Anyone who’s ever been fortunate enough to spend any time in the company of sculptor Brian Muir will know what an interesting man he is, full of stories of his time in the industry and the galaxy far, far away and here he chats with the Cambridge University Star Wars Society about that industry, including his first meeting with the Dark Lord.
Q: You sculpted the helmet and armour of cinema’s greatest villain, Darth Vader – could you talk us through that process, from concept art to finished product? How do you adapt art into physical form?
A: I was given a small sketch of a mask and helmet, from one angle, by John Mollo, the costume designer. Dave Prowse had been moulded and a full body plaster cast was produced for me to work on.
I sculpted the mask in clay, which was moulded and cast in plaster. Then I sculpted the helmet on top of the plaster mask. It was passed on to the plaster shop to be moulded and cast in plaster. Both the plaster mask and helmet were moulded and cast in fibreglass.
The chest armour, shoulder bells and shins were all sculpted in clay on the main body of Dave’s plaster cast, using Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art. Again they were moulded and cast in fibreglass.
Everything was painted black, adding silver highlights and gun metal grey to the face for lighting purposes.
I’m fortunate enough to be able to visualize a 2-dimensional design into a 3-dimensional form.
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