Portrait Sculpting Workshop with Lori Kiplinger Pandy

I am teaching sculpting classes and workshops this year.
More info on my site:
http://kiplingerpandy.com/classes.html

Sculpting from the Inside Out

5 day workshop

Sculpting expression in the portrait bust

April 28-May 2 from 9:30-4:30 pm daily
Held at the Sculpture Depot (map here)
$425 ($100 deposit*) Class size limited to 10 students - minimum of 5 students
Additional: model fee and clay (I will post or email soon)

Sculpting a portrait is one of the most demanding yet satisfying forms of sculpting. In this class we'll work on understanding the anatomy of the face and neck, learn about the planes of the face and build a portrait from the inside out. Knowing the structure of the head and understanding the core muscles that come into play in facial expression is key in creating a good portrait. You can choose between oil based clay or water based clay for this class. There will be some ecorche building of the muscles in days one and two, refining shapes and planes in day three with the introduction of the model and days four and five will be devoted to likeness and expression in the sculpture.

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Intro to Sculpting Sampler Series

5 week class

Wondering where to start? Confused about the different sculpting materials? Looking for hands-on guidance with practical tips and techniques for the different materials?

In my Intro to Sculpting Sampler Series I'll address those issues. During this weekly class you have the opportunity to try different clays and sculpting mediums and learn the pros and cons, advantages and limitations of each one and tools that work best with them.

Class meets weekly Wed. from 10am-12pm
March 26-April 23
Class held at Sculpture Depot (map here)
$95 ($50 deposit*) Class size limited to 10 students - minimum of 5 students
Additional: $4 group rate foundry tour fee -

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Introducing the Proportional Caliper- my new BFF

 The proportional caliper is an amazing tool and I'm not quite sure why I didn't start using it earlier. Stupid stubbornness perhaps, but likely I felt like my eye was pretty good and I didn't want to mechanically tie myself down to tedious measurements. Most especially since I tend to work loosely from the model and create what I see in my own mind more than what I see before me.

However - I can thank John Sherrill Houser for recommending this tool for his class and Victor Issa for for catching some proportional mistakes that weren't obvious but were nonetheless there.

I got my calipers at Sculpture Depot and they reduce to 1/5 or enlarge up to 5 times. I got the metal ones because they would fit into my luggage for the plane trip to Brookgreen, but I like the look of the Polycarbonate ones and will likely get them soon.

In a nutshell - you set the calipers for the scale of enlargement or reduction you need - you measure your object with one end and the opposite end will have the proper change of size. For instance, "Waiting on the #9" is a 1/4 scale sculpture. I set the sliding bolt at the 4 mark which allows me to measure the length of the back of the model's hand and the flip the tool over and use the corresponding 1/4 scale size to check the size on the sculpture. In this case - it was from the bend of the wrist to the first knuckle of the middle finger.

I also measured from the ankle bone to the middle of the knee and the width of the ankle bone. Constantly checking in this manner is a wonderful way to keep things in check and to identify an area that may be out of proportion. I'm in love with this tool and it's my new BFF of my studio and use it for many measurements throughout the entire figure.

That said - the caliper is a mechanical device and won't dictate exactly what I do. There are times when  deviating from the model's measurements is an artistic and deliberate choice made to enhance the figure, make the pose more dynamic and interesting or to make an artistic statement....as long as these choices are made by the artist and are not a product of accident or laziness.

Getting Jmac clay ready for next sculpt

Time to prepare for my next sculpt. This one will be done in similar style and fashion as "Ascension", however I'm trying out a new armature, which I'll be showing later.

I spent a week purging my studio of past projects and art supplies that I'm no longer using. The local people on Craigslist are very pleased about that ;-) Still needing to improving my lighting for sculpting, as it's imperative to have good, strong directional lighting to cast shadows on the sculpt to reveal the forms. As I do most of my sculpting standing - or even standing on a stool for added height, I need a light that I can move around as needed - plus my ceiling is rather low (basement studio) so I don't have a lot of hanging options. I'm thinking of getting a boom for photo lighting and clipping a light onto that. It would be useful for lighting and photographing the sculptures later too.

