Giant Skull 2010 - 2017

Somewhere in 2010 while re watching Steven Spielberg's Hook I remembered as a kid thinking I would love to have the giant skull mounted on Captain Hook's pirate ship prow.

Still from Hook (1991)

Actually I wanted the whole ship but as an adult one must make reasonable compromises so I decided on a whim to only make the skull as decoration for my workshop.

Luckily I had some free time on my hands while waiting for the next job so I ordered a big block of urethane biscuit foam with the intention of hand carving the skull into it.

My extremely low tech solution for carving a block is to carefully project the profiles on all the flat sides using an overhead projector.

From here I simply carve into it keeping as many references nearby as possible

Unfortunately A sudden relocation to New Zealand put a halt on my progress and the unfinished sculpt was put on storage and nearly forgotten.

Easter 2017 I dug the crumbling sculpture now seven years old out of an attic in South Africa and determined that I had to either finish it somehow or it goes in the landfill. I opted to finish the carving, give it a rushed seal of resin and casting urethane and take it on the plane back to Wellington New Zealand.

Sealed, wrapped and ready to travel on the plane!

The skull is now in my new workshop in Wellington NZ for repair of damage incurred going through the x-ray machine at customs. I will finish the damned thing!