Big Tex Commission Sculpture

I received a commission from the Texas State Fair to sculpt an award to be cast in bronze. It is loosely based off their iconic monumental "Big Tex" that welcomes people to the Texas State Fair.

The finished sculpture is cast in bronze and mounted to Texas limestone base.
The first bronze sculpture award that I created for the Texas State Fair was awarded to Chief David Brown of Dallas Police Department.
Here is a quick snap of the sculpture in the board room of the Texas State Fair.

Sculpting Sacagawea

I've been posting to my webpage blog and forgetting to post here too. So I'll combine a few of my web posts for you here.

Started sculpting Native American Sacagawea in Clayette Soft. This is a really creamy and buttery clay that I would recommend for larger and looser works. I didn't intend to finish this and thought it would be a quick study but I ended up liking it so continued. I feel the clay is far too soft for detailed work this small. In fact I ended up switching to Jmac medium and hard for the dress and purse details because Clayette soft was simply too soft for this.

That said, I really do like the clay a lot. Perhaps medium would have been a better choice for me but I now have a lot of soft on hand. So my next sculpt will be large so I can use it as it was intended.

I really wanted this sculpture to be about putting myself in Sacagawea's place and feeling what she may have felt. If you remember your history, she was abducted from her Northwest Coastal tribe when a young girl by the Sioux and taken east as a captive. She was eventually married to a French Trapper and just before beginning her adventures with her husband and Lewis and Clark, she had her baby, Pompy.

So I wanted to capture her expression as she came to realize she was finally home. Surely she felt apprehension, anxiety, hopefulness and happiness all at once. She did, indeed meet with her brother and by accounts it was a joyful reunion.

The working title for this piece is "Do you know me still?"

Eleanor wins 1st Place Sculpture and Purchase Award Scottsdale...

"Eleanor" was chosen by the judges as First Place in Sculpture for this year’s Best & Brightest Show at Scottsdale Artists School. It was also chosen by the school to be this year’s Purchase Award.

This honor is especially poignant for me because I received a scholarship from the Scottsdale Artist's School to attend a Sandy Scott workshop in 2015 and while there I would sneak into the school early just to peruse the halls, admiring the works on permanent display, photographing them with my iPad and thinking that I would love to have one of my works in those halls one day.

I am grateful that "Someday" came today.

Show opens Friday 1/8/2016 with a free and open reception from 5-7pm and runs through 2/27/2016.

Scottsdale Artists’ School
3720 North Marshall Way
Scottsdale, AZ 8525

Starting Bas Relief Medallion Commission

I received a commission to sculpt a bas relief medallion about 24" x 24". This sculpture will be cast in Forton or Aqua Resin.

To start, I scaled up my drawing and laid it out on a piece of hard foam.

Then I traced the shape out onto the foam board using a marker.
Next I used my hot wire tools to cut the foam away. This stuff is toxic so I was careful to work in the garage and wear a mask!

Once everything was cut out, I drew in some guidelines for the shapes and began carving away using a serrated knife.

When I had the basic forms started, I refined them using files, rasps and sandpaper to further define the medallion.

Finally I put on a coat of primer to seal it. This serves two purposes: to keep the crumbly bits out of the clay and to give an even 'tooth' for the clay to adhere.

I'll let this dry overnight and then I'll come back with some warm oil-based clay and begin sculpting over this armature foam.

DIY Clay Warmer for less than $10

It's winter and here in Colorado, that means a cold studio. Cold clay is not only really hard on your hands, it is also prone to become brittle and crumble - not good for working at all.

So I have a really inexpensive but quite serviceable clay-warmer that you can make yourself for under $10 or quite possibly free if you have these things around your house anyway.

I took an old clip shop lamp and a 60w bulb and clipped it onto an Omaha Steaks styrofoam cooler that I got free off Craigslist. Because the cooler is deep and so insulated, it heats quickly and evenly. Even in my very cold studio. This is better than the old cooler that I had because it is deeper the light if further from the clay and the heat bounces around more so I have more even heating of the clay without melting or making it too hot to handle.

Because I use several different brands and types of oil-based clay, I try to keep the labels with the clay to avoid mixing them up.
I also need to warm the clay that is already in progress so I keep a 20 year old Black and Decker heat gun or hair dryer handy. I can warm the clay in the area that I am working and the oil-based clay will go from extremely hard and crumbly to buttery soft quite quickly. Hopefully these studio tips will help you in your sculpting.