Time to get my materials ready to work. Every artist has their own methods of working. David Lemon (check out this guy's blog - it's delightful to watch him work and his sculpts are crazy good) likes to chunk his clay into pieces using a knife. I suspect he's bigger and stronger than I am, plus my Jmac clay is extra firm. I think it's left over from when I was living in Florida and needed something that would say firm even in high heat.  I can't possible cut through it. This may be way firmer than I will like working in for a figure, but want to try and use it up before purchasing another block in a less firm formula. So instead of trying to cut pieces off the block, I place a lamp on it to warm and then shave pieces off and collect them into a foil lined box. This box has a lid (great for keeping out dust and hair) and the foil helps hold and reflect the heat from the lamp to warm the clay. The small strips warm up very quickly compared to larger sections. I can then easily mush the strips together into manageable lumps for easy grabbing later as I'm sculpting.


Time consuming and a bit hard on the hand, but will make the actual sculpting process much smoother so worth the time and effort now.

Finishing ceramic clay portrait of Harriet Tubman

 Harriet was very inspiring to sculpt. I took longer than I needed because I tried out different sculpting techniques from very impressionistic to fairly tight. I have to say that I really liked the looseness of the impressionistic version - so full of energy. However, as she neared completion the strength of her personality and her face competed with the strong strokes of the very loose version.

So I continued to refine until I felt that I struck a balance of free strokes and polish. The clay is a very heavy, firm, groggy clay called Chestnut that I got at Mile Hi Ceramics. It's an interesting clay to work with but the heavy grog can be a bit sandy to work with. I find that the grog (sandy, pebbly particles that add body and strength to a clay while reducing shrinkage rate when firing) comes to the surface when using sponging or brushing with water on the surface. However, if you push on the surface using wood or metal tools or pallets, the grog is pushed deeper into the clay and the surface is smooth - or at least smoother. I found this to be an interesting combination as I burnished a few areas where the skin would be most taught, giving a tighter, more light-reflective property to the clay and leaving the more textured, groggy clay for other areas. Very tacticile

This portrait bust of Harriet Tubman was very satisfying to sculpt. I plan on doing a 3/4 figure of her soon and the bust was a way of getting familiar with her face and features before expanding into more of the figure later.

She'll need to dry for a while before firing, so that won't take place until sometime in January.

First wax pouring of miniature fox sculpture

This is my first time pouring wax in preparation for the lost wax bronze process. I have an old crockpot that I'm using to heat the wax. This wax is something I bought an embarrassingly long time ago and can't remember what kind it is. Karen, at Sculpture Depot, assured me that pretty much any wax will work and different kinds can be intermixed. I thought I'd be really smart and put the block of wax in an old metal can inside the cooker to keep the cooker from getting wax all over it. Nice idea, but it dripped and got wax it it anyway ;-)
I'm using the pour mold (commonly called a dump mold) that I made of my miniature fox (you can see on earlier posts). After melting the wax, I took a small cup, dipped it into the melted wax and poured into the mold. Then swirled the mold around and emptied the wax back into the pot. A layer of wax remained inside. I did this several times to build up layers.
1) crockpot with melted wax in can
2) wax in the mold (I tried tape to secure the mold but it didn't stick very well - rubber bands worked better)
3) the wax mold of the fox - it has flaws and the base would need to be trimmed.
4) I was anxious to see the wax and demolded too soon - the wax was still quite warm and broke.You can see how the swirling of the wax creates a hollow casting.
5) I figured it would take several tries to learn the process enough to get good results. Luckily I can simply melt down the rejects to reuse the wax.
6) Back into the pot for remelting. I tried again that night - but the wax wasn't hot enough so it was a tad lumpy. The results were another imperfect casting so will try again later.