[Affected]

More schoolwork. I wanted to do a full body, maybe something like the ecorch� skeletons someone posted about in digital art discussion before, but I just didn't have time for that. I decided to make just a skull instead, and also put a light in it.

First I modeled the form in plastilene and cast a mold of it with vinamold, which is a rubbery plastic that becomes liquid when heated up, and hardens back up again when it cools down. This didn't go too well, the skull was almost life-size and since plastilene softens as it heats up, the skull sagged somewhat in the mold. (Vinamold has to be heated up to something like 150 degrees fahrenheit before casting)

I went with what I had though, and made a plaster cast resulting in a somewhat sad-looking skull. I smoothed it out as much as I had the patience to do, then made another mold with vinamold and cast resin in that, putting my light fixture in at this point. Again, trouble, and again due to heat: This resin heats up considerably as it hardens, and I suppose the lightbulb expanded because of that, since some large cracks appeared throughout the skull. Well, live and learn... The resin version needed a lot of sanding down, and then I needed to saw it in half to be able to switch the lightbulb. I planned to saw it precisely at the widest point of the bulb, but unsurprisingly I missed a bit, not being able to see quite where that point would be, and needed to enlarge the cavity left by the bulb a bit.

After that it was a matter of putting in screws to hold the halves together. ( a hint, resin is pretty hard, but not THAT hard. Use screws with a large, sparse groove, or the grooves in the resin will become useless after you screw the screws out and in a few times.) Then some buffing with soft cloths, and done!





I'd never used most of the stuff I used in this before, so it was a good learning process... I think in a way even the cracks make it look more interesting, without them I'm not sure there' be much to look at inside the skull.

[remand]

nice!

i love the precise and sober way you describe your workmethods very inspireing (does that word spell that way?!?)

good anyway

t�

[gLitterbug]

I really like the skull from before you made the mold. It still looks good after that, but I think it's also the material that I like better with the original one.

Too bad about the cracking, but I guess the whole point of making this was to learn what can go wrong and to prevent things like that in the future. Also it did turn out rather nice even with the problems, so I'd say mission success!