What a treat we have today! Nicholas Allen is our guest artist, and he’s going to tell us what it was like to create the head of a life-sized T-Rex, named Georges, in a small Paris apartment. What a story, and what a beautiful sculpture. I can just imagine how exciting it would be to meet Georges in person in his new museum home. (You may remember Nick’s previous article about Marusya, a lady T-Rex who now lives in a museum in Moscow.)
Be sure to scroll down to the photo gallery below to see Georges in several stages of development.
© Nicholas Allen 2012
I naively thought it would take a couple of months to build a 1:1 reconstruction of the head. I was pretty thorough about measuring the T-Rex skull replica in the palaeontological museum in Paris, not touching it, but coming close enough with my tape measure to ensure the security guard kept a careful eye on me. I went twice in fact, to double-check some measurements. So I should have guessed this would be a major project, and not two months of work.
It took 14 months to complete. I couldn’t say how many hundreds of hours of work this was. Sometimes I would labour obsessively for days, through the night until I saw the first glimmers of sunshine across the Paris rooftops. Other times the model would stand idle for days or weeks while I was away or busy earning a living.
The technique is simple enough. Cardboard armature, taped up, bits of hardboard here and there, some parts fastened together with plastic cable ties (wonderful things) while Jonni’s papier mache clay formula dried. I didn’t use all the ingredients, just joint filler, wood glue, toilet roll and linseed oil. I also used a lot of PVA in mixes, as it was cheaper. The application was occasionally a couple of centimetres thick and would take three weeks to dry deep enough, but usually layers of a few millimetres would dry enough over a few days to sand.
Looking back on the process, I know I used way too many materials. These are cheaper in Britain than France, so it became a back-breaking ritual to lug back massive bags of glue and filler and tools on the overnight coach from London.
The secret to any large scale model, I concluded, is don’t be in a hurry to do the ‘sexy stuff’, ie applying the clay, but rather get the cardboard form as exact as possible before you do that. The neck housing and actual skull had to be robust, and the clay and cardboard together are up to half an inch deep on the neck, if you consider the layer of scales I added to the basic clay finish. But constant adjustment and change to the actual snout or cheekbones etc meant the clay just kept piling up, and more materials would be needed. I lost count of how many litres of glue and PVA I used, but I would guess around 30-40 litres.
If I built another head the same size, I could achieve the same finish using perhaps just over half the amount. So measure, measure and measure again, plan out your design exhaustively, and only then get stuck into the clay application. I actually found myself sitting next to a master potter at a dinner in London last year, and she sniffed in disdain at my use of the word clay, but ‘synthetic clay’ will do for me.
The model needed a sturdy frame, and one that would dismantle for transportation from UK to France. I befriended a metal worker in my hometown and used his gear to weld a frame out of box steel and square bar. I designed it myself to include two triangular sections that would slide into the model’s upper snout section and lower jaw. The head itself disassembles into two head parts, upper and lower (Photo4), and the neck, which I sadly had to saw into two parts to get out of my door.
I should add that I built this model in a tiny sixth-floor bedsit in Paris. Never again. Living with your work is unhealthy, both mentally and physically (dust), and having to build everything to dismantle and carry down stairs means 30% more work.
The teeth were carved from wood, all 58 of them, exactly the same size as the original. As careful as I tried to be, I still managed to slit my finger open a couple of times with the modelling knife, giving ‘Georges’ a taste of blood as his ancestors so enjoyed. The eyes I had specially made by a taxidermist suppliers in Snowdonia in North Wales. They were expensive but I knew I would regret it later if bought inferior ones or made them myself, after all the work I put in. It was money well spent, these magnificent glittering green glass eyes really bring him to life. Finally, the colouring is a mix of aerosol spray paints, which enabled a nice muted, mottled effect.
In early April I hired a small van, dismantled and loaded Georges, and drove 12 hours in pouring rain, with one three-hour breakdown, to his new home, Le Musee des Dinosaures in Esperaza in southern France. I spent a few weeks writing to various places to see if they wanted to take the model as a donation. The museum in Esperaza jumped on the offer, and I couldn’t have asked for a better home. I hope to make a living building models in the future, but for now I’m happy learning my craft. Forty thousand visitors seeing him each year is reward enough. And I got a gratifying sense of the interest the model holds for people just seeing my friends’ reaction to it (photo 15).
