The Aztec

Had a cool project come across my bench this week.  Albert has ordered a Big Voodoo with all the trimmings.  We’re sugaring this one up, Aztec style.

First thing Albert did was send me some reference images.  Both of these skulls have texture and line that we’re going to use in his final ring.

 

Mainly what we want is that crackle pattern around the eyes and that cool geometric nose.  I took a stab at sketching this out and sent ’em over to Albert, who told me they sucked.

 

Well, not sucked entirely.  Really just the forehead sucked.  We’re keeping the art on the sides and the jaw, but Albert wanted something much more specific for the forehead.  He sent me over a sketch that included the Aztec symbol for war which was to be the centerpiece for the art around the forehead.

 

That’s Albert’s sketch.  Hell yeah.

Okay, so all I had to do now was incorporate his ideas onto the sculptural planes of the Big Voodoo frame.  Sometimes ideas look great flat, but they don’t necessarily work on a dimensional object.

Well Albert must be a fucking genius because it works perfectly.  Now normally this kind of detail work would take me a full week to do, but I was excited about doing this piece.  I stayed up and cranked this bad boy out while watching a 12 hour marathon of John Carpenter movies.

Problem is, this wax is EXTREMELY hard to photograph.  The detail is so fine that in the pictures, it sort of looks like blue mush.

Anyway, I think we’re just about ready to cast.  I still need to do some cleanup and smoothing.  Plus I want Albert to get his eyes on this and give me the go-ahead.

Hats off to another cool client-requested piece.  I was getting tired of carving “Shit Yeah” into the forehead of Little Voodoos.