Choosing a design

chosen helmet

Refining sculpts by flattening top snouts

Bottom jaws with wire pegs to represent teeth

Traced helmet profile to design onto

Trialing position of scales

Series of face shapes

From browsing different bike helmets, I have chosen to work on top of a full face BMX helmet. This cost £23 in the children's section at Argos, though the head measurements fit the average adult with my wearer's falling in the middle of its range. The helmet is not considered safe to wear on motorised vehicles as it is lightweight without a sufficiently hard shell. I decided to purchase this shape of helmet as it includes a chin guard and fully covers the face at all sides. The top peek of the helmet also provides a slight base for the top jaw to extend upon. I have fixed the visor as fully open with some duct tape and glue.

My designs were traced over front, side and back views of the helmet to act as turnarounds for my sketch models. By sculpting these in miniature, I was able to see where there were any faults in the designs and to see the outcome in 3D. These early sculpts show the basic form I had drawn and helped me with the arrangement of the nostrils, eye lids and teeth. However, I found from looking at my life drawings that they are fundamentally flawed by appearing too smooth and rounded, like a dinosaur. I have since drastically altered them to lie much flatter with ridges along the snout. Each sculpt is significantly different from each other and I have also created a series of bottom jaws for me to pick my favourite layout from.