Back in 2015 a campaign was launched for the creation of a Terry Pratchett Memorial Statue and I was honoured to be put forward as the sculptor of choice to create it. Following a meeting at the Guildhall, Salisbury Council approved the proposal for the statue to be sited within the city, (exact location as yet undecided).
A hiatus from this project followed whilst I produced the line art for The Discworld Colouring Book but by August my deadlines were met and I was ready to get my sculpting tools out.
To create a large scale piece of public art is a great responsibility. To do Terry justice I must finely balance his public persona and private self by ensuring that I honour him not only as an extraordinary writer whose books delighted readers around the world but also on a more personal level to those who knew him as a friend, beloved husband and father.
My first step in this process has been to create a head and shoulders bust, 40 cm high. This has enabled me to focus primarily on facial features and expression to capture a bearing that I feel best represents him as we all remember. Only when I was happy with his physical appearance did I turn my attention to making his glasses (four or five days of fiddling and swearing) and trademark hat. It was a great help to have both of these precious objects, and his well worn leather jacket, to use as direct reference, thank you to Rob Wilkins and Lyn Pratchett for lending them to me.
I am now in the final stages of creating this sculpture and will be carefully driving it to the foundry for bronze casting very soon. The bust will be available as a limited edition of twelve for dedicated collectors but most importantly it will be a valuable model and working maquette for the full sized statue and a vital first step in the creative process of this very important commission.
