Bas-Relief Sculpture
Bas-relief sculpture of Jeremy Lalrinnunga (Indian weightlifter) in Snatch position adorning the head office of BullrocK Fitness. A tribute to the champion who represented India in the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires and won the gold 🏅 medal with a lift of 274 kg.
"Lift with Passion"
"Lift with Passion"
Supplies
- Tons of bricks of air drying clay
- Plywood for internal structure
- Screws and drilling machine
- Thermacol 25 mm thick for internal body base
- Wires, aluminium sheet roll and rolls of newspaper and tissue paper mache for shaping body and face
- Paper Tape
- Thai clay for face and heart details
- Sculpting and carving pottery and clay tools
- PVC pipe for the faux barbell
- Cardboard for the barbell plates
- Microfiber sheets to give plate texture
- Acrylic paints
- Paint brushes flat and round: various sizes
- Black Spray paint for base coat
- Faux eyelashes for extra detailings
- Toothpicks
- Photo of the model/person for reference
- a pair of scissors
- Varnish spray for long lasting treatment
The Body Base
I began with constructing the head and body base by cutting, scraping and sanding 25 mm thick thermacol sheet into the desired shape. Inserting them with molding wires and coiling on every part to form a body wrapped in wire skeleton. Taping them to secure. This was then screwed in along with the plywood pieces of the same silhouette directly to the wall thus giving me a proper structure to begin my sculpting and carving work on. I also passed the PVC pipe through the thermacol hands, this will form the faux barbell later on.
Sculpting and Carving
Adding multiple layers of clay and carving and sculpting to get the body shapes of the person, I had to use various coloured clay bricks because of unavailability of materials. That's fine because we're aiming for bronze statue turned Chrome green look.
Face
Sculpting the face using Thai clay. Detailings done using refrence image of the athlete. I've used the Tools used for pottery.
The Heart of It All
A symbolic heart made out of Thai clay and wire armature that represents his passion for weightlifting.
Spray Painting
Once the body and the face have been sculpted I taped newspapers on the wall to spray paint the first black coat.
Painting Our Sculpture to Look Like a Statue
I experimented with shades of green, copper, yellow for the bronze statue turned green look. I finger painted the details of the nerves. Attaching and Painting the heart next, adding final touches, adding the faux eyelashes and painting them.
Watch the Video Tutorial
The Final Reveal
