Ceramic Paperclay Fox Sculpture

You may remember that I sculpted a small fox in oil-based clay. I'm still working on the wax pour of it for bronze. I decided that I wanted to make a larger version of this fox and sculpt it using a water-based clay for firing. Since Mile-Hi was out of the CT3 clay that I had planned on using, I opted to try this in water-based ceramic paperclay instead. I didn't do any measuring - I just dove into sculpting. While I did use crumpled paper for filling out the body, there was some distortion and I felt that there was too little clay in some areas and too much clay in others. So I cut this into pieces, hollowed out and reassemble before I completed the sculpting.

I was pleased to find that A) it was as much fun to sculpt the fox the second time around and B) I had no trouble enlarging the sculpture while keeping the same look and feel using a different medium. So, now it's drying in preparation for firing later.

Ceramic Sculpture turban wrapped woman

Finished sculpting "Hint of a Smile" today. This is water-based clay called Chestnut that I purchased from Mile-Hi Ceramics. It's rather groggy but that can be interesting. This one dried a little faster than I would have liked, due to my deadlines for illustrating my book - so there are a few cracks in the turban. However, that too, may end up being a desirable thing - won't know for sure until it's fired.

I will consider using some epoxy to put in the suggestion of a pupil highlight after firing also.

With the eyes hollowed out, there is additional venting for the sculpt. I'm hoping that offsets how thick the turban ended up. I did cut her in half and hollow her out but added the turban later so that part is fairly thick.
This sculpt is just under life size. I'll post again with her after firing.

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.

New terracotta clay bust in progress

 I have been swamped with designing the layout and illustrations for my newest book for Operation Outreach USA. Love illustrating for them, but wishing there were more hours in the day. Also got word that my other book, Nana's Silly Goats has been printed and is currently being shipped to the states. Nancy said it's gorgeous and I must say the color proofs we reviewed earlier looked great so I'm really looking forward to seeing them. I'll be posting some of the art on my website soon.

Currently I'm working on a new bust of an African American woman. This is sculpted in Chestnut. It's clay left over from my class with Andi Mascarenas and so was a bit stiff to work with as it's rather old. But I couldn't stand to waste the clay, so while it was quite hard, I soaked it well and let it marinate for a couple of days, then wedged it a bit to work the hard bits into the mushy bits.

This was actually started nearly 8 weeks ago and shelved when deadlines hit. When I got back to her, it had gone well past the leather hard stage, so was a challenge to get working again. I had a heck of a time cutting her in half to hollow out! Once I finally got her hollowed and put back together, I worked in her shoulders and started her scarf. These are some early photos and I should have newer ones up in the next day or two showing the progress.

Still not sure what I think of Chestnut. It's a rather stiff and very coarse clay. You can really see the grit and grog. Sometimes I like the earthiness of if it, but other times I find it distracting. I'll probably compare it with some other clays after firing. The plus-sized woman that I sculpted earlier using his clay fired nicely. It comes out a very, very dark brown color, which is interesting.

I've been accpeted into the 2011 Loveland Invitational Sculpture Show!

It's been a niggling dream for nearly all the 20 years that it's been operating. I remember seeing the articles about it in Southwest Art magazine way back when as I was living and struggling as a young artist if Florida. I always hoped to participate in this show but didn't believe in myself enough.

Thanks to the encouragement of my family and friends, I've started to apply myself to my sculpture last year. It was a real challenge to get my application and images submitted and I truly was uploading it at the midnight deadline ;-)

I am very excited about the opportunity and intend to continue to work hard, learn more and create the best I can!

Mad dash to enter the Loveland Sculpture Invitational Show

It's been a busy month! After finishing my latest children's book, Nana's Silly Goats,  and signing a contract for another one with Operation Outreach USA, I worked long hours getting my submission ready for the 2011 Loveland Sculpture Invitational. I had to purchase some lights and backgrounds and practice my photography, as I couldn't afford to go with a professional photographer at this time.

Having no other place, I set up a temporary photo studio in the garage (thank goodness we insulated!) and learned to control my white balance and lighting better. It took two trips to Boulder (pretty drive, but still a 2+ hour round trip) to Mike's Camera to get the softbox and paper.

