Animal Artist

A giraffe-sized reptile towers over an adult man. With its nearly 3 meter (10 foot)-long head held high and its giant wings at its side, it looks like it could take off at any moment. But this giant creature, called a pterosaur (TER-uh-sawr), has been extinct for more than 65 million years.

The ancient animal is a statue made by Jim Burt. He’s a sculptor at Blue Rhino Studios in Eagan, Minnesota. There, Burt works with a team to build lifelike sculptures of people, animals, and habitats for museums and zoos.

Burt has constructed everything from bears and dinosaurs to ancient humans. Understanding the properties of his materials helps him get each detail just right.

A creature the size of a giraffe towers over an adult man. The giant animal is called a pterosaur (TER-uh-sawr). It holds its nearly 3 meter (10 foot)-long head high. Its giant wings lie at its side. It looks like it could take off at any moment. But this animal hasn’t been alive for more than 65 million years.

The creature is a statue. Sculptor Jim Burt made it. He works at Blue Rhino Studios in Eagan, Minnesota. Burt and his team build lifelike sculptures of people, animals, and habitats. They make them for museums and zoos.

Burt has built everything from bears and dinosaurs to ancient humans. He learns the properties of the materials he uses. That helps him get each detail just right. 

Many of the animals that Burt builds are no longer alive today. He works with paleontologists, scientists who study the remains of extinct organisms, to understand what the animals probably looked like. “You need to have a good handle on animal anatomy to do this job well,” says Burt.

Burt starts each sculpture by building a model, or smaller version of the final animal. First, he builds a framework out of metal rods. Burt heats the metal over a flame until it’s soft. He shapes it into the animal’s skeleton. The metal hardens as it cools.

Next, Burt uses clay to form the animal’s body. He adds it in layers over the metal framework. With each layer, he sculpts more and more detail.

Burt places the finished model in a device called a CNC machine. The machine uses lasers, concentrated beams of light, to measure the model’s exact shape. The machine then uses these measurements to cut a life-sized version of the model from a block of lightweight foam.

Burt and his team coat the foam figure with a liquid mixture of plastic and glass that hardens when it’s exposed to air. They use a strong claylike material to sculpt details like pores and wrinkles in the skin. Finally, Burt adds fur, hair, and feathers one by one.

Many of the animals Burt builds are no longer alive today. He needs to know what the animals might have looked like. So he works with scientists called paleontologists. They study the remains of creatures that lived long ago. “You need to have a good handle on animal anatomy to do this job well,” says Burt.

Burt starts each sculpture by building a model. That’s a smaller version of the final statue. He builds a framework out of metal rods first. Burt heats the metal over a flame. The flame makes the metal soft. He shapes it into the animal’s skeleton. The metal hardens as it cools.

Burt uses clay next. It forms the animal’s body. He adds it in layers over the metal frame. He sculpts more and more detail with each layer.

Burt places the finished model in a device. It’s called a CNC machine. It measures the model’s exact shape. It does this with lasers, focused beams of light. The machine then cuts a life-sized version of the model from a block of foam.

Burt and his team coat the foam figure with a mixture of plastic and glass. It hardens when air hits it. Then they add a strong claylike material. They sculpt details including pores and wrinkles in the skin. Finally, Burt adds fur, hair, and feathers one by one.

Every sculpture presents Burt with challenges. But building two life-sized pterosaur sculptures last fall was one of his toughest projects yet.

One difficulty was keeping the sculptures balanced. The animal’s head was about as large as its body. Burt had to build the sculptures so they wouldn’t tip over.

The pterosaurs’ other strange features were also a challenge. “These animals had delicate, thin wings; long, narrow bodies; and small claws,” says Burt. It took a long time to make each detail look real.

But the work paid off. Today the towering sculptures stand in a museum in the Middle Eastern country of Kuwait. “Challenges bring out the best in our work,” says Burt. 

Every sculpture has its own difficulties. Burt built two life-sized pterosaur statues last fall. It was one of his toughest projects yet.

One problem was keeping the figures balanced. Each animal’s head was about as large as its body. Burt had to build them so they wouldn’t tip over.

The pterosaurs had other strange features. Those posed problems too. “These animals had delicate wings, long bodies, and small claws,” says Burt. It took a long time to make each detail look real.

But the work paid off. Today, the huge sculptures stand in a museum in Kuwait. It’s a country in the Middle East. “Challenges bring out the best in our work,” says Burt.