I've been working on this series for about 6 months now, and for whatever reason I was a little hesitant about showing them off until they were all done.
The original concept was to create full 1:1 scale humanoid robots in correlation to a little storyline I had brewing in my head, but I didn't have the space, time, or money for such a huge endeavor, and since I am not really a fan or collector of miniatures I decided small but 1:1 scale robotic animals would be the next best thing. Additionally; somewhere on the other side of my brain I have been wanting to re-create the cover of the Alien 3 dvd but on a slab of stone simulating a fossil effect very much like the common Ammonite fossils. When the robotic-animals concept was conceived I saw it as an opportunity to combine the two projects into a much more interesting and original concept. Over the past few months I have been gathering reference photography, gathering animal bones, doing sketches, talking with geologists and fossil experts, working with fellow artists, building the bucks and making the molds. The three original pieces were intended to be hung during a little show in March, but once that got pushed back I saw the extra time as an opportunity to up the ante.
The final pieces are cast out of resin + various fillers with a foam backing for support, which makes them very light weight.
Felis catus:
Mycteria americana: (kinda)
Chelonia mydas:
Loligo Duvauceli:
**** sapien:
BTW, I am looking for title ideas for this series. If anyone has any suggestions please post them.
Construction
Kitty:
Birdie:
Turtle:
Courtesy of David Poe (http://www.mrdavidpoe.com). He thought my sketch was a little static.
Just to show you I did put some thought into how these things function!
Squid:
Only then did I reckon my curse. Alright, alright, alright...
A set of these little segments was created in Adobe Illustrator then lasercut, molded, then cast.
Belle Marie:
Courtesy of David Poe (http://www.mrdavidpoe.com).
Since I am following David's sketch rather loosely I had to go back a few times during construction and plan my next step. Here I am trying to figure out how much of the waist-below I want to show. Yes, that is a purple Terminator skull.
Trying to figure out the side details
Molding
I decided to use the Bishop/Exoray method, which I had never utilized before. I am sure it is a well known method around here that predates Bishop and Exoray, but they were the first to introduce it to me.
Hey... um, Chicken... It's not supposed to be a literal mud-coat!
I absolutely hate working with fiberglass. It is messy, smelly, ultra toxic, and difficult for me to do. While experimenting with ways to make rock effect with resin, I found that 2 parts mortar mix to every one part resin resulted in an extremely hard cast and saved on resin. The coat is about 1/8" to 1/4" thick in most places, and with the braces in place as well as the expanding foam (below), I am pretty confident that this jacket will last.
Pouring this was the most stressful and frightening four-and-a-half hours of my life... yeah, it took 4.5 hours to pour this.
So there you have it. If you have any title suggestions, questions or comments, please let me know!
