Friday 14 February 2014

Aurochs model - work in progress

As some of you might remember, I am currently working on two models of an aurochs bull and cow, respectively. They are based on the skeletons of the Cambridge cow and the Braunschweig bull and reconstructions I did with it. The cow model, however, is also influenced by the Sassenberg cow from Germany because the Cambridge one has a very deep trunk and I feel a mix is more representative.
The cow model measures 17 cm at the "withers", and the bull 19 cm.

This is what I started with. The wooden plate of a picture frame and wire, fixated with clay and glue.


The next step was to roughly form the basis of the body shape with aluminum foil and to form the head and horns with wire. Forming the horns was especially tricky, because I as someone who is very picky with the horns of aurochs-like cattle I want my horns to become as good as possible. At this stage, I realized that the front of the trunk in the bull was too elevated, creating a bison-like body. I therefore cut off a bit of the wire for the forelegs and added length to those of the hind legs.

This is a prognosis of what the models should look like when the sculpting is done. This drawing is based on a photo of the two models over which I drew this reconstruction. I think it should provide a rather accurate picture of the aurochs, and I hope the eventual models will have the same quality. The end result of course will be coloured. Maybe I'll colour the bull of this drawing as well, because I really like how it worked out.



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