A Personal Project: 1:1 Michael Crawford as Phantom of the Opera. (PIC HEAVY!)

Hello, all!

I've finally come far enough along on this piece to feel okay about showing it off here. This is my first attempt at a life-sized likeness: Michael Crawford as The Phantom of the Opera. I modeled him to look around the same age he was while performing this character on stage, roughly from 1986 to the 1990s, and I've been working on it for about a year and a half, learning as I go. It's about 85% complete, but still lacks skin/prosthetic textures, additional wrinkles, and pores.

The hair is nearly finished, and I say "nearly finished" because the loose ends on the back of the neck will inevitably need to be resculpted and refined as skin texture and pores are added...Either way, this is like, 99% of how the hair will look when molded.

The eyes are resin castings molded from anatomically accurate glass eyes, so there's a raised cornea on each one that has been positioned to look sharply to the Phantom's left-hand side - even though you can't really see it in these pictures.

In addition to the sculpture itself, I've attached a few reference pictures of the original Phantom makeup for comparison. Please feel free to comment, critique, and provide opinions on the work I've done so far. Sculpting is still a relatively new and unexplored art form for me, so I need to progress in a LOT of ways. However, I'm inching right along thanks to the generous help of a few much more experienced friends.









More pictures below...

Thanks for looking and cheers,

Ryan

Cheers,

Ryan

amazing. And a great great charakter you chose as well!!
I truely love it.

Can´t wait to see it finished.
I would have loved it to see the whole disfigured head without hair.
I´m a no sculpted hair but hair punched in-fan.

I´d be in buying a cast from you, depending on the price!

Utterly amazing likeness. The amount of time invested in this sculpt really shows. I can't even begin to fathom how many hours were invested in doing the hair. I notice that a lot of these projects tend to skimp on the ears but you do a tremendous job on those features as well. Great likeness and I have to say thank you for sharing.

Awesome job!!

H

Howard S Studios

"This face, which earned a mother's fear and loathing ...
A mask, my first unfeeling scrap of clothing ...
Pity comes too late - turn around
and face your fate: an eternity of this before your eyes!"

It's wonderful! Well done!!

Thanks for all the comments, everyone. I am totally overwhelmed at this response!

Salima38: You're too kind!! Actually, I have spent basically the last 8 months trying to learn how to properly sculpt hair. I've asked anyone and everyone for tips, and worked through a lot of trial and error. Finally, I got the information I needed from a couple sculptor friends and spent a solid week's worth of hours going back and forth over the hair follicles, thickening and thinning, trying to make them look as organic as I could while still maintaining their overall directional pull. As of yesterday, it's finally close enough to what I wanted for me to feel satisfied...The ears, on the other hand, I had just recently refined in one day with a couple GIANT reference pics of MC found on Google Images. You wouldn't believe how many times that man has been photographed in his career...

Trap Joe: I sent you a PM, buddy! Sorry for not going with a bald head, but I really felt like this piece would feel more "complete" with the wig sculpted onto it. There will also be a matching (100% accurate) stage mask fashioned uniquely to fit this bust once it's been molded, and I'm debating on removing some of the surrounding chest and back structure since I won't be adding clothing onto the sculpture itself.

Howard: It's an honor to receive sculpture compliments from you, man.

vistaVision: I was lucky enough to catch the American tour back in June of 2009...That was quite an experience. I hear the Las Vegas and Broadway shows are ten times as nice, though. Perhaps I can make it out to see one (or both) of them someday.

Thanks again for replying. I'll make sure to post more updates when the skin is finally complete and everything's ready to mold!

Cheers,

Ryan

Awesome Sculpt!


Seen phantom many times and No one can match Crawford in the role!

Thats a really well done bust, well done sir

The Death Curse said:

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Thanks for all the comments, everyone. I am totally overwhelmed at this response!

Salima38: You're too kind!! Actually, I have spent basically the last 8 months trying to learn how to properly sculpt hair. I've asked anyone and everyone for tips, and worked through a lot of trial and error. Finally, I got the information I needed from a couple sculptor friends and spent a solid week's worth of hours going back and forth over the hair follicles, thickening and thinning, trying to make them look as organic as I could while still maintaining their overall directional pull. As of yesterday, it's finally close enough to what I wanted for me to feel satisfied...The ears, on the other hand, I had just recently refined in one day with a couple GIANT reference pics of MC found on Google Images. You wouldn't believe how many times that man has been photographed in his career...

Trap Joe: I sent you a PM, buddy! Sorry for not going with a bald head, but I really felt like this piece would feel more "complete" with the wig sculpted onto it. There will also be a matching (100% accurate) stage mask fashioned uniquely to fit this bust once it's been molded, and I'm debating on removing some of the surrounding chest and back structure since I won't be adding clothing onto the sculpture itself.

Howard: It's an honor to receive sculpture compliments from you, man.

vistaVision: I was lucky enough to catch the American tour back in June of 2009...That was quite an experience. I hear the Las Vegas and Broadway shows are ten times as nice, though. Perhaps I can make it out to see one (or both) of them someday.

Thanks again for replying. I'll make sure to post more updates when the skin is finally complete and everything's ready to mold!

Cheers,

Ryan

I wrote you back .
I appreciate it

OMG...That is beyond awesome. I LOVE it!!!

That is FANTASTIC!!!
I definately want a copy of this sculpt.

Years ago I made a latex appliance like that for Halloween.

Yes Micheal Crawford Rules!!!

Totally an awesome work of art! Great job!
I'd also be interested in one once completed!