Big Feet, Big Hands

Being a curator of the North American Bigfoot Center is a wonderful opportunity for me to sculpt on a daily basis. After seeing a  Paul Freeman hand cast from the Blue Mountains, I was inspired to sculpt a bigfoot hand with lifelike measurements. Now that I physically had the cast to use as my reference, I could create something that would be realistic.

I began with a quick sketch to figure out the basic shapes and measurements. The width of the hand cast averaged out to be 7”-7.5” and around 10”-11” from the tip of the middle finger to the base of the palm. The palm to finger ratio is very different from human hands. The bigfoot palm is long and wide, just about double the length of their big, hairy digits.

Once I had a basic plan, I started blocking in WED clay. WED clay is an acronym for Walter E. Disney. WED clay contains glycerin, so it dries very slowly to a leathery texture. This clay is very popular in special effects and mask making for that very reason. Clay that dries too quickly usually cracks, which is bad for obvious reasons.

Once I finished sculpting with clay, I covered the sculpt in latex rubber so I could later make a plaster copy. Having a latex mold is very helpful to replicate the same sculpt multiple times. Hand prints are very intriguing to me and I plan on sculpting more in the future. What I need are more potential bigfoot hand casts to use as models!