Next I scoured off the patinas that I did in class that I felt were too dark and heavy. Since I didn't like the existing patina, I figured it wouldn't ruin it to try and take it off and do another. So I spend days doing glazes on the ceramic until I found what I liked. This seated woman, "Sitting Pretty" is definitely better with the new patina as the older one was very heavy and nearly black, obliterating detail.

The sleeping woman came out rather well - the patina is soft and warm and compliments the sleeping figure well.

Ascension is still a work in progress, but is coming along.

Next is Sweetness, my plus-sized figure and last is Contemplate, a seated nude.

Hopefully I made the deadline - it was midnight tonight, but I did have some trouble using Zapplication and by the time Paypal processed it was 12:01.

Well - I did the best I could and I'm glad that I tried. Whether I made it into the show or not
learned a lot and it's all part of the journey.


Now for a well-earned glass of wine!

Miniature Fox Sculpture with New Patina

I wasn't satisfied with the first casting and patina of my miniature fox sculpture, so try, try again. This one came out much more to my liking and I earned a good lesson: solid colors show texture and form much better than variegated colors. Especially in such small scale (about 3"). I have a base that I'm preparing so when it's dry we'll see how it looks on a solid wood base.

My next endeavor will be to cast this fox in wax and chase it. I have an appointment with Art Casting Foundry in Loveland, where I'll be having this little guy bronzed!

I'm quite excited about that - I sculpted him with mold-making and bronzing in mind as I want to learn both processes.

Since this patina came out much better, it gave me the urge to work on some of my other sculptures. There were two in particular that I didn't care for how the original patina came out. Since I wasn't happy with the over all look, I decided that I could risk ruining them further by removing the patina and trying a different. It was a good choice - and I will post new photos of them soon.

Lastly, I've been struggling with my photography. On a shoe-string budget, I've been trying to outfit my photo area and have been making loads of test photos. Thank goodness for digital! Back in the day you could photo for a show, send the film off and not find out till a week later that they were awful! But now - Bam! upload the photos and see how bad they are instantly! ;-) Actually, I made real progress this week in getting white balance and lighting to agree - so new photos will be up soon!

Cast sculpture miniature fox

This is the final cast piece from the mold I made of my miniature fox. You can see the original oil-based clay sculpt on my December blog. The instructions and process of how I made the mold are in the previous post.

This was cast using Smooth-On's Smooth-Cast 300 liquid plastic.

This is an easy product that is mixes compounds A+B in equal amounts. The plastic cures in a matter of minutes to a very white plastic. It demolded from the silicone very easily.

The down side is that, well, it's PLASTIC. Not my favorite substance. But this is a learning process . I painted the plastic casting using acrylics to mimic dark stone and the results are fine. I should have done a little more clean-up to the lines where the mold joins together, but for a first try at casting, I thought it came out well.

I could also pour melted wax into this mold, clean up the wax and take it to bronze at some point. We'll see ;--)

Miniature Fox Sculpture mold making

I took the miniature fox that I sculpted in December and made a mold (often called a pour or dump mold). I used Dragon Skin mold-making products by Smooth-ON.

 1). Dragon Skin is a 2-part silicone mold - you mix equal parts of A + B. I also used Liquid Gloves - it forms a barrier to protect your hands from absorbing chemicals or paint - it feels nice, goes on like hand lotion.
2)  I cut the bottoms off of two plastic cups to form a cylinder around the fox sculpture. I put a small bit of clay on the bottom of the fox sculpture to help it stay in place, then put the cups over it and sealed the bottom of the cups to the base to keep the silicone from leaking out.
3)  I also put the whole thing on a small tray in case it leaked - but this time I sealed it well and nothing leaked out.
4) Mixing Parts A + B
5) Poured into the cylinder and curing (left it over night)
6) I took this to class and my instructor, Rik Sargent, helped me to cut the cured silicone on two sides on a diagonal to get the clay out.

"Ascension" Oil clay figure sculpture work in progress

I'm very excited about my first oil-based clay figure sculpture. It's the first time I've used a wire armature. This is loosely based on a life pose from the Art Students League class that I took under Rik Sargent recently. I'm still getting used to the Classic Clay - rather sticky feeling in comparison to water-based clay.

You'll notice that some of the hands, feet, hair and cloth are a darker color. Rik showed me that you can mix casting wax with the clay to make a much harder clay mix that can hold smaller detail better than the oil clay alone. So even though I had fully sculpted her hands and feet, I cut them off, re-sculpted them using the wax/clay mix and reattached them.

