Skull Sculpt

I have began a sculpt, in wax of a human skull which I’ll document through the sculpting, moulding and casting process.

 

The first duty was gathering reference. I scanned the below image from ‘Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist’ by Stephen Rogers Peck. An excellent book which I highly recommend as one of THE anatomy books worth buying.

I arranged the scans in Photoshop and printed out, in correct scale, as a template for my sculpt.

Using my Verniers (below) I can take measurements direct from the drawing to check against the sculpt. This helps keep to scale and check accuracy faster than using the eye.

 

The sculpt was begun by applying ‘wet’ wax to a component which broke from an old camera tripod. The handle sticking from the base of the skull can be unscrewed from the broken part which is buried inside the sculpt. Handy for holding up the skull during sculpting and removable for photographing and when it comes to casting.

The lower jawbone (mandible) is a separate component which I’ll make so that it can be hinged onto the cast and swung open/closed.

One annoyance I now have, having worked digitally is the fact I have to work on both sides of the model! In ZBrush you work with symmetry switched on so you can happily work away on one side of the head, for instance, and the other side is automatically replicated as you work. No such joy with wax. It takes twice as long and you have to match the symmetry of the work as you go. Huh.

I find I progress one side more rapidly than the other and replicate the work across when I’m happy with what I’ve done.

to be continued…