Body Casting Manual

By Olivier Duhamel

The "Body Casting Manual" is a complete and easy to follow body casting instruction manual explaining in details how to make a realistic, life size and very elegant plaster sculpture of someone’s torso (or any other body part.)

A rewarding project.
This handbook focuses on a simple yet wonderfully
rewarding project. We have selected affordable and easy to source products and illustrated a method that is both proven and easy to implement, ensuring that you complete your sculpture to satisfaction at your first
attempt.

The resulting sculpture will be an amazingly faithful reproduction of someone’s body, a durable and elegant memento.

The manual also explains some other methods and more advanced techniques to cast other body parts such as hands, baby’s hands and feet, face, pregnant belly, hair and how to use some other casting materials.

To make it quick and easy to gather the necessary materials and find suppliers in your area, the book lists a selection of online shops in the appendix.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Olivier Duhamel
• Release date: Jul 18, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465815477

Olivier Duhamel

A New Zealander since 1987, French born Olivier Duhamel lives on Waiheke Island near Auckland, New Zealand with his wife Marie-France and their 3 children. He is a sculptor specializing in the female human form and makes delicately crafted small bronze figurines. Olivier Duhamel’s creations do not convey any particular message, do not attempt any conceptual or symbolist exploration, nor do they search to be innovative at all cost. They are rather trying to simply capture the beauty and sensuality of his subject of study. His bronze works are sold in art galleries across New Zealand and also in Australia, China, France and Belgium.

Book preview

Body Casting Manual

A complete body casting instruction manual explaining in details how to make a realistic, life size and very elegant plaster sculpture of someone’s torso (or any other body part)

Body Casting Manual

Olivier Duhamel

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2009-2011 Olivier Duhamel

This book is available in print at most online retailers

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Limitations of liability

Bodyscape Waiheke Island Sculpture Studio assumes no responsibility and will not be liable for any damages to persons or properties caused by or arising from your access to this tutorial. We assume no responsibility and will not be liable for any accident or injuries caused by or arising from your utilization of the techniques described in this manual.

Table of content

Introduction

About Life casting

Materials and equipment

Process overview

Before starting

Choosing a pose

Applying the alginate skin

Constructing the plaster shell

Releasing the mold

Casting the plaster

Finishing

Trouble shooting

Taking it further

Casting a face

Casting hands

Casting hands – Wax mold

Baby’s hands and feet

A cleaner, stronger mold

Casting a pregnant belly

Alternative to cotton wool

Alternative to plaster gauze

Casting in Forton MG

Other casting materials

Other tips

Mother mold – The wax method

Last words

Appendix A – Suppliers

Appendix B – Body casting artists

About the author

Introduction

Written by Waiheke Island sculptor and life caster Olivier Duhamel, this life casting guide documents in detail all the steps necessary to make a mold and plaster casting of someone’s chest.

The resulting sculpture will be an amazingly detailed reproduction of someone’s body, a durable, faithful and elegant memento.

This is an easy, safe, fun and inexpensive project. These simple, detailed and complete instructions and illustrations will ensure that your project is a success.

Although this guide uses a woman’s bust as an example, the same techniques can be applied to cast any other body part.

The second part of the manual discusses some more advanced techniques and methods and explains how to approach some other casting projects such as pregnant belly, face, hands and feet.

All measurements are expressed in both metric and US customary units.

About Life casting

Before delving into the heart of the matter, I thought that I would write a bit more about life casting and body casting in general. You can choose to skip this section but make sure to read everything else

What is life casting?

Life casting, also called body casting is the art of making a mold of a live model to make a life size, life like three dimensional reproduction of someone’s body or part of the body.

A bit of history

The ancient Egyptians are the first recorded life casting craftsmen. Indeed some of their works survived centuries and can be admired in museums around the world. However, more modern techniques and materials have allowed life casting artists to make much more realistic pieces. This guide will show you how to achieve the most incredibly detailed reproduction at very little costs.

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