Bad Ass Girl (Lara Croft)

Alright, let’s just get this out of the way - her booty is BIG. My intention wasn’t to focus on her butt. Instead, I wanted to make certain features like the length of her legs, narrow waist and thin arms overly dramatic. Her story starts at her feet and heels. I have thought making a female foot and heel would be a metal-working and sculpting challenge for me and wanted to see if I possessed to skill to just make that alone. After her first foot was formed, I surprised myself and was motivated to make another! If you focus on her feet and heels, you’ll notice I have spent a big piece of time and focus there. Watching her foot take shape in my hands was satisfying but difficult. I would remove metal and have to sit back and think: “what else needs to be removed to make this look right?” getting the subtle and intricate curves of the foot just right was tough and it was even HARDER to do it AGAIN and make it the exact same matching size - especially since I have exactly ZERO education and training in formal sculpting - let alone METAL sculpting. I am completely self-taught.

Most of this sculpture was formed from 1” thick stainless steel rods and I would grind it down to shape. Certain part of her I would build UP the metal using my tig welder to place metal where she needed more like her ponytail and muscles in her arms and shoulders.

Her shoulder bag was formed out of necessity for balancing. Her legs are so long, thick and heavy that her torso and arms can not balance her correctly. The reason for the guns is also a matter of balance - I knew her arms would need to stick out to move her center of gravity forward and even though the guns and arms don’t weigh a lot, they make a dramatic difference when sticking straight out!

My favorite part of this sculpture is her mannequin-style face and her hair - getting the ponytail to look just right was a big challenge along with getting her to balance on the TIP of her HAIR! It took many hours of adjustments to get it to balance right!

SPECS:

Weight: 2lbs 9 oz

13 inches from tip of gun to heel