Ecorche - back muscles

 

Today I'm layering in the muscles of the back in this ecorche study. I'm following the gain of the muscle fibers as I place the clay- emphasizing the shape, form and function of the muscle.  Once I've built up the form of the muscle, I'll go back and refine it a bit. Time-consuming but effective way to build the figure.
I'm using Jmac Classic clay in medium and working 1/3 life size.

 

 

Correcting facial proportions in clay

 I'm back in my studio now and working on "A Good Read". Still blocking in the basic musculature and forms. While working, I could see that the lips were too close to the nose, giving too much chin to the face. So I have shown how to fix this problem.

First I took my sharp metal shaper and cut upwards towards the nose to cut the lips off. Then I removed the lips. Next I replaced the lips onto the sculpt only slightly lower.

After the lips are in place, I rolled out a small coil of clay and placed it above the upper lip to fill in the crack. Then I continued sculpting and adding more forms to the clay.

You can see that everything is very rough and that I am not concentrating on any one area. As I work on the piece I'm constantly moving around the and working front, back, side and adding clay as I go to keep the piece moving along.

Enlarging the clay maquette

A few weeks ago I sculpted a small maquette (clay sketch) that was inspired by my daughter. She's never, I mean never, without a book. She reads constantly and often absently fiddles with her necklace while absorbed. The sketch was originally titled "The Pageturner".

I have have decided to rename the piece "A Good Read" instead and do a similar piece featuring a boy and used "The Pageturner" for that one instead. I'm looking forward to that one, but for now I have decided to enlarge this one.

While I plan to cast the maquette as a small bronze edition and perhaps in resin later on, I also wanted to work larger for a change. I could make my own armature, like I did for the maquette, but I have been wanting to try the Truform armature, so I picked one up at Sculpture Depot and got started on working at 1/2 life size.

The Truform armature is very lightweight and the hard foam has good 'tooth' to grab the clay. I warmed the Jmac in my elcheapo hotbox and started working. Here you can see the original maquette and the first stages of laying on the clay. I'll post photos throughout the process to show the progress.

How to make a cheap hot box

Oil based clay comes in differing degrees of firmness. If you live in Colorado have your studio located in the basement, you'll find that even extremely soft clay will be very hard when cold. You could warm the clay in the microwave, as I've done in in the past, but inevitably you will end up getting burned when you squeeze a block of microwaved clay that seems firm on the outside but is a pool of molten lava on the inside. Enter the hot box.

There are a lot of different ways to make a hot box to warm your oil based clay. Tuck Langland has a very nice one that he makes from an old fridge. But you can also go very low tech, as I did here. I simply went to the dollar store and purchased a styrofoam cooler for $1. I also got 3 aluminum disposable pans for $1.

 I turned the cooler on its side and traced around the dome of a cheap shop light. Next I cut out the circle I traced using a sharp knife - being sure to cut 1/2" INSIDE the circle. I placed a 40watt bulb in the lamp and place it on top of the cooler. Since the circle that I cut out is a bit smaller than the lap - I sits just on top of the cooler.

Finally I took some cold, hard chunks of jmac classic clay and tossed them into one of the pans and slid it into the cooler and closed the door (which is really the top of the cooler). Within 10-15 minutes I have warmed clay.

This isn't perfect - it's kind of small and the center chunks of clay get melted while the outer chunks warm less - but for $2 and a lamp I already had, it sure beat sore hands from trying to use cold, hard clay or burned hands from lava-melted clay.

Yes - I know that the old, hot lightbulbs may be be a thing of the past and hard to find soon - but I imagine that I can get creative and find another heat source in the future - for now, this is great for smaller budgets, smaller space and smaller amount of working clay fast.