The last thing I would say to anyone considering doing a large model is be a rottweiler about the whole project, get your teeth into it and don’t let go. There were times when I despaired, felt exhausted and exasperated at having no suitable space or tools to work with, or realizing that I had done some bits wrong and that I had to redo them, even though it meant drilling, sawing and grinding off days of work (see photos 5,6,7,12). But if you know something isn’t right, do fix it, because it’ll bug you later if you don’t. So good luck with your own projects folks, and never give up.
Nick Allen
Absolutely stunning, Nick! Any chance you would be willing to share the exact measurements you used?
Fantastic..such dedication and perseverance. Many congratulations on your finished dinosaur..I hope the museum appreciated it ??
WOW what a fantastic creation! I don’t really have anymore words lol great article and photos.
Thank you Jonni ! It’s 1 meter high and 1.20 meters long but because it’s only cooked clay – not paper clay which I have never used yet but am curious to- , it weighs over 100 kilos…
Nick, if you read this, we have to do a Dino show … 😉
Wow, amazing job Nick !
And I can really relate to the patience et devotion these little clay pets demand as I spent the last 8 months making my own clay T-Rex !
Funny coincidence isnt it ? 🙂
Had I known that someone else than me was also trying to give birth to a dinosaur in Paris….
[img]http://ultimatepapermache.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/trexsev.jpg[/img]
How exciting – two museum-quality T-rex sculptures created in Paris at the same time. I do hope Nick is watching this post so he can see your beautiful dinosaur. How big is it?
So inspiring! I love the passion!
Que hermoso trabajo!!!! Gracias por compartirlo.
Thank you so much for sharing Georges with the rest of the world, Nick – he is absolutely fantastic…..you are a true ‘lead by example’ inspiration….. so now, with you & Georges in mind, I am off to start creating!! Regards & greetings from Gold Coast, Australia.
Fantastic work, very impressive.
Would like to see more of your great work.
*Gisela
Heavens above, such kudos, thank you all so much for the response! I have to laugh at myself at this point. Having written ‘Never again’ (meaning of course, never again in my bedroom, only in a workshop), I found myself staying up until 3am last night taping together a styracasaurus head…
Boy, that didn’t take long! (Now I have to go look up styracasaurus…)
There are so many things I identify with in your fabulous adventure. One of the many things that really struck me was that at the end of all that, you donated it!!! I thought WHAT!!!??? What about the expense in materials let alone the time? Then I got it, as I have just spent all of my savings (I can’t say that was a lot!) on developing a prototype of my own. I thought it would take me 4 weeks, but no indeed – 4 months. A few days ago I though I had my prototype ready, and to my surprise, after all the exhaustion, barriers, fun, frustration I’d been through with it, I didn’t care anymore whether I’ll get an order to make a living from it or not. I just felt so content having enjoyed the last 4 months creating, and having had the sucuess of turning an idea into a reality.
Thanks for sharing your story. You’ll be an asset to museums around the world now. You have demonstated such dedication and skill and I congratulate you!
The dedication you put into this T Rex head is so obvious and this is really a great work of art.
Now that is dedication. It really shows, that T Rex head is a show stopper and a really great art form.
Absolutely stunning, is Georges, and matching up is his creation story (I’m still trying to imagine a 3-hour breakdown in rain with Georges on board). Beautiful, and surely the right people will see him in the museum for further commissions!
patch
Wooooooooooooo-shades of Jurassic Park – very very impressive. Regards and good luck from Joanne in Brooklyn, NY.
And hey, I’m happily with a great guy, but couldn’t miss the chance to say that you remind one of the famous Indiana (Jones, that is), and a good thing – you can probably fight off the monster!
WOW that is really one serious commitment and very impressive!
The photo of your house at night with the T-rex in your room really says a lot about the conditions you had to endure and your developments will note have gone unnotisted to your neighbors
Nice to read your story about the endurements and your peptalk to never give up 😉
gea
Oh my gosh, Nicholas!! That is amazing! Beautiful work – I must go see your previous article now. Keep up the wonderful work – you should be able to support yourself eventually with this work!
I am totally a new fan. What determination, of course it’s like whats one more $. So wonderful that he is being enjoyed by so many. I hope to see more of your wonderful work.
WOW Nick! You are AMAZING!!!! I like your sense of humor and adventure 🙂
au revoir- Dawn
I feel miniscule . . . suffer from T-Rex envy. THAT IS GREAT WORK! Congratulations Nick for raising the bar.
Jim
Wow! Thanks, Nick, for sharing this story with us, and letting us see Georges. I hope he’s happy in his new home.