Dragon Head Demo

This is a demonstration on how to sculpt a dragon head. The techniques used will help you to create these mythical beasts, and will pave the way for those interested in sculpting dinosaurs, animals, and monsters.

Start out with a tear-drop shaped piece of Sculpey. I am doing a fairly large piece here for demonstration purposes, but a larger piece is easier to work on when starting out anyway. You can do the miniature stuff later.

We are sculpting the upper part of the Dragon head here. Trim off the bottom of the tear-drop shape to form the jaw line.

Using the thumb and index finger, press some indentations into the Sculpey to indicate where the "fenestra," or skull openings are. Pictures of dinosaur skulls will help here, but remember, this is a mythical beast, so there isn't a right or wrong way to do this.

Using the utility knife blade, the outline of the upper jaw is cut into the skull-form. The cut needn't be too deep: an eighth of an inch or so is fine.

Before baking, use a knitting needle to make the eye holes. Gently run first the thin needle, then the thicker one through the skull-form aproximately where you want the eyes to go. All you are doing, really, is making sure the eyes will be symetrically placed on the head. By pushing the needle through and then viewing the "impaled" skull-form from the top and front, you can judge whether the needle is level or not. After baking, your skull-form will have perfectly balanced guide holes for the eyes.

To form the lower jaw, press a wad of Sculpey into the bottom of the upper skull-form and shape it so it looks like a lower jaw. Remove or add Sculpey until it looks correct, then gently pull it away. Applying a light coat of fine powder here will help the piece from adhereing to the skull-form, if this is a problem.

Once removed, you will see a hump from the Sculpey that was pressed into the depression which forms the inside of the mouth on the skull-form. Trim this hump away using the utility knife blade so that the upper surface of the lower jaw is flat.

As with the skull-form, scribe a guide line with the utility blade and scoop out a depression with the brass scooper or other appropriate tool. Texture the depression to look organic, if you desire.

Now bake the lower jaw.