Albertosaurus sarcophagus - new sculpture in progress

[fabricious]

Thanks Blade! Now I can definitely see what you meant with the resemblance in style.

Looking at those pictures I am definitely not as far off as I thought. I'll leave it like this, for now, so I can see what he'll look like when everything is put together. At least I always checked whether he really was able to see straight ahead, I feared I might block his sight with that big nose...

Greetings,
Fabrizio

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Thanks Blade! Now I can definitely see what you meant with the resemblance in style.

Looking at those pictures I am definitely not as far off as I thought. I'll leave it like this, for now, so I can see what he'll look like when everything is put together. At least I always checked whether he really was able to see straight ahead, I feared I might block his sight with that big nose...

Greetings,
Fabrizio

Very welcome !

I'd say your doing quite well. 

Oh yeah..line of sight is a pain. lol It would be so much easier to make theno nly see from the side wouldn't it ? As my early work can attest.  I didn't have a good grip on skull shapes then and not much references to go on.

[fabricious]

I currently have the lower jaw in the oven. That was pretty difficult to sculpt without destroying details and such, hopefully it'll turn out without a problem! In the meantime: some pictures of the process:






The mouth will not be closed in the finished piece, though. I just put it in there from time to time to see if it actually fitted, haha.


Greetings,
Fabrizio

[fabricious]

Ah, almost forgot to show you this: I didn't realize what a big gap I created with the weird posture of the leg. If it doesn't work out with the rest of the sculpture in the end, I might have to just re-do the upper part, so it fits better into the model (and reasonable anatomy).





Greetings,
Fabrizio

[fabricious]

Aaand we have a lower jaw:




I am just holding it weirdly here, it actually fits onto the upper jaw:


I sure do hope that it won't look quite as 'fake' once it is cast and painted.

[fabricious]

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I think if you could squeeze them a few more tiny teeth in the upper jaw would look good..mostly in the front of the mouth ?

[fabricious]

A few of them simply fell out, actually. I was thinking the same, since he does look a bit... well, toothless.
Some more bits are in the oven right now. I definitely should get myself one of those tiny ovens that look like microwaves. Always starting the big one seems like a bit of a waste of energy.

[fabricious]

I might have to re-do the lower jaw. It looks a bit too chunky, I think. Opinions on that? The neck is currently in the oven (probably the most critical part of baking, since I had to put the torso in there as well, so it would fit properly and not move and thus had to fix the position without disturbing the fresh clay... geez), after that one is done, I can work more easily on a new version of the jaw. I also took away that big dewlap, since it looked way too enormous.




Greetings,
Fabrizio

[fabricious]

PS.: More teeth in the upper jaw.

[tyrantqueen]

A few of them simply fell out, actually. I was thinking the same, since he does look a bit... well, toothless.
Some more bits are in the oven right now. I definitely should get myself one of those tiny ovens that look like microwaves. Always starting the big one seems like a bit of a waste of energy.

You mean a toaster oven? They're pretty good if you can get one which doesn't have heat spikes. Sometimes the temperature inside the oven can be unreliable and becomes too hot, burning the sculpture inside.

[fabricious]

Yes, something like that. I might look at some reviews first, of course, since I have never used one before. Thanks for the warning!

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Here's a skeletal I found :

It looks like the lower jaw is a bit more slender , even looking at this sculpture again :

[fabricious]

I found G.S.Paul's skeletal as well, I used it as reference for the pubis. I just took the head/neck/body out of the oven and tried the lower jaw on again. It's by far too massive for the body, so I'll make a new one later today. I'll keep the first one, though. It gives the head a bit of a T. rex-ish feeling, maybe I'll do a bust of it some time. Thanks for the pictures though! I really appreciate your help with this!

[fabricious]

Alright, work on the new lower jaw has started.





I also closed the gap a bit. Running with an open mouth doesn't seem all too comfortable to me. There are probably enough theropod models with wide open jaws.

Greetings,
Fabrizio

[Paleogene Pals]

I think if you bulk up the sides of your torso a bit, that might take care of the right leg appearing too splayed. Also, and I don't want to sound too critical or harsh, your teeth appear to be a little too "cartoony", especially in comparison to rest of your piece. But, an easy fix with a little sanding and carving. Sculpting paleoart is a lot harder than it looks. I know I made a bunch of mistakes in anatomy and proportion on my first true sculpture.  In fact, I'm still working on it now. 

[fabricious]

Constructive criticism is always welcome! I'll definitely be looking into changing the torso, I think. Right now I am working on the new lower jaw, I can already see that changing it was a good idea. Pictures to follow later!

I can absolutely relate to what you said about the first sculpture. Maybe you saw my Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus sculpture? I pretty much screwed the whole anatomy, haha.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Very welcome. It's difficult to find good images of the actual skull itself.  I figured GSP's skeletal would help you with lining up the head/neck/dewlap/throat area too.  You have a really nice shorter T-Rex neck there already but these guys had slightly longer ones.

Are you doing a lipped look for the head or un-lipped ?  It sort of looked like the lower jaw didn't have one but the upper appears to with all the gum showing.   If you want to go more like the fleshed out life size piece there, maybe eliminate the gums in the top or recess back under the skin so only the teeth show by about two thirds ? That might just help the Great White Shark / cartoony look your getting there.

[fabricious]

I was going with a lipped look, tried to make it look like he is curling back the upper lip (like snarling wolves/lions). The head is currently in the oven again (lower jaw), I'll have a look at it once it's cooled down! The teeth are a big challenge, I still have to figure out a good way of sculpting them without looking too weird. Thanks for the input, guys!

[fabricious]

Alright, I worked some more on the lower jaw. Best decision so far. It looks a lot more like it belongs to the whole body now. I like the new dewlap as well:






Adding some more lip to the upper jaw as well. I think it works much better now, thanks for the suggestion, Blade!




Greetings,
Fabrizio