Mystery Sculpt #2 revealed: Eleanor Roosevelt portrait bust

 Mystery Clay Sketch Sculpt #2 Finished.

This clay sketch is about 5.5-6" tall and is a portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt. The clay is a ceramic paperclay called Max's Clay. The paperclay has interesting properties but it doesn't tool very well in a subtractive manner - the paper drags, clumps and clogs your tools - especially rake tools.

It does additive work much better and is very versatile.

This sketch has been hollowed and is drying for firing later - then I will use the sketch as the basis for a larger sculpture - possibly in a porcelain clay.

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.

Frederick Douglas Bust fired - introducing Clay Sketches

My historical portrait bust of abolitionist Frederick Douglass fired perfectly and is awaiting the patina stage later this week. In the mean time, before I start my next "Mystery Sculpt" I thought I would introduce you to my Clay Sketches.

While I love to draw, I find that my ideas for sculpture germinate more fully when I sketch in 3D. So I will create a loose sculpture in clay (oil or ceramic) that captures what I am trying to portray. Sometimes I will make several of the same idea with different twists. In this way I can work out balance issues (so important in sculpture), clothing and nuances of gestures.

So - here is the "sketch" of Frederick Douglass. The finished fired piece is in the background. The fired portrait is 16" tall (clay shrinks as it dries and further shrinks when fired).

The sketch is 4.5" tall. It will likely be about 4" tall when dried and fired - make it roughly 1/5 scale to actual fired portrait.

I personally love to the loose, painterly look of sketches. Don't let the term sketch fool you into thinking not finished - it is, but in a more free and sometimes more artistically pure fashion as I don't overwork these pieces.

I will finish drying and firing this sculpture - and I will begin to offer a series of sketches for sale. It will be nice to offer original, finished sculptures for a low entry price point -  I'll make an announcement when they become available. Each one will be an original. I may have several sculpts of the same individual due to the fact that I'm making small changes to find the right look - but each one will be a unique and separate work.

Amaco Pasta Machine & Great Customer Service

In addition to working in fired ceramic clay and oil clay for purposes of bronze, I do work in other mediums as well. I've produced work in air-dry paperclay and also in polymer clay. Sculpting in different mediums requires different tools. When working in polymer clay, I work in miniature and small scale, sculpting the human figure in the form of fairies and sell them on Ebay - perhaps I'll have some on Etsy soon.

One of my goals of working small and in polymer clay is to master this clay and do some work for the collectibles industry and by sculpting the fairies, I am teaching myself more about the medium and sculpting on this small scale.

When working in polymer clay is is imperative that you condition the clay careful to distribute the oils, soften it to a workable consistency and ensure blended clays and colors. To do this, I cut the clay into small pieces and feed them through my Amaco Pasta Machine. I'm sure that I purchased this piece of equipment 10+ years ago and use it for oil clay and polymer clay as needed. One day, while clamping it to my desk, the thumb screw on the clamp broke in two. I used epoxy clay to rebuild the thumbscrew and got another year of use out of it but it broke in two again when using on January 7th.
This time, I went to Amaco.com and contacted them about possibly getting a new thumbscrew piece to replace the broken one. On January 8th, I promptly received an email reply that they would send one to me.

Yesterday the part came in the mail - the packeage is postmarked Jan. 8th. Same day service! They not only sent the thumbscrew - they sent a replacement handle and clamp to boot. This is excellent customer service and Amaco will be at the top of my list for any supplies that I need in the future. Love companies that respond quickly go the extra mile.

Mystery Person revealed: Frederick Douglass

Many people on my Facebook Page guessed correctly. The mystery person is Frederick Douglass. The clay sculpture of Frederick Douglass is nearly finished. The clay will continue to firm up to the leather hard state and I'll make a few minor additional touches as this happens. It will need to dry to a firm state to allow me to cut the sculpture in half and begin the hollowing out process that will allow me to fire it in my kiln. This life-sized piece will take a month to dry enough for firing. Once hollowed, I'll slip and score the edges, reassemble and repair the surface.

This clay is slab and sculpture and tile and sculpture cone 10 water-based clay with a heavy grog.

Mystery Sculpt continued - blocking in the clothing

The mystery person is taking shape. I began to rough in the clothing. The head was quite heave so I cut off the top and did some early hollowing. I will need to hollow much more next week when it firms up. It's tempting to finish more, but I know that the process of cutting the sculpt open, hollowing out and reassembling will invariably lead to some damage, so I'll resist finishing it much more until the piece is leather hard and ready for that phase.
Since I was using us some Slab and Sculpture clay, I didn't have any more of that particular clay to finish the clothing. I was able to get something quite similar called Tile and Sculpture from The Stone Leaf Pottery in Arvada, CO - a bit over an hour drive from my studio. The folks there were very helpful and I was able to get this clay (cone 10) and several other bags to try out on my next sculptures. While the heavy, sandy, groggy texture of this clay is nearly identical, the color is a bit darker red. That won't matter when I do the patina, however so isn't a concern.

