Head Transplant for Hyper Realistic Reconstructed Figure Sculpture Homo Erectus/Ergaster

Bone Clones                                                       Replica made from fossil cast

Recently,I came across an authentic casting of the skull of Turkana Boy, a 1.5 million year old fossil skeleton from Kenya.  I found this casting on ebay of all places. The cast that I purchased was made in plaster with a resin jaw. The cast appears to have been moulded once before with some loss of surface detail and some distortion especially with the mandible. So I repaired this new cast and then made a resin copy to compare with the skull cast used as the armature for the head of my figure. The original skull that was in the sculpture before was by Bone Clones.
It's a decent replica which is a carefully crafted model and is close to the original but not as accurate as the  new cast. But after comparing the two skulls with photos I had of both I decided to ditch the first head.
 The differences are mainly with the facial details such as the nasal bones and eye sockets where there is a noticeable difference between the two skulls although not very discernible with the above image. The other issue was authenticity, I wanted to base this figure on an actual cast but found obtaining one before difficult so that's why the Bone Clones version was used in the first place

Copyright       Art  Di Lella 2013

Copyright     Art  Di Lella 2013

Copyright    Art  Di Lella 2013

Now that the original head has been removed and the new skull installed,it remains to be seen if this move was wise or foolish. We'll see how this head transplant works out. I feel bit like Dr. Frankenstein.

On other news, I'm still working #8 and that Monster Clay portrait plus moulds and casts of other artists' works.
I'll be back soon. Have a great weekend.