This weekend in Los Angeles, at the Beyond Eden art festival, we came face to face with that unbelievable, hyper-realistic sculpture of Abraham Lincoln we posted about back in June. Hollywood make-up effects artist Kazuhiro Tsuji created this magnificent 3D portrait of the late president by building it “layer by layer from the inside out.” (Just in case you were wondering, it is both as amazing and creepy as you're probably thinking it is.)
Starting with a life-size portrait, he used clay to model his work, sculpting every fine detail. Tsuji even created Lincoln's eyes, as he sees this as one of the most important elements in his portraits. He then scanned the life-sized piece and enlarged it in foam on a CNC machine. A mold of it was made by two talented mold makers and Tsuji did a clay press out of that mold. Finally, he refined and finished the shape and details of the sculpture, made another mold and cast it in silicone.
The artist chose Lincoln as his subject because he felt as though “he is one of the biggest influences in humanity and in the history of America.” The process of creating this portrait was documented for a film called Dream Out Loud. You can watch that trailer, below.
Kazuhiro Tsuji's website
Photo credit: Sam Yoo/My Modern Met
