Sculpting the bas relief demostration tutorial part 8 - finishing the work

A bout with the flu and two small portrait commissions have kept me away from this sculpt. Now I'm feeling better and the sculptures have been shipped to Australia and it's back to work.

This relief had some drying and cracking in areas that I had to cut away and put fresh clay into. Always a risk with water-based clay when you leave a project to rest for a while. So after repairing some areas I went back into refine the flowers and then soften with a bit of water. After that, I decided to add some additional hair to the right side of her face to improve the overall composition of this piece.

While that was setting up a bit, I went into the dress to add some detail - first a hint of bodice then texture and some pleating. Finally a small bow for interest.

With some additional touchups and work in the new hair area, I finally finished up the sculpture. I would prefer to mold it right away but my schedule doesn't have the time required for multiple coats of mold rubber and this is a process that simply can't be interrupted. So it looks like I will have to spray this up well, lay it flat with several layers of plastic to try to keep it from drying too much and wait for Monday to give the mold-making process my full and undivided attention.

My next tutorial will be the process of making the mold and mother-mold for this sculpture.