Bronze Bust of Sir Terry Pratchett Revealed

The Terry Pratchett Estate and myself have unveiled the finished bronze bust of author Sir Terry Pratchett. The bust will serve as the basis for a life-size sculpture of the world-famous author to be displayed in his home city of Salisbury.

Rob Wilkins, Managing Director of the author’s estate said, “It’s immensely gratifying to see Terry so beautifully immortalised by his artist of choice, Paul Kidby.”

The bust was sculpted by myself from a hard oil-based clay called Chavant. It was then cast at Sculpture Castings, in Basingstoke, by skilled foundry artisans using the lost wax process.

I began sculpting in August 2016. I had the basic design in my head before I started and had looked at lots of historical busts for inspiration.  The sculpting process took me three months, from the loose blocking-in stage through to the finishing details. I wanted to make sure I was happy that I had captured his likeness before I added the final elements such as his glasses (which were very fiddly to make) and trademark hat.

I would like to think Terry would be happy with the idea of having a bronze bust made of himself. I hope it would have amused him and been a useful bookend in his office.

The bust also serves as a detailed study to allow me to prepare to undertake a full-sized sculpture of him, a maquette of which, will be one of my next projects.

Plans for the statue were greenlit by Salisbury City Council last year, following an online petition for a memorial of the author, set up by fan Emily Brand, which garnered nearly 10,000 signatures.

Rob Wilkins added, “Terry never wanted to be the centre of attention, but often joked that a statue in his memory would at least offer pigeons somewhere comfortable to sit.”