Okay before i begin on this project let me just re-cap here: The many projects i have planned for my various skulls be they paper mache, plaster and my White Matter© (plaster and pulp mix) amongst these is one very special project a collection of gas mask skulls. These are based on a series of such skulls one of my sons amongst other things his being a tattooist the designs he tattooed on his own legs a while back. Below is a couple of the rough sketches i made from some of those skulls which i now plan to turn into a real object De art.
Using pure plaster i am creating a series of 'basic' cast skull forms that i can then 'individually' carve/sculpt with unique to each skull they're own final look. Amongst the various sizes of skulls i have a set of three skulls i am currently working on to create those basic master casts. They being a typical closed mouthed skull, a semi-open mouthed skull and a screaming skull.
Now of all three current designs the screaming skull lends itself to the gas mask skull projects more as the gas masks some shown above do not cover the lower face entirely. As in a portion of the sides of the screaming mouth can be seen. For me this adds a nice gruesome touch to the final design not shown in my sons tattoos. Below are the pre-carved/sculpted original basic cast skulls.
As i mentioned in a previous post i joined these together wrong causing the front of the skulls to miss-align. How ever once again the nature of the project means the gas mask section 'will' cover up this fault. I just need to carve/sculpt the features that will show beyond the gas mask. Then again as i said previously if i sculpt the entire skull since i am creating the gas mask features in plasticine, once i have created the new latex mold for this project, this particular skull, i can simply remove the plasticine and have a full skull again. A decision i came to when experimentally sculpting this skull i discovered the badly joined version could indeed be saved. As you can see below the first of the two screaming skulls sculpted into the final design.
Of course to use this as a gas mask-less version i will have to do some more minor sculpting to bring the skull up to standard, but this is minor work.
So what does the first stages of the plasticine gas mask look like then so far? Have a look below.
Now clearly i have a long way to go as yet. Once i get the proportions and design i want for the gas mask, straps etc established i can then work on adding the finer details in the mask.
AAAAGH! DISASTER STRIKES!!
Yesterday was not the best day to start this stage of this particular project with this particular skull!. Any of the other two versions would not have been a problem what-so-ever but no i had to start with this one didn't i. I broke off one side of the lower jaw because i did not warm up the plasticine enough between my hands before sculpting it directly to the plaster skull. In reflection what i 'should' have done was to only sculpt the area's that were visible beyond the gas mask straps and all!. Of course it is only too easy to reflect on what would have been the best thing to do isn't that just the way things are sometimes?
So luckily i still have another ready made so i am not having to mix up a new batch then wait for it do dry etc. With lessons learned from this mess up i should have more to show you in the next part of this feature post.
So what happened to the damaged skull then i hear some ask. Well i removed the remaining lower jaw and trimmed it all off around the damaged regions. Now this guy is a jaw less skull of which i now have two individual styles. The first one of course being by choice i might add lol.
Here is this poor damaged guy saved.
More soon.
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