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

A Room with a View - working on patina

Some of my new bronzes have come back from the foundry. I am waiting for my appointment with my patina artist for "Two Possible Outcomes" (Least Bittern) however I have chosen to do my own patina for "A Room with a View" shown here.

This little tree frog will be mounted to a 4" round tiered hardwood base will measures 5" tall with the base - 4" on his own.

Still finishing up the clay for "Knowing Her Strength" bas relief and should be posting photos soon.

The base for this patina of Verdegris Green is Cupric Chloride and Ammonium Chloride.

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!

Chasing and more wax chasing

I've been busy chasing wax. First it was the new wax for "Waiting on the #9" that needed to go to the foundry and next it was the new wax for the Least Bittern sculpt "Two Possible Outcomes". The sculpture is cut into pieces during the mold-making procedure and the wax is poured and ready for chasing.

The process from clay to bronze is long and arduous. You can see that the wax pour has seam lines where the mold comes together. Sometimes they are small and easily removed but sometimes they are large and require hours of work to fix.

Bubbles are a common problem. I had the foundry pour 3 frogs and each one had this bubble. I did a test pour at home that I took extra time to brush the hot wax into the mold before pouring and it yielded better results with no bubble so I will probably pour the waxes for this frog...the extra time for me to brush and pour the hot wax was considerably less than the time it took for me to correct, fill and fix these imperfections.

All in all, the wax chasing took quite a bit of time to complete and return to the foundry - now the next step for them is to start making the slurry shell. The estimated time for the this to be in bronze is 7/24/15...and it was turned into the foundry on 5/27/15 - as I said - a long process to get to metal and then even more time to apply the patina and mount the base.

Least Bittern at foundry and offered at precast pricing

I have finished the life-sized Least Bittern with green tree frog. I'm still pondering the title of the piece and the predicament of the little green frog but it is currently at the foundry getting the mold made before staring the arduous process of casting in bronze.

This sculpture is of a Least Bittern, smallest of the herons in the U.S., perched upon reeds. This is their common practice for feeding. These little birds are slow-moving and rather than wading like larger herons they take advantage of their smaller size by hiding among the grasses and reeds and perching motionless to hunt with their spearlike bills. Its prey are small fish, insects, freshwater shrimp and yes, frogs.

This Least Bittern sculpture measures about 14.75" high x 10.5" wide by 11" deep and will be cast in traditional bronze and have a shaped wood base. Currently being offered at pre-cast pricing starting at $2100*. The retail price will be $2800 in a limited edition of 20.

*Precast pricing is the practice of offering to sell the first of a limited edition of bronze before the offical release date at a discount to help offset the costs of producing a bronze edition.
I am offering the following pre-cast discounts:
25%  discount on #1 of 20
20%  discount of #2 of 20
15%  discount of #3 of 20
10%  disount of #4 of 20
5%    discount of #5 of 20
Sculptures must be purchased prior to the release date of July 31st. 50% down to pace the order, 50% upon delivery of the sculpture. Money back gurantee on my work. Foundry time is 9-12 weeks from placement of order to delivery of finished bronze.

Email or call to place your order.

How to improve your sculpture.....it's all about the silhouette.

The best things about taking workshops are meeting other great sculptors and learning new techniques from a master....or relearning old ones. I am sometimes amazed at important tools of the trade that can be forgotten to be used over the years because you are consumed with a new thought, tool, medium or technique.

While at the Sandy Scott workshop in Scottsdale recently she reminded me of something that I'd known about but hadn't been actively using for some time. I say 'actively' because I was employing this technique without conscious thought, but it is so much more powerful a tool when used with purpose and consistently.

The technique I'm referring to is Silhouetting the Work. Painters may do a value sketch to find the shapes and make the composition stronger but sculptors can employ backlighting. With painting, you make one great value sketch and you're in the homestretch, but sculptors must work from every conceivable angle. People don't just look at a sculpture like they would a painting, from basically one vantage point. They will walk completely around the work, or turn the spinning base, to view it from every angle and that also includes from above or slightly below. That is a lot of different viewpoints and the risk of having a dull or underworked area is expanded with every different viewpoint.

So our job is to make the work stunning - from every side. A tall order to say the least. It's so easy to get caught up in one area, one point of view. But that will make for weak work.
By putting the piece into a strong lighting situation, you reduce the the work to a silhouette - seeing only the dark mass that is the work (and doing your best to ignore the pipes or armature needed to create the work). Sandy likes to place her work in front of a bright window to make it dark. Lacking that option in my studio, I shine a light on the wall behind my sculpture which works quite well. Then, with the sculpture dark, you can turn the work and look at it from many angles to see if the shapes and negative spaces are interesting from all viewpoints. Does the sculpture 'read' as it is intended? Does it make sense to the viewer? If this sculpture was placed in the collector's living room window and the afternoon sun sent it into darkness - would it still be beautiful?

That is my goal as an artist. Bring more beauty into the world - celebrate the beauty that exists. Help people notice things more. When a sculpture can be strong when only a shadow, then it is strong, period. If it is uninteresting or simply a single dark shape in silhouette, then all the surface work and patina colors in the world won't make up for that.

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.

