Diprotodon Project

Fascinating! It looks very promising already and I love the walking pose!! Great! And how wonderful will be to see it next to the Thylacoleo in the same scale!

I suppose many things we will never know about this animal, probably also the exact way they moved is among those details. But on the drawing of the skeleton above, one thing is slightly bothering me in the movement, it suggests as the animal landed with their front part of paw first (like, on the "fingers"?). For me, it doesn't look exactly convincing, I don't know? I imagine these animals probably walked a bit more in a way the bears do. Bears usually place the heels/back part of the paw on the ground first. It's just a thought, and it may be irrelevant to the sculpture but I'm just wondering

Anna wrote:

But on the drawing of the skeleton above, one thing is slightly bothering me in the movement, it suggests as the animal landed with their front part of paw first (like, on the "fingers"?). For me, it doesn't look exactly convincing, I don't know? I imagine these animals probably walked a bit more in a way the bears do.

Please don't worry! It is just a poor quality photo and the perspective doesn't show how the paw actually looks - in fact I have drawn a lot of inspiration from the movement and anatomy of bears. I've attached a pic which shows how the front paw really looks from the correct angle - you will see more as further photos emerge and I'm quite sure you will be satisfied with the way the movement has been expressed



PS The photos that have been shown so far are already more than 6 weeks old and the pose is much too late to change!

Southlands Replicas wrote:

Anna wrote:

But on the drawing of the skeleton above, one thing is slightly bothering me in the movement, it suggests as the animal landed with their front part of paw first (like, on the "fingers"?). For me, it doesn't look exactly convincing, I don't know? I imagine these animals probably walked a bit more in a way the bears do.

Please don't worry! It is just a poor quality photo and the perspective doesn't show how the paw actually looks - in fact I have drawn a lot of inspiration from the movement and anatomy of bears. I've attached a pic which shows how the front paw really looks from the correct angle - you will see more as further photos emerge and I'm quite sure you will be satisfied with the way the movement has been expressed


PS The photos that have been shown so far are already more than 6 weeks old and the pose is much too late to change!

Great to hear about that! I'm sure it's going to be a great sculpture. My comment was more about the drawing you've shown as one of the references, but it seems the sculpture shows a bit different phase of the movement, and I like it much more Can't wait to see more photos!

I was talking about that drawing of the skeleton, visible on this photo:

Anna wrote:

My comment was more about the drawing you've shown as one of the references,

Now I see what you mean - it does seem rather odd doesn't it?!  

Stage 13 - Modelling the feet and claws. I found some perfect images of the diprotodon foot structure. This then gave me the perfect foot shape and claw position. Claws are always really hard to sculpt as they are so tiny so I'm using the wire ends (sharpened with a file) to act as the claws. They will protrude from the sculpted feet and I won't have to worry about them breaking.

It's the first time I've tried this method so I took a long time to try and get it as right as possible! I think just this part took a whole weekend

Stage 14 - Lower limb bones, spine, scapula and rib cage added. Head now posed. I've opened up the mouth slightly.

Roger - now you can see the full pose

Whoa! Amazing!

This is already a sculpture

When you make a catalogue, it could perhaps be an idea to show some of these photos to illustrate the birth of one of the SR models

Pose is really looking great!

I love to see this! Amazing, just wow!  

Thankyou Donny, Suzanne, Roger and Anna

Stage 15 - .. and the skull. No-one really knows exactly what a Diprotodon looked like and there are many, many artisitic interpretations. Some have a large wombat type nose, others are drawn with a short tapir-like trunk. At this stage I still didn't know how my diprotodon will appear so I decided to model the skull as perfectly as I could (based off drawings & photographs of actual skulls) and then build the face up in a similar way to forensic facial reconstructions. The plan is to allow the clay to form around the shape of the skull and see where it leads. I took particular care to form the teeth. As the model is posing with an open mouth these details are going to be exposed & it's very helpful to have them pre-baked when I'm working on the rest of the face.



Here she is, skeleton complete. You may also notice that the skull is a slightly different shape to the one shown in the original drawing. This is because I chose to model the shape off the 'Bacchus Marsh' Diprotodon. The reason is that my model is a female and the original sketch to me appears more masculine, while the Bacchus Marsh skull is a bit more refined and 'feminine' looking.



Another angle. You can see the different shades of clay .. the darker areas were the first sections moulded and have therefore been baked in the oven more often.

I haven't been able to comment yet but I've enjoyed this thread immensely! Its great to finally see the skeleton on top of the armature, do you add muscles too? Or straight to the outer composition of it with the detailing etc.? I love your company's choice of species so far and I hope it continues, and thank you again for this in depth look at how the models become reality!

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Its great to finally see the skeleton on top of the armature, do you add muscles too? Or straight to the outer composition of it with the detailing etc.?

Welcome here!! and thankyou for your kind comments. I think this next post will answer your question

Stage 16 - Now for the muscle layers! I've used the skeleton to give me accurate insertion points and, as mentioned earlier on, relied quiet heavily on references to the muscle structure of large bears. Bears have a similar body mass and walking pattern (turned in feet) so it seems a reasonable approach. This is the only photo I have of this stage, until the muscles are finished ... I wish I had taken more!

I like your approach to bears once it is a plantigrade creature. I haven't understood yet why so many authors use rhinos as reference, often just based on size.
Interesting that I can't find any reference to these mammals as being insectivores. Probably it is obvious that they were just herbivorous creatures but I find it curious that they have long claws, an almost ant eating like snouth structure and they even tell that they had long tongues, not as a pangolin but as a giraffe what is quite remarkable. I don't know if My Schleich sloth bear are trying to convince me that diprotodons may have included insects in their diet. Suddenly, seeing one of these beasts digging up a termites nest, makes some sense, even the reversed pouch... Well, as a herbivorous creature with a bear like motion, I hope you don't use a giant panda as reference for coloring it.

Now the muscle layer is complete ..

This is amazing, - and very interesting to see how the muscles are placed !!!
Are you a vetenarian or such ?

Very cool to see how the model is shaped by anatomy layers, and how much effort you put into making a figure great.

Amazing! Great work

I can't wait!

Anatomy and perfection in this model.

Continue to show us this work.

big congratulations.

Almost there , bravo !! An educational journey as well as a peek into the hard work of a genius , loving every phase Jason.

JamesPanda wrote:

Almost there , bravo !! An educational journey as well as a peek into the hard work of a genius , loving every phase Jason.

Just my thoughts !!!!

She looks wonderful ! I love it that she is completely herself, and not a giant-something

Thankyou very much for this wonderful topic, Jason

Absolutely wonderfull. Great photos. I'ma fan

Thanks so much Fernando, James, Susanne and Zirkoon

Stage 19 - now with detail added. The advantage of preparing the skull in advance can now be seen with the dentition showing through and allowing me to work on other areas without fear of damaging the inside of the mouth. Ruffles around the neck also added. Normally I leave the head detail until last but this time I'll be finishing the head and baking it before working on the body.

I know that it's probably not possible, but it would be great if you could do this for all of your figures. I knew a decent amount of work went into making figures but seeing it done piece by piece and literally muscle by muscle is really cool. I check almost every day to see what has been done.

I haven't been able to buy any of the figures yet, but I most definitely will. I hope you and your company do very well and stay around for a long time.