Stan the Skeleton moves to my new studio

Art studios are messy places with more stuff than room. Tools, boxes, bags of clay, more bags of clay, kiln, molds, mold-making materials, scales, lights, photo equipment, files and photos, sinks, buckets, sponges, scrapers, wood, plumbing fixtures, hardware, tables, pedestals, works in progress....the list goes on.
So does the moving! I'm STILL in the process of getting my new studio space up and running full time. Finding the right place for everything is a challenge. Today's event was moving 150 pounds of clay and my buddy Stan.
Stan is a life-sized reproduction skeleton (I don't usually keep the real kind around ;-) that hangs around my studio so I can reference the anatomy when I'm working on figurative sculpture.
My family isn't very sad to see Stan go. They were never too keen on coming down to the basement where I was working and running into him. I really should dress him up more for holidays....perhaps this year a Santa hat.
Too bad the car windows are tinted.....could have been fun for the other commuters to see Stan in his seatbelt.

Portrait commission

Since my return from the sculpture class in Scottsdale, I've been working on a portrait bust commission. Can't post many photos now, was commission is a surprise gift for my client's wife.

Once they have the completed bust I will be able to post full photos showing the process.

Review of Polytek Poly 74-20 mold making rubber for brush on mold

I have finished making the mold and mother mold of my bas relief "Setting Her Sights." There is the first test casting in Aqua Resin moments after pulling it out of the mold.
You can see the full tutorial by looking at previous postings on my blog. Polytek Poly 74-20 liquid polyurethane rubber is designed for making flexible, high-performance, high-strength molds. This rubber is very liquid - much more so than many of the others that I have used. Think heavy cream instead of thick syrup.

This rubber is more often used for pouring a once piece block mold or making a blanket mold. I did not opt to do either but chose to do a brush-on mold instead. Block molds are easiest for bas reliefs, as you simply build a wall about 2" all around your relief sculpture, spray with release, mix the rubber compound and pour over the sculpture. When it cures you de-mold and you are ready to start casting.
While this mold is the easiest to make, it also requires a huge amount of rubber on a high relief such as this. If the highest point on my sculpt is 2" deep I would need to pour a mold that is about 3" deep. On an 18" x 24" sculpt at 3" deep for rubber - that's a lot of wasted rubber and the costs increase dramatically. True, if you do this pour you're done - no need to make a mother mold as the rubber holds the shape well - but the cost of material can be prohibitive - especially on a smaller run.

The next choice would be a blanket mold and it would work well too - I could have done that for this sculpture. I may do this mold for the next relief.
But I chose to make a brush-on mold. I didn't have Poly Fiber, but I did have Short Stuff, which worked well enough to thicken the rubber. I can see how pouring this rubber in a block or blanket mold would terrifically easy - it is very thin and pourable and absolutely no bubbles. I have tried pouring other rubbers and most had a thicker or gummier feel and had some bubbles which can be a nightmare, making glaring imperfections in your molds and subsequent castings.

I was pretty careful, using my postal meter to accurately measure out the 2 to 1 ratio, but my gut feeling is that this product is probably a little forgiving if you didn't have access to a scale and measured by volume instead, you'd probably have it work out just fine.
The very low viscosity of the 74-20 meant that it was very easy to stir and mix well with no bubbles and it brushed on very easily with a disposable chip brush. This was a plus for me, as the rubber was thin, light with very little weight or drag on the brush so there was no moving or distortion of the softer clay sculpture. For work with hard surfaces thick rubber or heavy -handed application isn't a problem, but for softer clays, the simple act of brushing a rubber on can cause real problems.
The first two coats were applied very thinly to pick up all the detail without disturbing the clay. Subsequent layers were thickened with the Short Stuff. It did take a lot of layers to build up the thickness of the rubber on the high points, as the rubber succumbed to gravity. Perhaps Poly Fiber 2 would have made the rubber thicker than the Short Stuff that I had on hand. I felt that the time between coats was easy to negotiate - not too fast and rushed and not waiting around eons for it to set up enough for the next coat. Overall it was very simple to use - taking 4-5 hours for me to build up the mold with very, very deep undercuts to fill.

When the rubber was cured (overnight) I sprayed it with release and made the mother-mold shell in forton and reinforced with fiberglass. I could have also added leveling legs, but instead opted to rest the open mold on sandbags as I will not be casting solid, but will casting in forton and aqua resin hollow.
Overall I am very pleased with the results. The rubber was thin enough that it brushed easily without squashing my clay and I could see that there were no bubbles. The mold that I pulled off of the clay sculpture is excellent with good stretch and excellent detail - it picked up all the detail and was easy to use.