Life sized clay study of Least Bittern Bird

This is a life-sized clay study that I started at Sandy Scott's bird workshop at the Scottdale Artists School.

Sandy and the rest of the class were workin on an Arctic Tern but I chose to go with a closed-wing sculpture as I was going to be taking this back to my studio for further work and needed to be able to easily dismantle from the board and armature and box up as carry-on for my flight back to Colorado. Working with a pose like this made it possible to transport rather easily with minimal damage.

I also chose this bird as it is a wader and I had some ideas for placing it within reeds and wanted to work out my own ideas for casting and basing.

This sculpture measures about 12.5" tip to tail and 5.5 wide and is sculpted in Chavant's Le Beau Touche oil based clay.

Bufflehead Duck study in Chavant Clay at Scottsdale Artist School

I was awarded a scholarship to attend the workshop of my choice at the Scottsdale Artists School located in Scottsdale, Arizona.

As my plan was to branch out into wildlife sculpture this year it was hard to choose between so many excellent instructors. Ultimately I settled on the Sandy Scott workshop because she was going to emphasize working with custom armature building, anatomy and artistic reasoning. All of these things, plus Sandy's disciplined approach to her work and life-long achievements were areas that I was keen to work on.

I wasn't disappointed. Sandy was well organized and her partner, Trish, was also there to help and give her input into mold-making and casting tips - so valuable when working on sculpture ideas to find the best and most viable ways of working to see it through from conception to completed foundry casting.

We spent a good deal of time learning bird anatomy, aerodynamics of flight, behaviors, researching and then armature building. What is especially nice is that everything I was learning relating to birds for this specific course will easily translate into mammals and humans when sculpting other subjects.

Sandy was generous in sharing tips on research, work methods and materials and sculpting tips. She was just as receptive to learning new tips from any students who had things to contribute as well and the whole class had a very nice rapport. We began by working on armature building and sculpting a study of a Bufflehead Duck. It was a great exercise and I enjoyed the process. Being a workshop, however, I was there to learn and not take home a prize - so at the end of class I cut apart and recycled this study. I'm looking forward to applying what I learned in new sculpture works very soon.

Armature was 1/2" plumbing pipe with t-bar, bailing wire and foil. The clay is Chavant Le Beaux Touche (regular not High Melt)

The workshop ran from Saturday through Wednesday from 9am to 4pm and the building, grounds and staff were wonderful. I will definitely be returning for additional workshops in the future and keeping Scottsdale in mind for teaching in my future, too.

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.

Forton Bas Reliefs can take the weather changes outside...

Colorado is an area with some extreme weather and temperature changes. Last week we had temps near 70 degrees, almost record-setting for mid to late December.

Today's high, however, was 5 degrees and I write this it is currently minus 7 degrees and will be minus 11 degrees later this evening.
I snapped a quick photo of my cast bas reliefs in the snow today. I had to brush them off as they had been covered with more than 8" of snow earlier.

The wild temperature and humidity changes haven't affected them at all and they look just as lovely on the garden walls in the snow as they do with summer blooms around them.

It's nice to have outdoor sculptures that hang on garden walls, courtyards and fences to enjoy all year round.

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 demostration tutorial part 8 - finishing the work

A bout with the flu and two small portrait commissions have kept me away from this sculpt. Now I'm feeling better and the sculptures have been shipped to Australia and it's back to work.

This relief had some drying and cracking in areas that I had to cut away and put fresh clay into. Always a risk with water-based clay when you leave a project to rest for a while. So after repairing some areas I went back into refine the flowers and then soften with a bit of water. After that, I decided to add some additional hair to the right side of her face to improve the overall composition of this piece.

While that was setting up a bit, I went into the dress to add some detail - first a hint of bodice then texture and some pleating. Finally a small bow for interest.

With some additional touchups and work in the new hair area, I finally finished up the sculpture. I would prefer to mold it right away but my schedule doesn't have the time required for multiple coats of mold rubber and this is a process that simply can't be interrupted. So it looks like I will have to spray this up well, lay it flat with several layers of plastic to try to keep it from drying too much and wait for Monday to give the mold-making process my full and undivided attention.

My next tutorial will be the process of making the mold and mother-mold for this sculpture.

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.

Sculpting the Bas Relief demonstration tutorial part 6

 My sister sewed up some sleeve protectors for me. My studio gets quite cold and I'm often wearing jackets and sweaters, which drag in the clay and get dirty. I drew up a quick idea and she sewed a sample set for me. They go over the tops of my sleeves and the elastic keep the cuffs of my clothes from getting into contact with the clay. Works great - will make the next set a tad longer.

Now that most of the relief has the forms in place and I feel confident of the anatomy of the arm, it's time to rough in the sunflowers that she'll be holding. It's important to sculpt the arm even though it is covered up because if you cheat on the anatomy, it will look off - people won't be fooled. So you don't have to bring that area to finish but the anatomy should be solid and convincing.

I begin by working the stem shapes and placing the largest forms of the sunflowers and then start to refine the shapes. The clay will need to set up a bit before I work the petals and leaves. I plan to do them in a loose manner to keep the focus on the girl.

Next I take a homemade brush made from broom twigs and crosshatch all the forms to homogenize them a bit.