This year I decided to take an independent study with my teacher Richard McKinley who teaches 3D illustration. I had taken his beginner and advanced class junior year and I want to pursue special effects making monsters and creatures for big budget films in the future. I am currently working on sculpting a life like 1:8 scale Albertosaurus bust. I had to do a lot of research on the skull because this needs to be an accurate depiction of a dinosaur NOT from Jurassic Park. From there I built a base for the head and drilled a hole inserting a rod for the armatures base. I then attached blue foam to the rod and secured it on with a 2 part foam mix which hardens. Next I sketched out the skull on the foam and cut the shape. After doing so it was a matter of sculpting the base of the dinosaur with clay. The clay I am using is an oil base clay not meant to be baked.
With the basic forms set I went in and began to really focus in on creating the shapes and details in the head. Using reference photos of featherless chickens really helps haha (but they're incredibly disturbing). I am currently in the process of adding detail and texture to my Albertosaurus. I have plans on making several other creatures in my independent study class so I want this done in a week or two.
