SCULPTURE: Monster Heads! Pt.4

Run for the Ozark Hills...KING HOG ATTACKS!

Hard to believe it...but I started this project officially TWO years ago!  I had ideas of making a sculpture of an epic battle between two Giant Monsters: "KING HOG vs BULLZILLA" (Click the link to see the backstory.)  But it took seeing the movie "Pacific Rim" last year to get the ball rolling.  Granted, I may never do the full sculpt, but at least I've got a fun Monster Head series going now.  And I love making the "mini posters" of the creatures in action!

For any fan of the ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS, you'll see the inspiration for this creature. For those who have followed my blog, you'll be familiar with the general process I use.

For the other three monsters in this series, I did not create any sketches beforehand...I just let myself be surprised where things would end up.  But when I was having a new clutch put into my car a few months ago, I just figured I'd use the time to kick around some drawings of how KING HOG might look.  I wanted to exaggerate the tusks, and give him some "razor sharp" spikes on his back.

The project started with a wooden base and a nail to secure the foil that forms the core.  I often do a loose sculpt to get general proportions in place.  This will be totally replaced bit by bit with more refined elements.  You'll note the ball of foil with a dowel in it.  This was going to be the head, and I could rotate it for the best angle for "dramatic effect".  I decided not to use it with the rough sculpt.  But later changed my mind and redesigned the whole thing WITH the head as a separate piece.

Here are the various tusks and teeth that I baked separately. The gray color is from "Sculpy Firm", mixed with the pink "Super Sculpy" for better detail.  I then built a set of jaws with the teeth in place, and baked it again, so I would not keep messing them up with the rest of the sculpting process.

I worked from the snout to the back, adding details and fleshing out the forms.  As with the teeth, I made the spines separately, and baked them before putting them in place.

In the course of handling the sculpture, I found that the base had some cracks developing where I had quickly sculpted some rocks.  So I had to redo that area with a few simple shapes of clay.  Then I added a mixture of sand, small gravel and glue, to give the base some texture.

Here is the final sculpted piece before painting it.

Now comes the paint job...I always enjoy this phase of the project...it's the icing on the cake!  I started everything with a base coat of RED acrylic, since that is the proper color for any self-respecting razorback.  I then added a very thin wash of black, to pop the detail.  After that, its just a matter of adding multiple layers of dry-brushing and glazing until I am happy with the results.

This is the finished color for KING HOG...

 Here is the current lineup of my KAIJU MONSTER HEADS.  I'm sure there are more to come!

SCULPTURE - Monster Heads! Pt.3

 BEHOLD...THE TERROR OF BULLZILLA!

Here is the third entry in my ongoing series of Monster Heads.  These have really been fun to work on!  This particular design actually started over a year and a half ago. I had been kicking around the idea of a full-on fight scene inspired by two rivals from the world of college football. You can read about that original post here: "King Hog vs. Bullzilla!"  However...I may never get around to finishing that sculpture.  So in the mean time, I thought I'd see if I could get inspired with just doing the head of one of those monsters.

As usual, I start with a wood base, with a nail wrapped with wire.  This time I did not use a pre-made piece from the hobby shop.  I thought I'd try a base that looked like boulders.  I added aluminum foil as the core of my armature. Once I gave it a "skin" of Sculpy, I baked the basic shape with a heat gun.

Next came the teeth, which I sculpted and baked.  I didn't want to keep bumping the teeth in the process of sculpting, and had already decided to have the mouth closed.

I began to play around with various profiles.  I had intended on making this creature look more like a mutated BULL (a Texas Longhorn to be specific).  However, it started to feel too much like the "minotaur" from ancient Greek mythology. So, I decided not to lock in to being so literal with the details of a real bull, and just let my imagination run free.

Here are a few pics of the development of the back of the neck.  It just sort of grew into more of a spine, with the bones showing at the surface.  I roughly blended the forms, leaving the linear texture...then smoothed it out by painting on oderless paint thinner.

After adding the basic shapes of the face, I continued the process of smoothing things with the thinner.  But I tried to keep the wrinkles showing.  After I was basically done with the face, I thought it would be nice to add some battle scars!  Then I finished out the details on the horns.

The next images show the rock and sand mixture that I put on the base of the creature.  I'm not sure I'm so happy with how it turned out.  I would have done better to just use sand on the sculpted rock base...the bigger gravel bits obscured most of the details of the form.  Oh well...live and learn!

The paint job came next.  That is one of my favorite parts of these projects.  I had decided to try to keep with a burnt orange color palette, to match with the Texas Longhorn school colors.  However, in the end, the paintjob wasn't quite true to those brighter colors.

Here are a few "turn-around" shots of the final sculpture!

 I will continue to add more to this growing little family...probably the next one will be a version of "King Hog" inspired by the Arkansas Razorback!

SCULPTURE - "King Hog VS Bullzilla" pt. 1

Time for some KAIJU CHAOS! For the uninitiated..."kaiju" is Japanese for "strange beast" or more typically "giant monster". I've had a couple of requests to sculpt something with my all-time favorite kaiju...GODZILLA! But as usual...I decided to put my spin on it.

One of the goofiest Godzilla movies ever made is "King Kong VS Godzilla". The gorilla suit is horrendously bad...but the action is over-the-top ridiculous, which is why I love it!

I was wondering how I could have some fun with that famous fight...but with a little something thrown in from my Arkansas heritage. What other beasts could I mix-in, that could rival the intensity of those two behemoths going at it?!!! Why, long-time arch-enemies...the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Texas Longhorns, of course!!

So...here's a sketch of the battle royal that I will be sculpting next! I might throw in some tiny buildings or tanks, for scale...depends on what I can find from some model kits for that stuff.

As usual, my very rough early-stage sketches are shown below. At first, I had the roles switched on which mascot would be mutated with which monster. This project might take me a while, since I'm building two ferocious beasts. Check back later...or run through the streets screaming...either is appropriate.