Setting Her Sights accepted to American Women Artists Show in Scottsdale

"Setting Her Sights has been accepted into the American Women Artists' 2015 National Juried Exhibition & Annual Member Show, hosted by Bonner David Galleries in
Scottsdale, Nov 12-30

Starting a new Bas Relief Sculpture

I have started a new Bas relief. It measures 18" x 24" x 3" deep and this time I am using Chavant LeBeau Touche - an oil based clay instead of the water-based clay that I had been using. It takes a lot of clay when working larger - I estimate that I currently have about 8 bars of clay ($10 each) on the piece and will probably have another bar of clay added before I'm done.

To reduce some of the clay, I did cut a foam core board to bulk out the base a bit. While I could have used tinfoil or foam to bulk out the girl and skim coated on the clay, saving $40 or more in clay, I find that I'd rather use the clay because I can carve deeper or make changes easily in the clay, but if there was a foil interior, I would end up digging into that foil and it is harder to make changes as I work.  
You can see that there are swirls in the clay - I started with older clay and bought some new clay and the dye lot was just enough different to show. A bit distracting while sculpting, but of course won't make a bit of difference when I cast and then patina the work.

Since this is oil-based clay, it sticks quite well to the board so there was no need to make the screw and wire network to support the clay as I did when using water-based clay in the first two Bas relief that I sculpted earlier.
Additionally, since this clay won't dry, it is easier to stop and start without worry about the clay drying out and it won't separate from the board, either.

I'm just in the blocking in phase now -she will be holding a larkspur flower and have wild horse mustangs in the background. I have never sculpted horses although I used to draw and paint them often so I am really looking forward to this!

Sculpting the Bas Relief Tutorial Part 5

The sculpting demonstration tutorial by Lori Kiplinger Pandy continues with a push and pull of the clay forms.
I am continuing to build up the highest planes and the remove clay from the receeding areas. Throughout this process I turn the sculpture from side to side and stand on a step stool to view from above or squat down to look from below.

You must constantly be aware that this is not a painting, viewed simply from straight on, it is a sculpture and will be viewed from different angles.

After a period of working, I'll wet the clay a bit and use a home-made brush to crosshatch over the entire sculpt to knock down areas and blur some edges - this helps me to see how the forms are taking shape overall and to blend

the clay a bit.
Once the clay has had a chance to rest a bit, I'll step back and review the sculpture as a whole and evaluate it's progress before I proceed to working again on the sculpt.
You'll see that I started to rough in the owl in the background - it is imperative that you keep bringing each area up to the same amout of finish as the rest - having one area of scupt leap too far ahead of other areas causes distortion and usually results in having to rework large areas of your sculpture.

I will be visiting galleries for potential partners during the next week so it will be a little while before I post the next section of this tutorial.

In anticipation of my absence, I have sprayed the clay, double wrapped it in plastic and taken the entire board off the easel to lay it flat on a table. I don't want the moisture in the clay to migrate from the top due to gravity and cause uneven drying or warping, so placing it flat should keep it stable until I can return to work.

Sculpting the Bas Relief Tutorial part 3

Now that the clay is on the board and set upright on the easel and the image has been drawn onto the clay, it's time to start adding volume and mass to to image.

I begin by quickly blocking in the shapes - not trying to accuracy or likeness at this point - simply bring up the shapes to the highest point (in this case, the time of the nose and bottom of the skirt).

Always keep structure and anatomy in mind while you are working. Think in terms of bone and muscle. I'm not worried about surface features at all at this point - there will be time for that later.
Try not to become fixated on any part of the image. It's a trap to spend a lot of time working on face and neglecting other areas of the sculpture. Trust me, it never works out and when you finally do bring the rest of the sculpture up to the same level of finish as the face you'll find terrible problems with anatomy and distortion.

That said - I do begin with the face and keep coming back to it, as that sets the tone and emotion of the entire work.

As I said in Part 2, the drawing is going to be obliterated once you begin the actual sculpting. Clay is fluid - it moves while you work and you should never be afraid of cutting a sculpture apart and making changes as needed.

I decided that sculpt needed more tilt and attitude to the head, so I simply took a wire cutter, looped it under her chin and sliced her face off. Easy Peasy

Once her face was removed, I simply tilted the angle a bit and re-attched the face and reworked the neck. Then I set about roughing in more of the anatomy and continued to build up forms.