Speaker A
There's an old saying that goes, "Mess with the bull, you'll get the horns." But for this sculpture, the horns were the least of my problems.
Watch the detailed creation of Bullseye, a wooden bull skull sculpture, from raw wood to finished art piece by BM Sculptures.
Key Takeaways
- Using different wood species enhances color contrast and realism in sculptures.
- Embracing natural imperfections can add authenticity to art pieces.
- Careful planning and problem-solving are essential in woodworking and carving.
- Parenting moments can inspire and add lightheartedness to the creative process.
- Sharing progress and engaging with viewers helps build a supportive creative community.
Summary
- BM Sculptures creates a bull skull sculpture named Bullseye using maple burl and multiple wood species.
- The artist laminates layers of wood to achieve the necessary thickness for the skull.
- Challenges include flattening wood slabs, adding height to teeth and horns, and dealing with natural voids in the wood.
- A side project involves carving a simple fish toy as a surprise for the artist’s kids, highlighting parenting humor.
- The carving process involves rough shaping, fixing mistakes, and adding intricate details like sutures on the skull.
- The artist embraces imperfections like voids to add authenticity, inspired by natural skulls and 3D models.
- Teeth carving decisions balance realism and artistic choice, ultimately keeping all teeth intact.
- Sanding and finishing reveal the beauty of the wood grain, enhancing the sculpture’s final look.
- The artist discusses the emotional connection to the work and hopes the sculpture finds a fitting home.
- The video includes a sponsor message and a call to action for subscribing to the channel.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Project Overview
- 00:30Choosing Wood and Preparing Layers
- 00:58Laminating Wood for Thickness
- 01:32Adding Height to Teeth and Horns
- 03:30Carving a Fish Toy for Kids
- 04:56Beginning the Skull Carving Process
- 08:02Carving Challenges and Mistakes
- 12:10Detailing and Finishing Touches
- 15:11Sanding and Revealing Wood Grain
- 23:00Final Steps and Reflections
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
This is the making of Bullseye. This is a piece of maple burl, and if you watch my last video of the whale shark, you'll notice this is the same piece of wood that I used for the pedestal.
Speaker A
And after seeing how beautiful this piece of burl was, I knew this is the exact piece of wood I wanted to use for this bull sculpture.
Speaker A
I've had this sculpture on my bucket list for a very long time. I like the different color contrasts between the horns and the skull, which I plan on using different species of wood for both of those.
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And there's just something about skulls that really interests me. I think it's the details and the sharp angles, and it just draws me in.
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I don't know, I can't really explain it. Anywho, I'm excited to get started, and the first thing I need to do is make three layers of this because I need the thickness of the skull, and I don't have it in the slab.
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So I'm going to laminate three layers of wood. Let's get started. I need to make these pieces perfectly flat and parallel to one another so I have a perfect glue-up line.
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The problem is they are not flat, and the slab was too wide to go through my thickness planer.
Speaker A
So I had to basically create a little shim and a flat board and then send that through the planer, making the top perfectly flat before then flipping it over, doing the other side, and then I have two perfectly flat and parallel sides.
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So, that's it. Once the main three sections were glued up, I realized I still needed more height on the teeth and then these two little horn things on the back of the skull.
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So I found some grain-matching offcuts and glued them on, and while that dries, let's start on the horns.
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So, that's it. While I was cleaning up some of my offcuts, I stumbled upon this piece, and it instantly got me inspired.
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This looks exactly like a fish body looking down. So I thought, how cool would this be if I could just quickly carve this into a fish and then give it to my kids as a little surprise present?
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And don't be all judgy on me, I'm just trying to carve a generic fish shape.
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I'm not going for any kind of perfection here, just a little toy for my kids.
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There's only one problem, and if you're a parent, maybe you can guess the problem.
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I made you guys this to share. Oh my God. Look at that. Five minutes later.
Speaker A
I want it. I want it. I want it. I want it. I want it.
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Guys, guys, guys, guys, guys, here. Give me this. I can solve this. Here you go.
Speaker A
Here you go. Oh my God. If parenting has taught me anything, it's this: give them two items or prepare for war.
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All right. Now all the glue has dried up, and we are ready to start carving.
Speaker A
I'm going to start with the wood. I'm going to start with the wood. This part of the carving process is all about just carving down to my lines and really roughing out this shape.
Speaker A
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Speaker A
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Speaker A
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Speaker A
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Speaker A
Thanks, ZockDock. All right. Let's get back to the carving. So, we're going to start by drawing a little bit of a circle.
Speaker A
Okay. I'm pretty happy with how this is turning out so far. I put in a solid eight hours of carving today, and I am absolutely exhausted.
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So that's all I'm doing for the day, and let's get after this thing tomorrow.
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All right. Something I want to address is this big void in the piece of wood.
