Sculpting Loss - off to moldmaker

Been crazy busy - lots of illustration work, daughter graduating and folks visiting!
I finished up sculpting the emotion of 'loss' and got her to the moldmaker. It was an experiment in sculpting water-based clay over armature for bronze. I really enjoy sculpting in waterclay - but with the extended time that took, it dried out several times, which is quite problematic.

Also, there was some cracking in thinner areas that will all have to be fixed each and every time in wax.....so that will be a chore.

So, if I do waterclay again, it will need to be done on a faster time schedule to keep those problems at bay.

 The photos are quite awful, but I didn't have time to get better ones.Currently the sculpt is now at the mold-makers so we can get the first wax poured and off to the foundry.
15" tall x 4" wide x 15" long.

This sculpture represents the emotion of loss and pain. The base is the shadow of the woman - depicting the feeling of despair stretching ahead of us, darkening our path. The small hole in the base is her heart...

Sculpting emotion of Loss continued

 I've been inundated with publishing deadlines, so haven't had much time for sculpting. I've finished with blocking in the forms and establishing the figure. Before I go too much further, I need to determine the flow of the hair and dress.

When I work on a sculpt, it is very important to me that all the parts work in agreement. In my tiny maquette of this, the dress was fairly still and the hair was blowing away from the face, however as I work on this I'm leaning more towards the hair and dress blowing forward and whipping around and past her face. This will cast some shadows and obscure her face a bit however I think the effect will be one of loneliness and a feeling of being enveloped and overwhelmed - which, to me, is how loss feels.

So - I will refine her forms and her face before putting on the dress and hair, but this gives me a better idea of things. Next I will cut off the hair, dress and arms. The hands are next on the agenda and will be difficult to do. Once I've finished the arms and hands and re-attached, it will be time to sculpt the hair, dress and sandals - the zen icing on the cake in terms of working and I'm really looking forward to that part. I'm sure I'll be playing a lot of quiet cello music on my Pandora when getting to those nuances - the mood must all match...

CT3 Water-based clay over a wire armature to be made into bronze.