The Birds

A series of reconstructed-taxidermy birds, created for the Natural History Museum in Saudi Arabia. Each of these birds is either a modified taxidermy specimen, or a full reconstruction. They turned out really nicely.

Yemen Linnet

 Dunlin

 

Arabian Woodepecker

Below is a small selection of 'making of' images from this project. If anyone sees this post and has any questions about this type of reconstruction, please do feel free to get in touch!

 Reconstructing the face of a Collared Kingfisher; rehydrating the skin and pinning it in place to dry.
The skull was moulded, cast in biresin, and then the beak was painted and matte-varnished. 

 Partial face reconstruction, with the skin of the eye now in the right place.

 Wing construction for a Bruce's Green Pigeon - using parts of a pigeon wing to construct the wings for this 

specimen. This bird was actually given to me to fix as someone else on the team had struggled with it.

 Lining up feathers in a natural spread on the left, ready for gluing together

LEFT: Top part of wing made with a wire base; I used a fresh pair of pigeon wings, carefully removing all muscle 
and bones before precisely reconstructing the primary feathers.

RIGHT: Wings of this bird before and after it was given to me to fix. The bottom wing is the one I made, using 
hand dyed feathers, individually glued and laid to create a natural wing position. 

 Rear and top view of near-finished specimen - wing position is beautiful, the hand-dyed feathers look so 
natural. I was really, really happy with how this one was saved!

 Making parts of the Arabian Woodpecker - this bird is endangered, so this specimen was made completely 
from scratch. Here you can see how I put together and shaped the wings, the body core, and how the 
feathers were laid on. All feathers were hand-laid, individually, and it really ended up a thing of beauty!

Scratches in the Dark

I was approached by director Charlie Bentley in February 2016, and asked if I would like to create a mutilated dead cat (in a likeness of his own cat, Jerry) for his upcoming horror short, 'Scratches in the Dark'. Even before I read the script, obviously, I was more than happy! The concept of the short and the film itself, which is just 5 minutes, is absolutely excellent - I'm so happy to have met Charlie, and to have been a part of this production. Below is a bit of a 'making of', and if you have 5 minutes to spare and want to see the film, you can do so by clicking here.

Starting with a pre-made skeleton, I took it apart, hinged all the joints and rearranged

Roughed out muscle structures/positions with ladies stockings

Glued everything in place, padded with upholstery foam, then began fur transfer

Hairs around the eyes were laid individually, to match Jerry's little under-eye 'highlight'

Completed Jerry, on-set - he was finished using a mix of rabbit fur transfer/punching, plus airbrushed markings, which were painted on last

Inside Jerry's tummy....! This cavity was filled with offal for the camera

And, as an extra nice bonus....! It's nice to know that something I've been involved in has made an impression on an FX great!

Chop Chop! **WARNING: Explicit images of realistic fake penis, viewer discretion advised**

Another penis! This time created for Christopher Granier-Deferre's exciting upcoming short 'Chop Chop'. I don't want to give away anything of the film suffice to say the penis needed to be 'multifunctional'! A fun brief and I was happy with the outcome.

Inside the pants; the penis is hollow.

 

Here is the resin insert, attached to braces and a modified cricket box that attach to the g-string with velcro.

With the insert; the angle is mad here, but the actor that will be wearing it is a lot smaller than the mannequin currently modelling it. This leaves lots of room for adjustment on-set.


Here is the flaccid penis, painted and with hair - it has been attached to a male g-string and has a blending edge as the actor needs to look like he's wearing no pants.

Flaccid from the side.