New Sculpt- Michigan Museum Display

Here's my latest project. She's a donation for the Michigan Museum for their Halloween theme. I popped her in the mail to her new home today (with just a smidge of reluctance.)  When this project came up last fall, I was thoroughly engrossed in the HBO vampire series - True Blood - so I decided to sculpt a vampire.

I had no idea how to sculpt one though, and I wanted her to look scary. Also I had absolutely no idea how to sculpt fangs. I decided to sculpt her with a closed mouth so I could get the features in the right place. I then cut a line between her lips and using various tools, I opened her mouth as gently as possible. I don't know if this is a good sculpting method, but I found as I opened her mouth that her features -cheeks, nose, chin, etc) seemed to move into a believable position.

Once her mouth was open I inserted a pre-shaped set of teeth into her mouth. If I ever decide to do a vampire again, I might try baking the teeth first; it might have worked better. However I just inserted the teeth and baked the whole head at once. For her eyes, I used glass pins painted with green glass paints. I shaped her hands into claws as if she's reaching out to grab a victim.

I dressed her in a Victorian style because a modern look required more skill sculpting anatomy on my part. Also her feet/shoes didn't turn out as I wanted. And yes, I didn't dress her in a filmy black hey-I'm-a-vampire type outfit. I thought she'd be scarier if you could imagine she was normal one minute and could transform in the next.

Vampire