"How'd She Do That?" (1st Page)
A few things up front - Most of the pictures on this series
of pages are not as good as I could wish for. The photos on the rest
of this web site are courtesy of friends (who are substancially better
than I with a camera), or were directly scanned to the computer
(that's the 2-D stuff folks). Somehow, a Polaroid©
"One-Step" just doesn't quite show the same detail as a
35mm... My main aim, though, was to show the high points of
making a dragon. And, this was done (for me, at least) while I was in
the process - which was usually sometime around 2AM! It also means
that I am not showing as many of the steps as I probably should, for
which I apologize.
That said, let's go...
It all starts with wire... Very thick 10 gauge steel wire,
to be exact. (the neck is a double strand, by the way) The
basic posture of the dragon, as well as any "appendages" (i.e.
horns, frills, vanes, etc.) and the lower jaw (if the
dragon has its mouth open) are set in place at this stage. The 10
gauge wire is hard to bend, but it tends to have a good rigidity and really
holds everything together once I start "bulking it out." Masking tape
is my "tape of choice" for holding the various pieces together.
Two important things to think about at this stage:
1) Realize that the bases of horns are going to be at
least ½ inch (and probably more) further out
on the horn than where the wire is attached (due to the bulking out
process).
2) And, the wire form you set up will only accept minor
changes once you start bulking out - anything signifigantly changed
will have to be "de-bulked" & redone. This is also a good stage
to tell if the sculpture is stable, or "tip heavy". If it is tip
heavy (and this one is), the finished sculpture will probably be so,
also.
Next...
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