Kraven the Hunter

The latest "in-between" project is the third in my Spider-Man Rogues quest... Kraven the Hunter.


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Like most folks out there that love Spider-Man, for me, Kraven became a very serious contender when he decided to engineer his last hunt. This character took a turn for the disturbed and decided to hunt Spider-Man down, bury him alive, assume his identity, do it better, blow his own brains out.

This story is still today one of my favorites and the character is easily one of the coolest Spidey villains there is/was.

So I knew that at some point I would be sculpting him. Turns out I am working on him for two different pieces so far. The version you see featured the most here belongs with Vulture and Rhino and is more of a pensive, proud, noble, yet dangerous iteration of the character.


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The other version shown is the smaller 1:5 scale Bat-shit CRAZY version of him directly from this story.


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I've never shown the full size WIP before... so you saw it here first kids... even if it is only a wax portrait with photoshopped hair.

So the big things that I want to accomplish with this head sculpt are

1) make it easily recognizable as Kraven
2) it is only a head sculpt, so I want a ton of character in there
3) tell a story
4) load it up with detail
5) compliment the Rhino and Vulture pieces

I plan on doing a ton of these when I am in-between other projects, or need a break here and there.

Kraven has seen a lot of changes compared to the others so far. I think the fact that I like the character so much has made it harder to decide what I want on certain things. At first I wanted the smile... the smile was all about madness. After I finished Vulture and Rhino, I knew I wanted to change directions...


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I'll hold off on the smile and give it to Electro. Even though he's crazy, Kraven needs to have contrast compared to other villains who are far more "loony tuners". I made his head point up in the air more as if to see he's better than the rest and gave him a head turn. This will enable me to position the eyes so that he is looking down his nose at you.


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Now that I finally have those things decided, I am not too far from finishing up. Hair and fur in wax is not a quick process and that seems to be taking the most time. Bald people simply require a lot less attention... no offense to the cue balls out there... Stay bald, stay beautiful.

I used the same process on this one as I have the others. I roughed the piece out in pink Super Sculpey first, baked it, and then made a pressure cast wax copy to tool and refine. I'm still scraping and refining... and scraping... and refining...


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My goal with these is the same as before... they are meant for art directors. Eventually their desks will be too full to forget who I am.

Maybe.

Next week... I'll put together something for those who are looking to get set up with wax for the first time...

Thanks,
K