Props for Goutted'Or part 1

In the summer of 07' I ran into Christoph Peladan, a budding director and animator from France. He convinced me to help him as a volunteer props maker for his short movie "Goutted'Or". I'd mainly be sculpting, but I would also have a chance to do some carving and painting jobs.

The first thing i'd be working on was a small frontfigure for an approximately 1 meter long model ship. It had to be loosely based on Cthulhu the half squid half dragon god. The ship had already been made. We made an imprint in a large piece of sculpy, baked it and carved it into the right size. Then I went to work with green stuff. Sculpted the torso and face first. Later I did the tentacles using wire and a lot of patience.

The painting was done by someone else. What more can I say?

Here is a small cannon I also had to do, approximately 5 cm long. The barrel is made in green stuff and the carriage was done in  solid styrofoam.

Photos by Greta Clemente.

Next up I had to do a large version of the squid (Horray!) This time the ship was five meters long so it had to be made in solid styrofoam as green stuff is too expensive and heavy. I can't really classify the material correctly, but it's like compact styrofoam so it doesn't smoulder when carved. 

This proved an interesting challenge as I not only had to scale it correctly, but I also had to carve it, which meant I'd be working from the outside and going in unlike sculpting, where you work from the inside and then outwards (Well that's how I work in general anyway)

I made mistakes, heck yes I did, but theese mistakes were easily remedied with some fimo plast.

The smaller front tentacles were made from a single piece of styrofoam, but the rear tentacles were done in two parts: One part wold be connected to the frontfigure. The other would be fitted later to "grasp" the ship. I reinforced the joints with a gluegun, wires and finally fimo light.

Photos by Christophe Peladan