I sculpted this vampiric lock on top of a real steel padlock and kept it functional. The inspiration for it was a drawing I made last year which you can find in my Sketchbook of December 2020 . My intent was to make something that feels old and a bit out of time and slightly threatening, something you think twice before unlocking.
We used this lock in a recent photoshoot for our band Blood and dust .
Basing myself on the initial drawing, I made a more precise drawing of how I saw the lock. Then I used it as a pattern to cut multiple layers of styrene to shape which were then glued to form the face of the lock.
Then began the cutting and carving of the styrene parts.
Once the styrene parts were sculpted and sanded, I started working the the vampire’s face with green stuff (a type of epoxy putty).
The final step once I was happy with the overall sculpt and the details of it was painting. The whole thing was painted with acrylics, then weathered with oil paints and finally some metallic accents were added to simulate chipped paint.
I also made a box to contain the lock out of an old toy box I had around that I covered with heavy black paper and then distressed using my usual techniques: sanding, painting with acrylics, rubbing with a dirty cloth and just generally mistreating it.
