I decided I’d really like a large bust of The dread Cthulhu, the monstrous beast from the HP Lovecraft story “The Call of Cthulhu”. As I’m not a sculptor, don’t have the time to learn or practise to become one, can’t afford blocks of marble or to have casts made in bronze, I went my usual  fall back route, Paper Mache!

It’s low cost very versatile and relatively easy to use. I haven’t made anything in paper mache since my ships figurehead so I’m a bit out of practice.

First things first, you need an armature, that’s just a fancy way of saying you need a form to build on. It can be almost anything, as long as it gives you a good strong starting point to put the paper mache on. I often go for card board and chicken wire. Cheap and readily available, the make it fairly easy to build a rough shape for you sculpture.

So I did a rough sketch of my idea of what Cthulhu looks like. It would be nice if could make a detailed drawing of what I want the finished bust to look like, sadly I can’t. So a rough drawing of the profile on paper and one of the front view which can be copied on to an old cardboard box. Cut them out, glue them together with a hot glue gun and were off!

Here’s the cardboard armature.

Cthulhu bust armature

I added more pieces of cardboard for strength and to give a little more form to the armature, then I added a layer of chicken wire.

Cthulhu bust armature cardboard

Next step was to add a layer of paper strips coated on pva glue.

Cthulhu bust armature paper mache

So far so good, more soon.

I haven’t got hold of any resin yet but in the meantime I’ve been making plaster casts and playing around with paint finishes.

This was an attempt at an “ivory” finish, slightly aged. It’s hard to photograph the colours though.

Cthulhu ivory walking stick handle

This was an attempt at a bronze finish, I use acrylic paints.

Cthulhu bronze finish cane handle

More soon.