A quick little deal on how I make my dragon faces out of leather. All of these are baby dragon sized, but it’s the same method expanded to create the big guys.
Step one is the snout. I usually sculpt these out of a pre colored leather, as it makes the final dye easier. This is actually the most difficult sculpting, to get the dome correct and symmetrical. The noses alone take a good hour to make correct!
Trust me, it’s a nose, and it took a really long time to make.
With the nose sculpted, I plot out the rest of the face. This is where I decide the general expression, eye size, and shape of the head. I sketch this out, and mentally explode the pieces out, drafting a bunch of individual tracing patterns. It’s sort of a flat series of puzzle pieces, which assemble to create a 3D puzzle. Next, I have to make sure each piece isn’t flat, but has dimension and texture. This requires some combination of texturizing it, cutting it or sanding it, and wet sculpting it. Whatever it takes to make it flow and fit with the other pieces to create the face.
Dragon shrapnel.
I then fit each of these pieces together. The end result is the front of the face and the front dome of the head. The back of the head sort of opens up, like a flower. I set the eyes into the head. Sculpting the leather eyelids are vitally important, as this decides the final expression.
I’ve nicknamed this the “splodey face” stage of the process
To keep the shape and form of the snout, I fill them with a combination of a light weight epoxy and Styrofoam. Too much weight won’t bear the design and actually cause it to have tears, so keeping things super light is vitally important.
Here’s a row of filled faces, curing. You can see the extent of the variety of shape and expression already at this stage.
The back of the head is stabilized with a few arches of leather, to create a rough shape to the back of the skull. At this point, I lay pieces of leather to create a hollow head shape.
You can see the scale here with my thumb in the corner!
Depending on where the head is going to be used, I’ll finish shaping out the neck, then fill the remaining hollow section of the head with lightweight epoxy as well. Most of the ones I posted here later became pocket dragons. These are little carry along buddies, who live in pouches that attach to a belt. Their heads bobble and can be puppeted.
All together, the heads alone for the baby size are a three to four hour project. For a “full size” dragon, getting the expression and forms on the face alone can take more than a day’s work. Of course, the faces are only the first step to making the project, but it’s the most fun!
-Mellie
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