Making a rubber mold for high bas relief tutorial

The sculpture is complete and ready for the mold. I am using Polytek's Poly 74-20 to make the mold. The sculpture is a high relief measuring 18"x 24" x 3" and took nearly all of the small 6lb kit of rubber. Since this is a fairly large and high relief I opted not to do a poured block mold. The block mold would have been easier and faster to make would would wasted a lot of mold rubber. A blanket mold would have worked too but I opted for a brush-on mold with a mother-mold shell instead.
This kit contains one container of A and two containers of B. You must stir B very well prior to mixing and directions state that use of a gram scale is recommended. You can get away with volume measurements if very precise but weight measuring is more reliable. In my case, I didn't have a gram scale so I used a postal meter scale which is good enough.
Be I measured the weight of the empty cup and deducted it from the weights of the rubber when measuring.
Here is a breakdown of steps by photos. Note that I have a few larger detail photos at the bottom:
A) Cover your work area. This is messy and does have an odor. I set things up on a covered table and assembled necessary items - the sculpt is under plastic.
B) Spray two light coats of Release Agent over the sculpt and the support board.
C) Set up supplies: scale, rubber, plastic cups, chip brushe, stirring sticks - newspaper to catch drips.
D) Stir part B well.
E) I marked two cups with A and B and resued them when measuring out the two ingredients.
F) Weighing out Part A
G) Weighing out Part B - I was sure to wipe any drips off scale.
H) Pour 1 part A and 2 parts B into larger cup
I) With clean stick mix and stir mixture well.
J) Using disposable chip brush, begin brushing light print coat onto the sculpture. I will be working in sections - mixing new batches as I go. Brush carefully and try not to make any air bubbles. This is a very thin mixture that isn't prone to bubbling, making a good print coat to catch all the details. Don't worry that it is thin and running off the high points - you will ad more later. Most important is a thin layer all over.
K) Continue mixing up more rubber and cover entire sculpt including a minimum 2" flange around the sculpture on the board.
L) Once the first coat of rubber is on, test with your gloved finger to see when it is ready for the next coat. If the rubber stick to your glove and pulls up it not ready and you would ruin the print coat if you tried to apply more rubber - wait a bit more and test again - the rubber should be tacky and leave a light imprint but should NOT pull up with your glove (detailed photos at bottom)
M) Continue to meaure out 1 Part A to 2 Parts B and mixing in a fresh larger container with a fresh stick and apply additional coats of rubber to the sculpt. The tendency will be for the rubber to slip off high points and pool in lower areas so the low areas will build up quickly. Contentrate on the high areas now.
N) As this rubber is meant more for poured bock molds, it stays quite thin. You can thicken the mixure using cabosil or short stuff. This rubber can be poured as supplied or thickened with Poly Fiber II or Fumed Silica for brushing.
N) I had short stuff on hand so this is what I used.
O) I pour small amounts of short stuff into my mixed rubber and stir well. I'm looking to make a stiffer consistency to build up the higher areas and begin to fill in any undercuts.
P) The mold rubber needs to build up to 1/4" to 3/8" to be sturdy enough for repeated use.
Q) I continue make the each batch of rubber thicker with more short stuff and use a mixing stick instead of brush to build up and fill in all undercuts.


R) I fill a plastic key molding tray with additional rubber and let it set up. With another coat of rubber, I demold the keys from the try and imbed them in fresh rubber on the flange to help key the rubber mold into the mother mold later.
S) From set up to final coat of rubber is about 6 hours with curing between coats. I've used about 12 stirring sticks, 10 disposable brushes, and 12-15 cups. I used 90% of the rubber in the kit. After letting the rubber cure overnight I come back and cut the excess off the flange.
T) Peeling back the rubber allows me to check that it is releasing well and that the print coat picked up all the detail.
The mold is complete but I must leave it intact with the clay sculpture still inside becuase I will now need to make a rigid mother mold to nestle the rubber into. The rubber is floppy and pliable - you need a firm shell to hold the shape when casting. The reason that I needed to build up those undercuts is so that the mold will pull out of the rigid shell.
Next up will be the Mother Mold tutorial.

 

  

 

Sculpting the Bas Relief Demonstration Tutorial part 7

When sculpting in oil-based clay, the clay remains pretty consistant. It does get harder or softer with temperature, but it's oil content remains stable.

Working in water-based clay is quite different. The clay dries when exposed to air. Here in semi-arid Colorado it dries significantly faster than in humid Florida.

You will find that if you are holding clay in one hand an applying that clay to your sculpt with your other hand or a tool, that the clay in your hand dries very quickly - you'll see gray dust on your fingers and cracking clay on your hand - the contact of your skin to the clay is wicking the moisture from the clay. That makes it stiffer and more likely to crumble.

