“Moment of Impact”
18 Foot Wingspan
16 oz. Copper and Lead-Tinned Copper Cladding
Stainless Steel Armature and Structure
See how it was made below!
The building of
“Moment of Impact”
It all begins with a lot of investigation. We look at hundreds of photos before we choose a target shape. We look for a super dynamic pose, showing movement where there is none. We always attempt to free hand draw the subject from several angles. If you don’t know what it really looks like, you will never be able to create it dimensionally in free space. We look at bone structure and anatomy to ensure the final sculpture is believable.
The joints were bradded to move this guy’s limbs around until we got the body position the way we wanted it.
If its going to look real, its got to be proportionally correct.
AutoCAD is a really powerful tool for this.
Drawing helps to solve a number of problems in advance.
These scales line up radially, axially, and diagonally. Its just like the real thing -pretty satisfying.
The armature is stainless steel to preclude galvanic corrosion. Copper is super reactive and will corrode other iron based materials. Even aluminum will rapidly oxidize when its in conductive contact. This step is similar to painting -it builds in layers. The structure inside is usually added when the shape is there, but it’s not so full that we can’t reach inside. By tying the armature to the structure the whole thing becomes one.
We keep the structural elements inside the body of the sculpture so you don’t get that “cool thing on the end of a stick” look. Because these “supports” are hidden, the final product looks way more real.
This is the start of the primary feathers, 60" in length.
Internal Structure and Progress Shots
See the progress and the finished pieces…