Continuing the portrait

 Today was one of those days - modem was coughing and sputtering and finally gave up the ghost - second time in 8 months - I spent several hours trying to get a different brand but alas, this one is the only one in town for dsl.

So even though I've gone through two of these already - I had to exchange it for the same model....and know that it will probably go the same way as the first. Will be giving some serious thoughts to new ISP if this keeps up.

Anyone out there know of a truly reliable DSL that will play nice with my Airport?

I did some refining of forms, but my time was broken and that makes it less productive. Tomorrow I should get some real time into the piece and perhaps get a chance to start blocking in the clothing too.

Any guesses as to who the person his?

New portrait sculpture bust started - guess the person

I started a new sculpture portrait bust two days ago. My camera wasn't charged, so the beginning photos weren't taken, but I followed the same working method that I used for "Harriet Tubman - Fierce", and "Old Soul".

First I created an armature and then padded the head area using balled up newspaper covered in tape, then I covered the newspaper with clay about 1/2" thick. Then I wadded up more newspaper to form the shape of the shoulders and upper chest and covered that in clay. Next I began blocking in the forms.

The clay that I am using is a water-based clay with a very high grog and sand content called "Slab and Sculpture" that I purchased from Mile High Ceramics (now closed) in Denver. This bag of clay had been stored for quiet some time and had gotten very hard. I poured a cup or two of water into the bag, sealed it inside another bag and rotated the bag every day for two weeks. This allowed the water to soak through the clay evenly and become usable again. I may not have quite enough to finish the entire bust, so if necessary, I'll use a similar clay for the clothing.

The clay is very strong and heavy with low shrinkage rate but the very rough nature of the clay takes a bit of getting used to. Don't think you can used water and make a slick and shiny surface, you really can't. You can burnish it, to make the surface smooth if that is what you desire, but a clay with this texture begs to have the texture used, not hidden.

This sculpture is life-sized and will be a bust with some shoulders showing. I'll continue to post the progress and in the mean time, feel free to leave comments guessing who the person is - people will be guessing on my Facebook Page also. I'll post the name at a later date....

Using the proportional calipers - a lot!

 Clay is so malleable that it moves constantly while you are working. If you spend more than 30 minutes in any given area you are practically guaranteed that you'll be ripping off that work later when you find mistakes. You must step back and turn your work constantly - no zoning out on one small section because as the clay moves it effects other areas and distortion sets in.

I'm constantly grabbing my trusty proportional calipers and double checking my measurements. While work like this figure is a figment of my imagination and I have no actual model standing there to reference, I do refer to anatomy books, charts and a life-sized skeleton that I keep in my studio.

Additionally I will sometimes take measurement of myself as a general guide - if my sculpture is an adult female, that is. Naturally that won't work if I'm sculpting a man.

Here I am taking a measurement of my forearm near my wrist using the larger end of the calipers. I'm working roughly at 1/4 life size (this sculpt is about 16" tall - 16" x 4 = 64" tall, or about 5'4" tall. I'm about 5'5" so I'm a good fit for measuring this particular sculpt). I have the the calipers set to 1/4 scale.

Now I simply flip the calipers around and use the smaller side to measure my sculpture's wrist. I do this often as I work to be sure the proportions are working.

Feminizing the forms - more blocking in of muscle mass

 Today I began to refine the muscle shapes and feminize the entire figure. I gave some basic contouring and features to the face and continued blocking in the muscles and forms of the body.

I must say that I am really enjoying the Clayette clay by Chavant - creamy without being too sticky.

Continuing to block in the musculature

 I continued blocking in the musculature today. I laid in the basic muscle shapes over the skeleton and then began to put in the beginnings of the face. It's hard to stop at this stage because I can start to see the sculpt taking shape and want to continue.

However, taking a break for dinner and sleep is advisable. When you look at the sculpt again first thing in the morning after some time away you can see areas that need work or correction. Not rushing things always makes better art - but I'll be the first to admit that it's very tempting to put in the artistically pleasing things, like details and hair, long before it is time to do so.

Patience and persistence really pays off. If the sculpt looks good without all the extras, then it's stronger and more beautiful overall.

Laying in some muscle mass - continuing the work on building the figure

 Sorry I skipped a step - I photographed the last of the skeleton but the photos didn't come out well enough to post. So here I have finished the simple skeleton and have progressed into laying in some of the major muscle masses.

As the finished sculpture is not an ecorche study, I am not concerned with making every muscle with attachments and origins. My goal is to lay in the shapes and forms of the muscles that most effect the surface.

I am using Chavant's Clayette in Hard for the skeleton and hands and Clayette Medium for the muscle mass. I will also use the hard for the face and hair as this is a small scale piece.

You'll notice that the hands look a bit big in the beginning. This is because there is little muscle - mostly bone and tendons in the hands and feet whereas the legs and arms have a lot of muscle and fat. When you strip the figure of a lot of the muscle and fat - the hands will look larger in proportion to the overall figure. As I flesh out the rest of the figure you'll see the hands and feet will look more normal with the larger forms of the legs, arms and body to balance things out.

