Making your own scratch built corpse

From Christian Hanson, a talented sculptor and FX artist comes a DVD filled with the holy grail of halloween decoration and propmaking; Detailed instructions on how to build a gruesome, realistic, full-size corpse from scratch. I haven't seen the DVD yet so I can't give a full review, but I've seen the corpse heads made by some of his customers and I'm in awe. They look awesome, they are cheap to make, and they don't require expensive plastic skeletons or liquid latex to create.

I just ordered my copy from the Monster Closet and I can't wait to try it out!

Gotta love corpses.

Cogitz - Incorruptible Corpses

While the preserved remains of mummies are generally found in states of rigor mortis-like petrifaction, incorruptible corpses are pretty pliable. Their skin is supple, even years after their deaths. They appear, for all intents and purposes, to be sleeping or only recently dead. What’s more, these corpses don’t show signs of having been embalmed

This is a quote from a fascinating article about incorruptible corpses, or bodies of religious figures apparently preserved by godly intervention. This article, published on Cogitz.com, is very interesting and presents quite a few pictures and videos about such bodies.

I'd suggest taking a look at the other articles on the website if you have time, they all present weird and macabre stories, which are sure to delight the gothic and the curious.

Transi sculpture finished! yay!

I'm done sculpting my transi. There's still a little smoothing to be down here and there, but otherwise, it's done and ready for molding.

I'm still debating about the molding process... I'll probably do an alginate mold, from which I'll cast a resin copy, which I will use to create a reusable, stronger mold out of latex.

I could do a latex mold right ahead but i'm not sure if the oil from the clay would halt the curing process of the latex... I need to do a bit of research.

Here's some pictures of the finished sculpture and one taken besides my shoe to give you an idea of the size of the future candles.

Transi update

I've been working again on my transi sculpture. I added flesh to the face, made the ribs stick out more, and started making a shroud hanging from the character's hips.







Just a couple hours more and I'll be ready to mold it. I can't wait!

Transi - Work in progress

I was feeling the urge to sculpt, so guess what I did?


exactly! I satisfied this urge!

The project I'm currently working on right now is a small oil-based clay Transi. A transi is a type of funerary monument which were most popular during the XVth and XVIth centuries, however examples of this type of monument started to appear during the XIVth century.

Unlike the popular gisant, which is a life-sized statue of the deceased in a peaceful, sleeping position, the transi presents the deceased as it truly is; A horrible, decomposing corpse, its skin tightly stretched over dry bones, in an eternal skeletal grin.

I absolutely ADORE this type of funerary monument, for it presents the true horror of death, without romanticizing it as with the gisants.

Of course, I'm not yet ready to do a full scale transi; my idea was to make a smallish sculpture, mold it, and cast candles from it. The symbolism of the body slowly melting and burning away as the candle burns goes hand to hand with what the traditional transis symbolizes.

To begin, I needed clay; I used the same type of clay with which I made my tsantsa, a cheap oil-based clay sold for 2$/pound. This type of clay won't dry, is very firm when cold, and softens as it heats up, making it perfect for detailed sculptures.

I use very few tools during the sculpting process; A small "ribbon" tool (I don't know the english name, but it's called a mirette in french), a knife, a wooden modelling tool (called an ébauchoir in french, I don't have any idea what it's called in english), a brush with alcohol to smoothen the clay, and a few toothpicks and needles.

I also fashioned a stand out of thick scraps of wood so I don't have to bend down as much while working on the sculpture.



Reference when doing anatomical work is also very important; During the sculpting process, I refer to the fifth edition of Gray's Anatomy. My copy is from 1870, but new editions are easy to find on ebay and amazon. However, I don't recommend this book if you're not familiar with human proportions, as it does not contain full-body illustrations.



As you can see, I'm also using a skull replica as a guide; the fact that it is in 3D makes it more practical.


Here's an example of what kind of illustrations you can expect to find in gray's anatomy. Although very detailed, only smallish parts of the human body are represented.

Once you've got all your tools, pictures, anatomical models and whatnot, you're ready to start!

Sculpting is like drawing; it's easier if you do a sketch first. There's no hurry to work on the details.



Here's a view of the front and back of my "sketch". The goal is to simply map out the pose, shape and proportions of the body. As you can see, I've left the head out. I personally prefer to work on the body first. There is also no legs nor arms; I'm not planning to add any, I only want a torso and a head.

Once this is done, you'll want to start working on the musculature; filling up some parts and removing clay from others to make it actually look like something. Knowing what to add and what to remove is a matter of practice, actually; most beginner sculptors will be afraid to remove too much clay, and end up with blocky results.



This, however, is a bit too skeletal for my tastes. I added small pieces of clay using my anatomy book as a guide to plump up the sculpture a bit.





Here, you have a shot of the back. Another common mistake is to work damn hard on the front without caring about the back, which can cause distortion and other problems in the finished product.


I've worked a bit more on the general shape of the body, and added a lump of clay on the neck so I can begin the head. Since the lump of clay I used for the head is still soft and warm from being kneaded, I let it cool down and harden a bit before working on the skull.



Here, you can see the skull slowly taking shape.

I still have a lot of work to do, but this still can give you an idea of what the finished product will look like.

I'll keep you updated when I finish the sculpture, with info on sculpting the details.

Happy plane makes me happy

You just gotta love this picture.

Steampunk skull - part 1

Here's the situation: I just ordered a plastic human skull from ebay, and let's just say that I could be more satisfied with its looks. Its jaw is slightly too wide, it has a little underbite, its teeth were filed down too short and some of the detail has been lost.

However, for 17$ bucks, I can't expect much better.

Before I gather some cash to get myself a quality replica (which can be between 100$ and 300$), I plan to experiment a bit with this 17$ skull and see if I can make him look like a thousand bucks.

The process will be like this: I'll stain the skull, hinge its jaw with brass hardware, and fashion a brass and wood stand to support it.

This should be enough to give it some much needed flair and a slightly steampunk aura.

So let's start out with the staining, will-we?

This process is really simple; it's just a matter of having the right materials.



read it again. The RIGHT materials.

I didn't read it enough, personnally, since I disregarded all the info I found on the subject of staining plastic bones and bought the first kind of walnut stain I found instead of trying to get gel stain.

So here's the materials you need:

- A plastic skull
- A rag
- GEL wood stain. (A dark walnut or antique oak looks great)



There you go. Now the process is quite simple. With your rag, apply a liberal coat of stain all over the skull. Be sure to get it in every nooks and crannies.



It's hard to see, but I realized why I should have used gel stain about at the time I took this picture.

The stain I'm using lacks opacity, and is RUNNY AS HELL. Also, it's oil based, so it's not easy to clean up. But I digress. back to topic.

Once your skull is covered, let the stain sit a few minutes, and simply wipe off the excess with a slightly damp rag.



Here's the results. I'm not 100% satisfied; It's not as smooth as I wanted and I was expecting slightly less reddish results. However, all is not lost; I'll try giving it a white wash to smoothen the color a bit, and will go over with a nice golden oak stain to bring out the yellowish tinge of the skull. This combination of colors will probably do the trick.

Stay tuned for the next part!

UPDATE: Link to part 2