the foundational clay for the rear segment of the cranial cage.

I got a bit “creative, with the foreknowledge that most of this can be changed as I go.

I can’t depend on painting in “dark” areas like one can with a rubber mask to hide lack of detail since the sculpt will likely be painted in a bleached bone color scheme.

Anyhow, that’s what I did on the project last night. I’ll be working on the “spinal” center structures tonight and hopefully get some sleep. I was up ’till 4a last night and left for work this morning at 8a. I’m definitely feeling it now at 4p.

Last night I stayed up a bit too late trying desperately to figure out what I was thinking attempting this project. It wasn’t until I looked over the pictures this morning that I realized why it felt “off”.

In case you didn’t notice it, the framework for the armature is flat across the bottom; however, the alien head is arched. Sure it sits up there fine now, but as soon as I go to sculpt the underside, I’m going to find a board sticking out along the entire bottom edge of my design and that’s problem #1. I didn’t see this all last night as I was working. Even as I write this, I’m trying to figure out a way to correct the issues without totally starting over.

I cut the spinal board down a bit in length last night to account for where the front lobe cavity would be. I already expect to have a multi-part sculpt/casting process due to my desire to make this replicate-able, but I am still figuring out the “how” of the design. As I look at this now, I think I can just cut the board length down a bit more in front and drop the placement of the skull a bit on the armature so the board will be covered. Hopefully, the interior hollows will still exist. I am aware of the fact that I should remove the boards being used as vertical supports and replace them with a pipe. I just don’t have that pipe right now. Anyhow, I fell asleep at 2:30am after sticking some clay to the structure (clay I now know I will have to sculpt down a little differently, or possibly remove). Oh, well.

I won’t have a lot of time tonight, but I may try to at least modify the substructure if I get a chance.

Every so often in these types of projects it’s a good idea to rough sketch a multitude of variations. These are some of the continued design sketches I roughed out on a notepad during lunch today.

I was attempting to figure out the assembly steps necessary to make this duplicate-able. If I make it once, I fear I’ll have people asking for copies.

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.

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!

Sorry for the absence from posting but I had other projects pending. Here is Billy. He’s in dire straits, but such is life… or death… whatever.

This piece is titled “Life in Death”.

The sculpture was done in oil based clay and this is a resin cast of that. He’s not perfect, but it was a complicated casting and I’m satisfied with the output. Perfect for the upcoming holidays. The piece is also waterproof, Jean, so you could technically submerge it in a coy pond to scare the kiddies. He’s also one of the first pieces in my “War Between Plants and Machines” color theme. I’ll have a desktop wallpaper featuring him up soon.