[Affected]

I'm working as a trainee on a children's film, making props mostly. One thing I made is this bear skull out of clay. Originally the plan was to just make a mold of it and then cast it in fiberglass or some other material, but that process turned out to be almost as expensive as buying a real skull. I hadn't planned the clay version to be used in anything, so the construction isn't quite as solid as it should be. (well, there's also my total inexperience with clay sculpting) The lower jaw that is shown in a couple of the wip-shots is unusable in it's clay form, since it bends and then cracks all the time. All that said, the results can be seen at

http://koti.mbnet.fi/affected/bear/

I had a genuine bear skull for reference, but since that one has to be returned intact, it couldn't be used in the film. Originally the idea was that the skull was to be used as a perimeter warning device, hung from a tree with a lot of bones that would clank against it when a wire was tripped. As soon as the casting idea was ditched it was obvious this skull couldn't be used for it either, but I was told to finish it anyway. I suspect they just didn't have the heart to tell me it's not really much use any more. The chances are probably low it'll ever make it onto set.

[Freebooter]

Holy cow... bear. Could you tell me something about the process? I've made a life-size clay bust of Conan the Barbarian, but I'm having difficulties to imagine how you started building this it being hollow and all.

Oh, and see you in Taikki next month.

[Affected]

Well, like I said I have almost 0 experience with clay so my methods are likely to be pretty miserable.

Anyway, I took my reference in front of me, took out some steel wire and twisted it into a mesh that I figured about approximated the shapes I needed. I bulked some clay onto that mesh, enough to cover it (not enough actually if I had wanted to fire this, the mesh is VERY close to the surface and the whole thing would probably crack in the heat) and let the whole thing dry up. This gave me a reasonably stiff basic form I could start putting more clay on top of. After that there was no trick really, I just added clay and poked at it until it started to look like something. Fortunately the structure was strong enough to take the weight in various positions: I was worried it would crack through the middle when I turned it upside down to work on the bottom, but that didn't happen.

When I was done sculpting it, I fixed some of the cracks that developed (proof my technique is bad, I guess) and painted it with acrylics.

[Thrush]

Even though it may never become actual footage, I'm betting the experience was worth the effort. Nice work for no experience. Makes me want to break out the sculpey.
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