Speaker A
Now, me two years ago would be losing sleep over this. I would try every way I possibly could to fix this or to patch it or to fill it with epoxy.
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But what I've kind of learned, especially when doing skulls, is people rarely find a hundred percent intact skull.
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Even the 3D rendering I'm using, if you look at the model, it's missing teeth.
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So I think this little void right here could actually end up making this piece look a little more authentic, like it was sitting out for years before someone found it.
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So I'm just not going to worry about this. I'm going to carve away, and in the end, if I think it looks really bad, I could then think about patching this or filling it with epoxy or something like that.
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But I'm just not going to worry about it and continue carving. So let's get to that.
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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] All right, I made a pretty big mistake here. So this bone right here should actually come up to here and connect right here.
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I carved it all the way out, and now I don't know if I'm going to be able to fix this.
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You can kind of see the picture here. It goes to there and then back and then comes around.
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So basically, and I had it drawn right, I just kept carving. This needs to attach.
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I don't know how to do that. I'm going to try to, I guess, carve it down and see what it looks like.
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But it's not looking so good right now. So let's try and figure it out.
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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey guys, I have a goal of reaching one million subscribers, and this is the closest I've ever been.
Speaker A
If you haven't already, please consider subscribing, liking, sharing this video. Each and every one of you can help me reach my goal.
Speaker A
Thank you, guys. Let's get back to the video. [Music] Did I fix it? I'm not really sure yet.
Speaker A
I want to carve some more of the details and then see if it starts coming together.
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And if it does come together how I'm envisioning it, this sculpture will be listed for sale over on my website.
Speaker A
I'll put a link in the description, or you could just head directly to my website and check it out.
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I'm always interested in the homes my sculptures go to. I'm kind of envisioning like a Texas ranch this goes to or something like that.
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But sometimes you guys really surprise me. This could end up going to a tropical place like Hawaii or Florida.
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Who knows? Anyways, this part right here is probably the scariest portion I had to carve in the entire skull.
Speaker A
It was super fragile, and I just tried my best to not break it. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Now it's time to start carving the teeth, and I need to decide whether I want to keep them all or purposefully have a couple missing just like 3D rendering or skulls you find out in nature.
Speaker A
What do you guys think? For now, I'm just going to carve them all and then make the decision after the fact.
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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I ultimately decided to keep all the teeth because there's still that void in the wood already just above the right jaw, and I think that adds enough authenticity to make this look like a real
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skull. What do you guys think? [Music] I'm going to start sanding this thing down, and then I could add all the other details.
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There's a ton of little sutures, I believe they're called, or I like to call them skull rivers in these skulls kind of going throughout the top of the skull, so a lot of details still need to be added, but I need to sand it and get it nice and smooth before I can add those.
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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Check out this wood grain. This is absolutely beautiful.
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This is such a cool piece of wood, and I just throw on some water here to give it a water pop, which will help in the sanding process, and you can really see what this thing is going to look like with finish, and I am just
Speaker A
so impressed and so happy with how this thing looks. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I spent the entire day sanding down this skull, and just when I thought I was on the home stretch, I remembered I haven't even touched
Speaker A
and the next day I am ready to get these things done. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] We are looking good.
Speaker A
If you are curious I used a little five minute epoxy. I mixed in a bunch of walnut sawdust that way the gap between the maple and the walnut should be pretty much seamless even if there is a tiny little hint of a gap in there.
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That sawdust and an epoxy should fill it up completely. Alright let's get to carving these horns.
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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] This has been a ton of hard work as you can see by my shirt but it is paying off.
Speaker A
This thing looks like a real skull and I can't wait to finish the other horn and then put finish on this sculpture to see what it really looks like.
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[Music] Alright it's time to start thinking about the pedestal. I have a beautiful piece of baston walnut here cut it into a rectangle and then I made an angular wedge that will help support this sculpture because it is a pretty heavy and large skull.
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This is a life-size bowl skull and I want this thing displayed at a 45 degree angle.
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So it's going to be a little tricky but I'm up for the challenge. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] And now we are on the home stretch.
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This sculpture has taken over three weeks to complete and the only thing left to do is put on a finish and then we are done.
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[Music] [Music] I'm really liking this display so far but I think it's a little too high so I go ahead and chop off about an inch of that brass and this is the perfect height that I think makes this thing look just awesome.
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[Music] I am so fortunate to get to do what I love for a living and it's because each and every one of you that watch these videos like, share and subscribe that I am able to continue this passion.
Speaker A
If you haven't already please consider subscribing and if you're interested in purchasing this sculpture or any other one of my sculptures that are still available check out my website and I'll put a link in the description.
Speaker A
And without further ado, here is the Bullseye. [Music] [Music]
Topics:wood carvingwood sculpturebull skull sculptureBM Sculpturesmaple burlwoodworkinghand carvingart processsculpture makingwood art
