Finishing Touches

Once the body had been dyed I was able to use the pattern I had made for the body to cut out a fux suede underside for the body of the wolf.

I then contacted National Fiber Technology To ask them about suitable adhesives. They suggested a particular contact adhesive which unfortunately I could not find this particular product at short notice. Therefore I used evo stick the contact adhesive we have here. This worked fine. However, I now realise I shoud have sourced these kinds of products earlier in the project to prevent this last minute panic.

Once the underside was glued I trimmed away the edges.

With the underside in place I moved on to the claws. I sculpted the claws out of sculpy and then baked, painted and varnished them. Once they were dry I Glued them to the suede using the same contact ahesive. When the claws were in place I was then abe to trim away the remaining long fur from the paws.

With the body complete for finishing touches I moved on to the head.

I put the eyes in place and sealed them in with the tinsil gel 10. I then punched the whiskers.

I painted the teeth I cast with acrylics and used some black pigmented silicone to make a fleshy gum texture above the teeth.

I then secured these in place with more tinsil gel 10.

This was the last finishing touch I added to the model. However, Even though the project is finished I believe I may make alterations in time. This I shall discuss in my report.

Below is the Wolf skin as it is now

Airbrushing the Body

I spent the morning before I airbrushed the body of the wolf attaching the head to the body. I stitched the head on as seamlessly as possible to help with the continuity of the fur. I felt that with the head attached I would be able to get a better colour reference when dying the body.

Like I did with the head I began the airbrushing process on the body by dying the backing of the fur. Once this was dry I concentrated on airbrushing the body downwards. I began with a coat of black. I lifted the fur and aibrushed the roots as best as I could. I then moved on to a brown and black combination, attempting to create a darker stripe down the back. I finished with a lighter brown towards the edges and a black tipped tail.

Here are pictures of the process.

Body Pattern

Once the head was airbrushed I concentrated on cutting out the body. To begin I had to examine the measurements of the wolfkin I went to see, in addition to the measurements I had from books, and internet sources. Once I found a suitable size I had to ensure it would fit on the lenght of fabric I had generously been donated by National Fiber Technology. To make a pattern I found a large piece of paper and drew the measurements on in pencil, marking out the lenghts of the limbs and distances between them.

I then cut this pattern out. Once cut I had to sever the limbs to ensure it would fit on the fabric. Below is an image of the pattern laid out.



With the pattern laid out on the fabric I was able to carefully cut around it. I chose my cuts carefully to ensure I had a good length of fur spilling over the side of the wolf's back. I marked out each limb and ensured they were facing the correct direction.

Having all my pieces cut out I was then able to stitch the limbs to the body. I tried to make sure that the seams were covered by the flowing fur on the arms, legs and tail.

Below is an image of the body all sewn together.

Airbrushing

I sprayed some samples of fur and left them over night to ensure there would be no adverse reaction to the dye I was using. The next day when I found that the fur had no reaction to the dye so I began the process of spraying.



I Began by spraying the backing of the fur a dark brown colour to give the roots a denser look. Once this was dry I then re-attached the pattern of fur to the sculpt and pinned it in place. This enabled me to spray the fur using the wolf's contours as a guide.



I sprayed the brown dye over the nose and head area, using pictures for reference. I then added black to add tone and depth.

Trimming

With the fabric stiched together and pinned to the silicone cast I began the process of trimming the lengthy fur.

Using my reference pictures I began trimming the fur to short lenghts along the muzzle and sides of the face. I used hair dressing trimmers which worked fairly well, but sometimes got caught in the goat hair. I used scissors as well for certain parts of the fur.

Cutting The Fur Fabric

With the pattern made, I layed it on the fur fabric in the most space efficient way as possible. I also had to pay close attention to the direction of the fur making sure it ran down the wolf's head from the nose to the ears. I pinned it to the fabric and cut out the first piece.





I cut the second piece out without any problems. However, I made a mistake on the third piece as I discovered once i'd cut it out that the fur was going in the wrong direction. This was unfortunate as it meant I had to cut another piece out of my fabric. Once rectified I had the three pieces I needed to stitch together to form the fur on the wolf's face.



I pinned these three pieces together and began to stitch them trying to make the seam as invisible as possible. I sourced some clear nylon thread which is both strong and ideal for concealing itself among the fibers of the fabric.

I decided to stitch the seams completely, covering over where the eyes would be, and cut the eyes out once I'd shaven the fur.

With the pieces stichted together I pinned them to the silicone cast.

Pattern making

To make the pattern for my wolf's head I used clingfilm and selotape, a technique suggested by Jeremy Hunt. I also tried using paper and laying it on top of the silicone head, a more conventional method of pattern making. This method wasn't as effective as I had hoped as the paper was too rigid to lay nicely on top of the head to ensure a good fit.

The clingfilm was used to form around the shape of the head, and the tape was used to make the clingfilm firm enough to hold the shape of the head.

I used strips of tape in layers. Once enough layers had been applied, I pulled the tape and clingfilm off the head and trimmed off the excess. I then placed the pattern back over the head and drew lines on the tape where I thought the cuts and seams should be.

I then cut the tape to make the pattern to lay on the fabric.



With the pattern made I needed to ensure that it could be flattened out so that the fabric could be cut to fit the head. Fortunately the fur fabric is stretchy so it contours to the head quite well.

The next step is to cut out the fabric to the shape of my pattern.