To counter this, if I'm working with smaller bits of clay, I'll take a ball of it and slap it onto an unfinished area of my sculpt - in this case a portion of the sky but it could as easily be the hair or the base of the shoulders if a bust. That way the clay is sitting on the clay and retains about the same moisture content...I simply take a pinch or use my tool to grab a swipe of the clay for application.

At this stage of the sculpt, areas are starting to dry out a bit. I am now starting to cover those sections with a damp paper towel to keep it from getting too dry when working in other areas. It will get progressively drier and firmer as I'm working, allowing for more accurate detailing.

Review of customer servive: Polytek Mold and Casting

When it comes to materials and service, I always want to hear when someone has a good or bad experience. In this case, I give two thumbs up to Polytek for there wonderful service.

I called them up with a question on one of their materials. I had used their Poly PT Flex 20 rubber for one of my reliefs. The mold process when well, in fact I was very happy at how easy it was to mix and use and how quickly I built up the mold. Peeling back an area once dry, I peeked at the mold and it looked great - really capturing the detail and had a nice give (important with my deep undercuts.) I was pleased and went to make the mother mold shell out of Forton to make it strong and light.

The problem came when I tried to remove the forton shell from the rubber - it had bonded completely - and I do mean COMPLETELY to the rubber.
The whole thing was ruined and a lot of money lost, not to mention the time and the damage done to the original sculpture. I had to repair the sculpture before making a new mold.

It was crunch time for a big show and I was under the gun - so waited until the dust had settled before calling up Polytek to ask them if the product was incompatible with Forton and what I could do to fix the problem, since I still have quite a bit of the product left and don't want to waste all the material not to mention the money.

Here's where the good customer service comes in:

1) A PERSON answered the phone! Not a robo voice and endless loop telling me to punch a number for something - love having live people on the phone!

2) This real live person handed the phone to another real live person who knew the products involved - immediately - no waiting - they walked over and handed the phone to Stan.

3) Stan LISTENED. That's not a small point - let me make this clear, he LISTENED. Then he actually asked questions. We chatted for a bit and he explained that the rubber I used is usually used for casting and not molding. True - it was an unusual choice to use it for casting but I was under a tight deadline and this set up much faster than my other choice. The store I purchased it from knew it was a different use, but that it could work and given my unique situation for time the only choice.

4) We discussed the mold realease the I used (2300....but to be fair I also had 2500 on hand....did I use the wrong one?) Stan said 2300 was preferred but both should have worked like a dream. I freely admit to being in a sleep deprived state working long hours - I could have really messed up the release prior to putting on the forton.

5) Stan didn't say it was my fault. He said it should have worked but that he felt I would like one of their other products better and would I like to try it out? Well, yeah I would! I didn't call to complain, beat anyone up or expect a free sample. I called to find out if I used the product incorrectly and if it would was something I could still use for my needs or was it was waste for what I was trying to do.

6) Stan took my information and offered to send me a sample of the product.

7) I received an email from Stan within hours of our conversation.

8) Four days later this package arrived on my doorstep.

9) The packaged was packed with environmentally friendly peanuts that are food-based and dissolve in water - Yeah!

10) I received a generous sample of their 74-20 molding rubber to try on my new relief that I'll be finishing next week.

Once the relief is finished, I'll photo the entire process of making a mold using this sample of 74-20 and will post it all on my blog.

And that folks, is how a company gives great service.

Bas Relief wall sculpture for your home, garden or office

My new bas reliefs are now ready for purchase and will be easy to ship as they weigh less than 8lbs each.

These are the first two in a series of four wall sculptures featuring strong young women and incorporating symbolism with flowers and animals.

Reliefs are especially nice because they are wall hung, like paintings, but have depth and spacial presence. While reliefs can be cast in bronze, you'll find that they require special walls and hardware for hanging due to the heavy weight of metal.

When decorating your home or garden with plaques and wall relief sculptures, take the environment into consideration. Is the wall stucco and sand colored? Or dark wood? The background that the sculpture is set against can make a real difference allowing the art to shine and create a special and inviting atmosphere.

 A small sculpture would require a small wall for display or else the sculpture should be part of a grouping - otherwise it can get lost on the wall and lose its impact.

The color and texture on the wall or plants or furniture nearby also work for or against your new art purchase. If you have a busy brick wall, putting a detailed painting or sculpture next to it could result in too much to look at - lessening your enjoyment of the work. Think in terms of contrast to make the most of your art and surroundings: dark against light, texture against smooth, detail against plain.

