Sea Serpent

Sea Serpents have always fascinated me. While "Nessie" of Loch Ness is probably the most well known of the mysterious serpent clan there are many others.

Author J.P. O'Neill wrote of one such creature in her book "The Great New England Sea Serpent".I came across a bit about the creature while poking around online at the UnMuseum: http://www.unmuseum.org/glserpent.htm

Recently I had the opportunity to finish a sculpt of a sea serpent I had started some time ago. It is modeled of Apoxie and Super Sculpey clay.

My creature is behaving badly by serpent standards. I attribute its aggression to the brontosaurus attack on the rescue party in "King Kong" (1933)which influenced me.My serpent has just dashed a make shift raft to pieces and snatched up a survivor in its toothy jaws.

I've been reading the "Monster Spotter's Guide to North America" by Scott Francis which covers many lake monsters. The book sparked my curiosity about one serpent called the Cadborosaurus that reportedly has been spotted in lakes in British Columbia. I enjoyed creating this sea serpent with the attitude problem and I plan on sculpting a more peaceful creature in the near future.

Shaving My Head For Charity

On April 15th I'll be shaving my head to raise funds for the St.Baldrick's Foundation for childhood cancer research. If you'd like to help the children please stop by my page and make a donation : http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/mypage/participantid/363860 This year I am also offering some of my artwork for sale to benefit St.Baldrick's. The sculpture can be found here at Esty.com: Fishing Boy Sculpture by BlacknickSculpture on Etsy The entire proceeds of the sale will go to the foundation. Thank you, Brian

The Finished Stegosaurus Sculpture

The final painting on the sculpture was done by dry brushing to accent the plates and scale work.

A dark wash was applied over the stegosaurus to tie the colors together and bring out the texture of the scales.

Painting The Stegosaurus

After spraying the stegosaurus with primer I brushed on a coat of liquid latex to mask off the tail spikes.

Using an airbrush I misted a couple light coats of Polytranspar Light Bass Green over the entire sculpture.

Stegosaur Tail Spikes

After the plates were added I moved on to working on the tail spikes. The locations were marked on the tail and then drilled. The spikes were then glued in place. When all the parts of the stegosaurus had been assembled I covered the entire sculpture with a thin layer of Apoxie Sculpt clay.

While the clay was still soft I embedded various sizes of baked Super Sculpey into it to give the dinosaur hide a pebbly armored look.

After the clay had cured overnight I gave the sculpture a couple light coats of white lacquer primer.

Adding The Stegosaur's Plates

Once the legs had firmly been attached I began adding the plates to the stegosaurs back. After locating the position for each plate a hole was drilled in the back. A rod was then inserted into the base of each of the larger plates and glued with Zap A Gap. This would help anchor the plate in place till the area was reinforced with Apoxie Sculpt clay.

Stegosaurus Sculpture

The stego's legs were padded out in aluminum foil over which Super Sculpey was modeled. In this photo I am adding the toes to the front foot.

The legs were then attached to the body using Zap A Gap glue. I installed the eyes and at that point I began covering the entire stegosaurus in thin applications of Apoxie Sculpt clay.