The Finished Brontosaurus

Here is a photo of the completed brontosaurus shot in my yard. The colors of the sculpture came out closer to how they really appear in this photograph then the ones I shot in my studio under florescent lighting.

For fun I took a photo of the bronto in B&W.

Creating A Base For The Brontosaurus

Once the tree and brontosaur were painted it was time to mount them on the base. I set the sculptures on a piece of pine wood.Then they were positioned so the eye lines between the sailor and dinosaur lined up.Using a pencil I carefully traced around the sculptures and marked their locations.

After drilling the holes for bolting the sculptures to the base the wood was sanded, stained and given three coats of polyurethane. For the ground cover on the base I used a 50/50 mix of white glue and water to which I added my soil and leaf litter.This mixture was painted around the tree roots and the trunk of the brontosaur's neck.

While the soil/glue mixture was still wet I worked in some dried moss around the base and partially up the base of the tree.

Painting The Brontosaurus

The eyes and mouth of the brontosaurus were masked off and the sculpture was given a light coat of grey lacquer auto primer. When the primer had thoroughly dried I peeled off the masking and began dry brushing white and light gray acrylic paint over the brontosaur to bring out the scale texture.

When I was satisfied with my light toned hi lites I sprayed the sculpture with Krylon clear matt to protect my work. Next I mixed a grayish green color and dry brushed that over over the entire brontosaur.

After another coat of clear Krylon matt spray it was time to give the brontosaur sculpture a wash of thinned down acrylic paints. The wash would help tie the dry brushing work together and accent the scale texture.

When the wash had dried I top coated the brontosaur with Kylon clear matt followed by a light misting of Testors Dull Cote. This left the sculpture with a slight sheen like the brontosaur was still a bit wet after emerging from the swamp to chase the sailors from the rescue party.

Super Sculpey Brontosaurus

After mounting the wooden skull to my aluminum wire armature it was time to begin working on the brontosaur. I began sculpting using Super Sculpey polymer clay. The advantage of polymer clay is that it stays workable for a considerable length of time. This allowed me to send pictures to my client as work progressed.

He would advise me to any changes he would like made and I'd rework the sculpture. We went through three revisions of the brontosaur's look till we hit upon the one that pleased him.

At that point I stripped the polymer clay from the wooden skull and switched over to sculpting in Apoxie Sculpt clay. The final sculpture was built up in layers allowing each layer to cure before adding the next.

The final layer of Apoxie Sculpt was given a scaly texture. Here is the finished brontosaurus posed in front of the unpainted sailor and tree trunk.

Brontosaurus Update

After the teeth were primed white it was time to install them into the jaw. I snipped the wire near the base of each tooth and used Zap a Gap to glue them in place.

Once I had all the teeth secured I began sculpting the gums and interior of the mouth with Apoxie Sculpt clay.When the clay had cured the mouth was painted with acrylics and given a top coat of clear gloss lacquer.

After the teeth and interior of the mouth where completed I could glue the balsa wood skull halves together.

Sculpting The Brontosaurus From King Kong

Using balsa wood I carved a skull for the brontosaurus. Then it was on to drilling the locations on the jaws where the teeth would be.

The teeth were sculpted of Super Sculpey clay over a stiff piece of wire.

When I had my teeth completed I baked them at 350 degrees to harden them.

The teeth were then taken outside and sprayed with white primer.

Painting The Tree

When I was finished sculpting the tree and sailor they were sprayed with grey auto primer. The tree was then base coated with light tan acrylic paint.

Next I dry brushed some brown over the whole tree trunk.

After dry brushing the trunk it was sprayed with Krylon clear matt and then given a wash of dark acrylic paint to hi lite the texture of the bark.