New Mystery Sculpt - a clay sketch maquette

Back by popular demand it's a new Mystery Sculpt. This time I'll be sculpting a clay sketch (maquette) that may serve as a model for a full sized portrait later. I sometimes sculpt several of the person to work out issues of pose or clothing before doing a final work.

There are some photos of beginning the sculpt, which since is a sketch, is small....currently about 5" tall at this stage. I roughed in a basic skull and then began laying in some forms. And them my camera battery died.

So there is large jump from one phase to the next while the camera charged ;-)

I'll continue to work on this today and post final photos later.

Any guesses as to who this will be?

I'm sculpting this portrait using Max's Paperclay - ceramic clay.

Jet lag and sculptures are not a good combination...

 Bummer.....I'm seriously exhausted, having just returned from Europe and having hubby and daughter sick. I picked up my little gymnast to pack her up for the auction at the Loveland Sculpture Invitational this weekend and dropped her.

While ceramic sculptures can be quite sturdy, this was a wicked drop. I wouldn't mind so much, but I was counting on donating her for the auction and I had just put had the sculpt mounted to this nice stone base. Well, I might be able to salvage the base for future use.

At least I didn't smash any others yet ;-)

I got the rest of them down to the show and will finish the final set-up tomorrow. Then I can post some photos of the booth at the show later.

Small scale full figure gymanst in water based ceramic clay

 In order to help the clay firm up and dry out a bit - plus to make it easier for the sculpt to hold its own weight, I cut her up to hollow out more. Although I did use a small bit of newspaper to bulk out her core, I find that in sculpting and moving the position around, there areas can build up thick in some areas. Surprisingly, this one was pretty symmetrical.


I removed some more of the clay from the core and the pelvis region. Once the clay firmed up

more, I was able to reattach her and continue sculpting.

Today she was strong enough to remove from the prongs that had been supporting the weight and stand on her own. I am working on finalizing her now.

Small scale full figure gymanst in water based clay

Time to start a new sculpt. This one will be a gymnast. It's currently measuring close to 9" tall is being sculpted using ceramic paperclay (CT3).

I started this same sculpt a couple of days ago using Chestnut - a highly grogged terracotta clay. The first attempt sagged so much that she kept having the weight press down on her legs and squash them. The clay is stiff and I had trouble getting it to twist when I wanted to move her pose a bit.

So after a day of modeling, carving, adding and fighting with it, I smashed it up and returned it to the bag for use in another project another day. Then I immediately started her all over again in the ceramic paperclay. This is much lighter and holds its shape on such a small scale, so I'm glad that I scrapped the first. I got twice as far in half the time on the second attempt.

The sculpt has an 'exterior armature', profiled in Bruno Lucchesi's books. The Chestnut clay was heavy and kept pulling out of the two prongs that are holding her weight. The papercaly is holding up better, but it may still need an internal rod added to her leg from under the base after firing to support the weight - time will tell. This sculpt has tiny fingers, so I'm hoping that it holds up well to sculpting and firing because in dance any gymnastics, the finger attitude means so much.

You can also see the hollowing that is going on. I rough in the shapes and then as the piece starts to dry and firm up, I can cut of the rough arms and head and hollow out and reattach. I've already hollowed her head and put it back on. The one arm is in place, the other is still off and drying a bit to be more firm.

The legs are still clunky because I really need to mass there to support in the early stages. Then I'll start to refine and take the forms down.

Figure Sculpting Demo - young dancer in ceramic clay #8

After letting the sculpt sit overnight I came back to it with fresh eyes. Something had been bothering me and I finally came to the conclusion that the dress wasn't quite right. So I spent some time adding clay and changing the way that the fabric moved. That seemed to make a pleasing difference:

Arm placement and hand position make a difference

 I've re-attached one of the hollowed out arms. The hand is roughed into place. The new placement of the arm is more graceful and in tune with the attitude of the sculpt.

The whole body must be in agreement, or the figure will simply look wrong or awkward - so I often revise as I'm working and will change the placement of the body in order to better tell the story, emotion or intent.

 

What to do when you drop your head?

Start over, of course! Yep, after I reattached her head, I bumped the sculpture stand and tipped the figure precariously. Consequently her head dropped to the floor with a big plop! Naturally it did a real face-plant so there was no real salvaging her. Quite gruesome, actually ;-)

Oh well, I enjoyed sculpting her and felt she was a bit stilted in expression anyway.

So I sat down today and created a new head. I also worked on her arms by cutting them off and hollowing them out. Then I started to rough in her hands. I've decided to change the position of the arms a bit, making her a bit more expressive, too. Have I mentioned how much I love the second chances you get with clay?

Happily, the new head is in place, the body has firmed up better to support the weight and I have one arm and hand attached again. The battery on my camera needs charging so I don't have enough juice to get more photos in today....I'll photo and post the progress soon....in the mean time, I'm happy with the progress of the head and face and feel that the second sculpt is better than the first.

I'm planning on having this sculpt more 'painterly' in the finish so this will be a new challenge on to over-work the surface.

Stay tuned!

Figure Sculpting Demo - young dancer in ceramic clay #6

 Off with her head!

Yes, it does seem a bit brutal. However, there are several reasons to to mutilate your sculpture. In this case I wanted to hollow the head and neck more and I wanted to work on the face "off sculpt". 

By removing the head, I have easier access to the skull and the features ~ sometimes sculpting on the full form can be awkward and space limited, so by removing a piece from the overall sculpture, you can get to it easier.

I will sculpt more on the head and re-attach later. Ears and hair are sculpted later, since they would be squashed in handling anyway.
 

Figure Sculpting Demo - young dancer in ceramic clay #5

 No time to work on Monday and only an hour this morning...so not much change, but refined the form and the arms a bit. Later today I hope to have enough time to start her hands.

Then I may remover her head to make it easier to sculpt, be sure of my wall thickness and reattach - we'll see how far I can get....

Figure Sculpting Demo - young dancer in ceramic clay #4

Last post today. Would have preferred to go further, but hubby just got home and the last of my Studio Tour visitors recently left so will call it a night!

Having people come to the studio and sculpting in front of people was a fun experience! Though I didn't get as much sculpting in, as I stopped often to talk with people and show them around, I feel like I've got a good start to this sculpt. I'll let her firm up overnight and get back to work tomorrow. Plan on trying to have her done by the end of the week so check back to see her progress....

Thanks for visiting everyone - I had a great time at the tour and plan on doing it again next year. I think I'll book a model and try to compete a figure pose over the two days next year....

Figure Sculpting Demo - young dancer in ceramic clay #3

 Here is the progress - her arms have been attached. The clay is still quite wet. I would be further along, but as it's a studio tour, I stop working to meet with visitors to explain my work and methods ; -).

There is still 3 more hours of the tour, so I will continue to work and post photos the rest of the day - come on out to visit until 5pm today~

Ceramic Paperclay Fox Sculpture

You may remember that I sculpted a small fox in oil-based clay. I'm still working on the wax pour of it for bronze. I decided that I wanted to make a larger version of this fox and sculpt it using a water-based clay for firing. Since Mile-Hi was out of the CT3 clay that I had planned on using, I opted to try this in water-based ceramic paperclay instead. I didn't do any measuring - I just dove into sculpting. While I did use crumpled paper for filling out the body, there was some distortion and I felt that there was too little clay in some areas and too much clay in others. So I cut this into pieces, hollowed out and reassemble before I completed the sculpting.

I was pleased to find that A) it was as much fun to sculpt the fox the second time around and B) I had no trouble enlarging the sculpture while keeping the same look and feel using a different medium. So, now it's drying in preparation for firing later.