fter I got The Art of the Two Towers book, I fell in love with a pensive maquette bust of Gollum in there and I was seized by a desire to do a similar bust in 1:4 scale. After checking with Gabriel to make sure I wasn't stepping on his toes (he recently did a Gollum model kit), I got started and what you see below is my progress so far. As I was going along, I decided I wanted to use a different photo to provide the facial expression for Gollum (the maquette was not really very accurate, it turns out). I'm going to try and blitz this out, sculpting almost nonstop to get as far as I can before I have to turn my attention to commissions again. See the finished, painted sculpture in the Gallery.

The reference image

Sunday, 11 a.m. (about 5 hours of work) Based on the maquette

Sunday, 3 p.m. (about 8 hours of work)

Below is the work I've done since switching to the smiling image above. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Shecky the Goblin...

Monday, 1 p.m. (about 13 hours of work)

Below: I think I'm finally uncovering the Smeagol within.

Monday, 4:30 p.m. (about 18 hours of work)

Below: bigger pearls for the eyes and a lot of refining work on the facial features. I photoshopped some eyes in. Wrong color, tho...

Tuesday, 11:30 p.m. (about 30 hours of work)

Thursday, 11:00 p.m. (about 45 hours of work)

Below: it's finished except for some sanding and minor cleanup!

Monday, 4/14, 6 p.m. (55 hours of work)

That's it!