Ray Harryhausen Trinute Bust from Earth Bound Studios

A recent addition to my Black Heart Enterprises collection of tribute busts is this fine sculpt by Joe Laudati of Ray Harryhausen. Joe managed to pack in one or two characters based on Ray's work, the only exception being “First Men In The Moon”. The bust has seven pieces not counting the bust itself. The smaller parts are a pair of harpies and arms, a Ymir arm, cyclops horn, a tentacle along with a flying saucer.

I was in a bit of a quandary on how I wanted to paint this bust. I had seen photos on the Black Heart web page of it bronzed or with other metallized finishes (which looked great) but I wanted to try something a little different. The obvious approach would be to paint each figure in color as they appeared in their respective film. Unfortunately, a number of the films were shot in black & white so the question was to whether I paint it in black & white or my best guess as to what color they might have been if done otherwise. As it turned out, I had been experimenting with black & white painting techniques for some time so I didn't see any reason not to do the same here. The only figure that to some purists would also be done in black & white would be the Mighty Joe Young scene however this part of the film was shot in color so I decided to go that route particularly recognizing the colorful aspect the burning tree presented.

The detail on the bust is remarkable and aggravating at the same time. As I painted the bust, more figures would be revealed so it was difficult to home in on a specific scene as it were. But, after several days of painting, I think I “got” everything as Joe intended though I wouldn't be surprised if one or two figures still lurked undiscovered by yours truly. 8/10/22

A brief (2 min) video with a soundtrack displaying the bust's many components.