My husband just walked by and wondered aloud if all this skeleton and muscle work was necessary and wouldn't it be easier and faster just to glob it on? Short answer - yes and no. Sometimes I do just jump straight to large masses (outer form of skin) and quickly set things up. But taking the long road (bones and muscles) does things for a piece of art that just can't be achieved any other way.

Scupting the skeleton

Now that I have completed armature it's time to block in the bony structures. The goal here is to claim the anatomy space and landmarks. I'm not displaying a skeleton as my final art so I'm not concerned with making a complete replica of a skeleton, nor will I sculpt every knob, spur or fossa. The purpose of this is to very sure of my proportion and to control the overall line and movement of my sculpt. Tedious though it is to sculpt a plate and a ball and socket, it will pay dividends later.

Using my proportional calipers I am able to compare relationships between skull and other parts of the anatomy to be sure the piece is working in harmony. I may choose to take liberties but these are conscious design choices and not guesstimations or accidents.

This time I also did an additional step of creating removable forearms. I used a rotary tool to cut square brass tubing and then cut the forearms up near the elbow joint. I used a two-part epoxy to secure the square tubing by inserting the upper arm into the tubing 1/2 the length of the tubing. Once the epoxy set I was able to put the forearm in the tube until it meets the upper arm. This will make it easier to remove the arms from the body to sculpt the hands.
 Once I finish blocking in the skeleton, I'll start massing in the muscles and flesh.

For this sculpt I'm deviating from my usual jmac classic clay and trying out Chavant's Clayette in Hard. I love Jmac but it's always nice to try new things. Many clays are good for different reasons - some work better for small works and other for large works. I've used JMac as my go-to clay for a lot of my work and while I liked Chavant's Le Beau Touche but found that it was too soft for my smaller work. That doesn't mean that it's not a great clay - it just means that I may have a heavier hand, or that it is better suited to larger works where the softness is an advantage.

When it comes to clay, you can read reviews and see what other sculptors are using but ultimately it comes down to personal preference and you'll need to get your hands on some to try out for yourselves. And, like me, you will probably find several that you love and have specific applications for.

Making changes and corrections to your wire armature

 Once the armature was very secure and those feet firmly attached to the board I began laying in some clay on the wire to create a simple skeleton framework. A guest to my studio was curious as to why I would go through the work and trouble to do this as it will all get covered up later. One major reason is that proper anatomy begins with the bones. If the bones are wrong, the rest will be wrong too. Placement of major bony landmarks helps the artist create the forms of the body and by starting with the basics, you have a firm foundation. It's also much easier to see and correct problems before you get too far along in the sculpt.
In this case, I found my problem rather quickly. By using some of the leg wire to firmly attach the armature to the base (and allow space for the clay ground upon which she stands) the leg armature was shortened. Not dramatically for physical accuracy, but as an artist I can take liberties to create the art as I wish, rather than is average. In this case, I want my figure to be a more balletic figure of 8.5 heads. By roughing in the bones I immediately detected that the legs were going to be shorter than my desired length.

A quick check with my proportional calipers confirmed my eye and I set about deciding how much I needed to lengthen my leg wire. I decided that the best place to add wire is to the femur, as the upper leg has more muscle and fat. So I cut the wire at the upper part of the leg and raised the torso bolt up the support pole to create a gap where I cut the wires. I now had lower legs attached to the board and the rest of the armature hovering above the lower legs.

Then I took a smaller gage aluminum wire and cut it longer than the gap separating the legs. With floral tape, I secured the new wire to the armature and then wrapped with fine gage copper wire to firmly secure to existing armature wire.

Once the wire was wrapped, I mixed a two part epoxy putty and covered the femur - once cured the new armature area is stronger than the original - the lengthened leg addition is now exactly what I want and the armature has been altered to meet the needs of this particular sculpt.
Remember - you can create your own armatures or make changes to store-bought armatures at any time to suit your style and tastes.
(Oh - and if you are wondering about the toothpick - that is marking the Suprasternal notch - another useful landmark....)

"Waiting on the #9" wins 3rd place sculpture at 43rd WAOW Exhibition

Lori Kiplinger Pandy's bronze figure sculpture "Waiting on the #9" won 3rd place for sculpture at the Women Artists of the West 43rd National Exhibition. (WAOW)

"Waiting on the #9" depicts of a young woman, sassy purse dangling from one finger. It is a study of a casually confident commuter, waiting for the train. I created this sculpture following a trip to Switzerland where I enjoyed the tremendously efficient public transportation and the cavalier attitude of seasoned travelers.
This was an amazing show by the Women Artists of the West. I had the opportunity to meet, socialize and talk shop with some of the top artists in America. I was honored to have been juried into such a prestigious show and even more honored to have my bronze take third place for sculpture. Artist Karen Vance was the judge of awards and was generous in giving advice to any artist who asked and graciously shared her time and experience with us all.

This year the high-caliber show is being held in Estes Park, Colorado and runs through July 28th, 2013 at the Cultural Arts Council Gallery in Estes Park. (http://www.estesarts.com/)

"Waiting on the #9" © Lori Kiplinger Pandy - bronze edition of 20
$2500 (shipping $35 - please contact for shipping quote to countries outside of U.S.)