Bald is beautiful...well it needs to be for a successful sculpt

 I'm back in the studio and the weather is cooling down here in northern Colorado. That means more heating of the clay in order to work ;-)

Picked up where I left off in enlarging "A Good Read" from my original small maquette. It's starting to take shape now and soon will start coming together nicely. It's so tempting to get in there an caress the features of the face but to do so now would be counter-productive. It's like dessert - you really should save the caress for last.

And hair ;-) Hair adds so much to a sculpture but if you cheat and put hair on too soon you can lull yourself into thinking that the work is stronger than it is. The sculpture should really look good without the lovely decorations or hair or clothes. If it looks good before these additions, the work will be even better after. So all you sculptors out there - suffer through the ugly phases - leave them bare until you really work out forms - it's worth the pain in the long run.

Next I'll be working on making hand armatures and adding the hands before moving forward with any more mass or detail to the head or body.
 This is sculpted at 1/2 life size using Jmac Classic clay firm and medium.