The Grinch Sculpt

Production:
Seussical the Musical
stage, 2010
Company:
Curtain Call Performing Arts
Directed by Catherine Heck
Lisser Theatre, Mills College, Oakland, CA
Materials:
roma plastilina sculpted on ultra cal 30 lifecast


The design for the Grinch prosthetic was inspired by Dr. Seuss' original 1957 book cover, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"  I have always admired the simplicity and sketch like quality of his illustrations and am aiming to emulate those characteristics with the sculpt.

Original Lifecast of         actor, Eric Jepsen                           Establishing a rough 

                                   shape for the nose 

I sometimes have difficulty looking past "the blob," so to keep myself engaged I sketch out some detailing before building the three demential characteristics.  This also allows me to play around with different configurations without jeopardizing the structure of the sculpt.  Once I feel I have captured the character's "essence," I then build upon the sketched lines.

Dr. Seuss' illustrations are so beautifully simplistic that it takes little nuance to transform a blob of clay into a recognizable character.  I was ready to call it a night...content with what I had accomplished that evening, but yet not completely satisfied...something was missing.  So I took a small blob of clay and placed it where the Grinch's nose should be.  Presto! a character was beginning to emerge.

My focus the following day was to fine tune the the overall shape.  Sculpting is a very organic process, and with that comes uneven surfaces.  A racking tool counteracts the "man made" qualities, such as fingerprints, by producing crosshatches, which are then smoothed out with a brush.