TyrannosaurusRex Posted April 23, 2022 Share Posted April 23, 2022 Figured it was probably high time that I started sharing some of the Paleoart exploits that I have been doing over the past several months. I’m a professional landscape painter, and I dabble in paleoart when I can. I do a lot of ceramics and I do bronze pours when I am able to. First off, I have been working on a sculpture of Acrocanthosaurus in iron and bronze. The process involved me making the sculptures in wax, and then making a ceramic shell around them. They were then superheated to melt the wax, and I assisted in pouring the molten metal into the molds. The base, tree, and small raptor are in bronze, as iron was too brittle to use on delicate details. The Acrocanthosaurus is in iron that I helped to pour when it was over 2500°F/1400°C. The wax version early on in the process. I’m on the left in the first photo and on the right in the second. The Acrocanthosaurus mold prior to being divested of the ceramic shell And after! Still attached to the vents and cup that was used to dispel air during the pour. after the extra stuff had been cut off, prior to me doing lots and lots of grinding. 1 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TyrannosaurusRex Posted April 23, 2022 Author Share Posted April 23, 2022 The first rough coat of paint. Iron cannot be given a patina, so I’m using oil paint and galkyd on this fellow. It will receive significant cleanup. I took a lot of risks on this sculpture, as iron is incredibly brittle and doing as many details as I did both paid off and did some damage. The fingertips on the left arm unfortunately didn’t survive the process. I may attempt welding them back on, or I’ll do an epoxy putty replacement. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted April 23, 2022 Share Posted April 23, 2022 Looks very interesting, but how about showing us a few good photos of the final product please...... Edit: Ooops sorry. You beat me to it Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TyrannosaurusRex Posted April 23, 2022 Author Share Posted April 23, 2022 8 minutes ago, Ludwigia said: Looks very interesting, but how about showing us a few good photos of the final product please...... Edit: Ooops sorry. You beat me to it Glad you find it interesting! My phone is excruciatingly slow so I was trying to upload the rest as soon as I posted, but it takes a good while to convince my phone to cooperate 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted April 23, 2022 Share Posted April 23, 2022 Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. 1 Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TyrannosaurusRex Posted April 25, 2022 Author Share Posted April 25, 2022 The Acrocanthosaurus is nearing completion but until then, here’s some ceramic clay trilobites I did. This is prior to kiln firing, they were fired right after these photos and shrunk by about 20% 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilhunter21 Posted April 25, 2022 Share Posted April 25, 2022 The acrocanthosaurus is looking very nice! You did a wonderful job on those trilobites! Looking forward to seeing the finished product of the acrocanthosaurus. -Micah 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TyrannosaurusRex Posted April 30, 2022 Author Share Posted April 30, 2022 Thank you! I’m not able to achieve the level of detail I would have liked on these pieces because of time constraints, but they’re great fun to make nonetheless. The Acrocanthosaurus has been welded onto the bronze base. Probably difficult to see from this angle but there are tracks in the ground behind it. Shortly after taking this photo, I sandblasted the entire piece, removing the paint. The reason for this being that while I intend for iron portions to receive color, adding color to bronze requires a large torch and lots of heat. Another bronze that I did, receiving color. This time, it’s a Xenacanthus. Prior to adding color to the Xenacanthus. I’ll provide updated photographs of both of the metal pieces later today with their current colors. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bringing Fossils to Life Posted May 21, 2022 Share Posted May 21, 2022 Wow! Your work is very impressive! I'm not good with this medium, I only draw. Very excited to see what comes next! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HynerpetonHunter Posted May 24, 2022 Share Posted May 24, 2022 Those trilobites are impressive! Really nice job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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