World's Only (?) Scrap Metal Pachycephalosaurus Sculpture Nears Completion

I've used my free time over the last month to work on a sculpture of a pachycephalosaurus. Why, you say? I've been asking myself the same thing.

I got the idea for this one because I had an oblong, convex piece of sheet metal that I thought looked about right for the dome. I had a few other pieces around that seemed about right for making the head. When I started looking online, there were a lot of images of these things charging, propelling themselves forward with heads lowered (hence the thick, domed skull, or so the theory goes). I liked the idea of trying to capture the dynamic, powerful posture depicted in images like this one and this one. I also liked the challenge of trying to create a big piece balanced on one leg. So the pachycephalosaurus project was off and running.

It's almost done. Here are some current photos.

There are things I really like about this one and there are things that aren't working. Starting with the good, I'm pretty happy with the pose I was able to capture. The photos don't really do it justice, but the lines of this one really do suggest a full charge, leaning into the right. The sculpture is very stable on a single brake rotor base, something I never would have been able to accomplish with my skills last year. So I think I succeeded in capturing a sense of motion while also achieving balance and stability.

In the "not satisfied" category, I'm not happy with a lot of my sheet metal work. The white pieces are from some door flashing I found in a curb pile: it's easy to shape but because it lots of long and skinny pieces it ends up looking like fabric wrapping (not the effect I want). I've been experimenting with blending the pieces together by welding and grinding, but it's not there yet. I may have to just add some other pieces of sheet metal to break up the lines. There are other places where I think some additional patches of sheet metal will help me get the sculpture closer to what I see in my head.

The tan sheet metal is from a four-drawer filing cabinet I had in the garage. The metal is a good thickness to shape and weld, and it's going a long way (it only took part of one drawer to cover much of the tail and put other pieces on the body to try to tie things together). The light green in the midsection is from some kind of seed/fertilizer spreader I bought at an antique shop on my way through Charlotte, North Carolina, over the summer. Parts of the arm and neck are the frame and runners from a sled I've been hauling around for a long time. My old tea kettle is in there, as are a bunch of things I recently got from the Midas in Cayce when we had some brake work done. The sheet metal for the dome is from the same lamp (donated by local artist Alicia Leeke) that I used to make the shoulders on the crow sculpture.

I am unaware of any other scrap metal pachycephalosaurus sculptures out there. This may be the only one.

I often post "in progress" photos of what I'm working on to this very sparsely populated Facebook page.