Because I wasn't really basing the sculpt on any particular pose from the model, it changed as I aggressively manipulated the figure for more drama - thereby exposing some of the armature wire in the process. In addition, the pipe supporting her is also in the way. I will be making a mold and casting this piece in wax. Once I have the wax, I'll be able to sculpt away the imperfections caused by the wires and post.

Finally, I may make a mold of the wax and take it to the foundry for casting my first bronze. When she's complete, the flowing cloth will be her only support - she'll appear suspended in mid-air, caught in the moment of ascension.

Rik has generously offered to help me through the steps working with moldmakers and the foundry. If you ever have the opportunity to take a class with Rik DO IT! He's a very giving and inspiring sculptor and teacher!

Miniature Fox Sculpture in Oil Based Clay

 I need to start learning the mold-making process, so I sculpted a small image of a fox in oil-based clay. I chose the animal and the pose to make for as easy of a mold as possible - notice that the entire composition is very pyramid in shape. I made a simple armature of a nail driven into a small wooden disc. Then I used oil-based clay to sculpt the fox in a more stylized manner.

It was fun to sculpt something different from figure and interesting to try and capture the essence of a fox without worry of trying to be anatomically correct. The oil-based clay is still kind of new to me and the sticky texture is still something that I'm getting used to. The upside is that you can stop and start as many time as you wish and it never dries out like water-based clay.

This measures 3.5" tall and is sculpted in Classic Clay purchased from Sculpture Depot.  Next I'll be showing the process that I used to make a pour mold of this sculpt. I learned this technique in the sculpting class that I took with Rik Sargent at the Denver Art Students League.

Contempative Woman - a ceramic nude sculpture work in progress

I started this sculpt when taking Philippe Faurat's figure study class at the Sculpture Depot two months ago. If you ever have the opportunity to take Philippe's class then DO IT! He's an amazing sculptor and a hoot and a half too ;-)

So this technique is new to me - the sculpture is almost entirely solid. According to Phillipe - she'll fire just fine if REALLY DRY first. (Fingers Crossed) As I live in semi-arid Colorado, dry isn't really a problem here. I'd say that I had about 10 hours of model time on this piece and put in another 4 to 5 hours sculpting at home and she's about 80% done. I’m juggling illustrating a children's book at the moment, so I've kind of shelved her for a while and just misted her with water a few times.

This is a low-grog ceramic clay and it is 16" high. I believe that it will fire to a white finish and plan on doing a marble/stone look for the patina if she survives the firing. I'm looking forward to taking a few more hours to refine and finish before the long, slow drying process.

On another note – I may have a kiln! I’ve been looking on Craigslist for a year now and if all goes well, I should have it by next weekend….then I’ll be able to fire my pieces and be more productive – very exciting!

Next up, I’ll be showing you my first oil-based clay figure. It’s one I’m working on from a class from the Denver Art Students League with Rik Sargent as the instructor. Another terrific teacher – you really need to look at Rik’s work – his monumental bronzes are amazing and he’s been such an informative teacher – I’ll do my next post on his class and my new piece….

Sleeping Nude

Busy, busy, busy. Unfortunately no time to post lately. I had a wonderful time at Sculpture Depot in Loveland last month. They sponsored a workshop with Philippe Faraut (my second). The first was a portrait workshop years ago, so I was thrilled to get to do a workshop on the full figure with Phillipe.  It was a good class - a nice, diverse group of people to share the journey. We spent two days doing studies that I enjoyed, then destroyed ;-) Then a day doing one larger piece. I'm still working on that one at home from memory.

I'm getting better at letting go, smashing up studies or sculpture that isn't working. Don't get me wrong - I was quite pleased with many of the small studies, but the process and experience was what I was after, not the physical product. So I only kept one of the smaller studies. We had about 4-5 hours with the model in this pose, then I did the rest at home. This is water based clay with low grog and the piece is about 9 inches long. This one I sculpted solid and didn't hollow. I'll allow to dry very, very slowing and try firing it my my ancient, questionable little kiln. If it doesn't make it, well, it was fun to sculpt anyway ;-0

Patinas and Pedestals

Finally - getting a few sculptures finished...