These weather resistant high bas relief sculptures have a hand created patina and no two are exactly alike. In fact, you can request custom colors to truly personalize the art.

You may buy these wall sculptures as a grouping or individually at $495 each.

Contact me for availability and to purchase sculpture.
Gallery and dealer inquires are also welcome.

You can view larger photos on my website:
"Standing Her Ground" and "True to Herself".

Cheats, Thiefs and New Bas Reliefs

 Cheating and stealing are sad facts of life. Unfortunately it happens to artists all the time. I'm currently having to decide if it is worth the cost of an attorney to go after a company that I have worked with in the past for theft of royalties on my work.....

While at the Loveland Sculpture in the Park show in August a number of people politely asked if they could take photos of my work on display. 90% were lovely people who enjoyed my work and wanted to take a picture of my Danny Kaye sculpture because it made them smile - of photos of my new bas relief sculptures because it reminded them of their daughter or granddaughter. And I gave them permission because they asked nicely and they honestly told me their intentions.

But the one that makes my blood boil is the smarmy man who strode into my booth and snapped away photos of my work while I was talking with another visitor. When I turned to approach him he gave me a look out of the corner of his eye and quickly swooped up close to these reliefs for one last photo before darting out of my booth.

He was up to no good and will likely be stealing something from my work - I've encountered his kind before and it is a sad fact of the business that people do this.

So, for you art lovers out there, please be polite when at art shows. Ask before you take photos. Most artists will let you take a photo if you ask, but this is how we make our living - so we must try to be careful at the same time. Not to bash on any countries out there - but there are a few that notoriously steal images from artists and set up sweatshops to produce cheap knock-offs of our work.

Rant over. So here are the two new reliefs that got a lot of attention at the Loveland Sculpture in the Park show. They measure 18" x 24" each and are made of Forton (polymer modified fiberglass reinforced gypsum). Think of it as plaster on steroids. Forton is lighter than plaster, much stronger, especially with the fiberglass, and weather resistant. These are properly sealed and can be displayed outdoors and weigh about 7 lbs each.

Revising works in progress - portraits in clay for bronze

I refined the maquette of "The Pageturner". A lot of the work was done listening to the Wendy Woo concert at the CSU Lagoon Concert Series, where I sculpted at the show.

Surprisingly, this clay is also Chavant LeBeau Touche. This clay, however is light in color, which I much prefer to two reasons:
1) It's easier to see the shapes and shadows of forms
2) It doesn't stain everything

This clay was less sticky and responded much better than the terra cotta colored clay that I used for "Waiting on the #9". That leaves me to believe that the clay is quite nice, actually, and I simply must have had a bad batch for that earlier sculpt. This is still a bit soft, but had a much more lovely feel to it. This isn't an exact portrait of my daughter, but rather an impression of her: forever lost in her books and absently playing with her earrings or necklace and simply lovely in her quiet repose.

As you can see, it is quite small, but I rather like her as a tiny piece and may cast her as is and then enlarge to 1/2 life size later.

I also did some more work on the portrait of my daughter in water-based clay. After hollowing out too soon and suffering the consequences, I've got her nearly completed. The clay has firmed up nicely and I will put the finishing touches on her tonight and let dry before firing. This piece is life-sized, using CT3 clay.

Sculpting Portrait demo continued

 Today I worked on the likeness more and finally put some hair on her. The clay is very heavy- there is about 30lbs of wet clay here.

This portrait will need to rest and firm up a bit before I can move on. The next step will be to cut her open and hollow her out. There is so much wet clay that it can't support itself yet.

You need not do too much work on it at this point, because the chances of it getting crushed are quite good. Better to wait until it is leather hard.

So now we wait...

Portrait sculpting demo - Daughter

I started a life-sized portrait bust of my daughter this week. Below you will see the progression of where I started and up to this point.

First, I began by by crumpling some newspaper into a ball shape and taping it over a post. Next I added a generous amount of CT3 waterbased clay to form a general starting head shape. Then I made some lines to dived the head into proportion.

After that I began to carve out the eye sockets and refine the head shape and then began blocking the forms of the features.

Once I got that far, I added shapes and continued to refine the shapes. Up until this point I wasn't too concerned with getting a likeness - it was all about forms, shapes and proportions.

 

Now that I've gotten this far, I will let the clay rest a bit, allowing it to firm up. Then I will go back and begin to seriously define the forms, correct any proportion errors that I find and begin honing the likeness.  This portrait is just of 1/2 completed and has used nearly 1 full bag (25lbs) of clay. I will probably need another 1/3 to 1/2 bag of clay to complete the bust.