I had fired a few of the ceramic sculptures - then then them sit around as I dreaded attempting the patinas. I did a few using special Forton mixes with a chemical reaction. Since I only did a few, it's a little unfair to make a judgment. My first impression, however, is that the Forton mix is a bit thick and obliterates the sculptural surface a bit for my tastes. The outcome was very difficult to predict and I wasn't in love with the overall look of some of them.

I painted the Scarlet Robe in oils, which was messing and time consuming but the overall effect was nice. For the "Claire" bust, I opted to try many glazes of acrylic. Some of the layers, I spritzed with alcohol to break up the surface and create pattern - that worked rather well. Some of the layers I lightly sponged for additional texture.

The effect is pleasing and rather stone-like. With practice, I'd think that this would work really well on a lot of sculptures. Still working on my photography skills and lighting. As I don't have a dedicated space or the proper lights, it's still something that I need improving upon. The base was made by Imported Onyx in Loveland.

The Scarlet Robe - Oil Paint Patina

I wanted something muted for the sculpture of the woman and vibrant for the robe, so I opted to try glazing with oil paints. The mistake I made was using Liquin to speed up the drying of the cadmium red, which led to a shiny finish that I didn't really envision. My bad. The woman is muted and and more in line with what I was looking for - a subtle finish. Couldn't really say how many thin oil washes I used, probably about 8.

I did find, however, that I probably could have achieved a similar look using acrylics, as the porosity of the fired clay knocks down the sheen that acrylics can leave. I would probably opt to try another patina using many thin layers of acrylics to compare.

Forton Metal Patina

Whew....been a long time since my last post. We've been renovating some buildings and our house so time has been detoured.

Due to snow, I was only able to make a couple of the patina classes with Andi at the Denver Art Students League. The photos won't be very good, as I don't have a place to set up for photos at the moment. Hopefully I'll be able to get some better ones, with bases, up soon.

This sculpture had a base coat of Forton and bronze/brass metals. Then I used a mixture of several different oxides and patinas from the class. After the metal had oxidized, I buffed with a bit of steel wool to bring back the metal. It came out a bit darker than I had anticipated. I do think I like it overall.

Reclining unfinished nude - ceramic clay

This was another 5 hour sculpt done in water-based clay. Sadly - it's the last one for the class. It's about 19" long and 10" wide. In this piece I worked her head "off sculpt" - which means that I cut her head off to hold upright in my hands to sculpt for a bit and then re-attached her head.

"Unfinished" because I'm experimenting with not sculpting 'everything'. Not sure how successful I was in not completing the arm and leg....what do you think?

I was more interested in the negative spaces and openings. I plan on making the base clay that she's lying on very light so that the dark forms and open spaces show up on the nude more.

Took a lot of liberties with this one. I had about 4 hours with the model, but her proportions were very short and rather chunky. At first I started to sculpt her as she was, was then I thought, why? After all, this isn't a commission. So about 3 hours of the sculpting process was capturing the woman before me (she had her hips raised on pillows and her head lower - both arms were up - with hands under her head), I decided to change things - so I lowered her hips to level, turned her head the opposite direction and put one of her arms down. It was too late at this point to give her much more in the way of length. If I were to do it over, I'd take even more liberty and really stretch her out a lot - I think it would please me more.

Anyway - she's currently drying and awaiting firing. Sorry for the photos - I just snapped a few quick shots and they aren't very good ones... (Chestnut water clay cone 6).

In the mean time - I'm happy to say that all my other sculpts fired beautifully. The one sad news was that one fell during the long drive home from Denver and broke her leg. A lot. I'm currently trying to repair it using epoxy compound. We'll see how it does.

Next will be my patina class in May! I'm looking forward to working with the patinas to see the different effects. They will also cover the repairs to the one sculpt with the broken leg. I'll make a post of her repair soon too.

5 hour Clay Portrait Study

Here we have a ceramic clay sculpture portrait study. I did this in one quick session of 2 1/2 hours then another 2 hours without the model at home. I didn't get good photos because I forgot to photo it at home and had to take a quick shot at the class while she was partially dry (which is why the clay is speckled).

As you can see, her strand of hair broke off in transport. She's also a bit flat in the back because I was worried that the clay had gotten too thick and I'm trying to be careful about the thickness of the clay for firing. So if she fires okay - I may be able to repair the strand of hair that broke off. Hope so anyway.....but it's all a learning experience!

Crash and Smash

Sorry - no photos today. You'd think I'd remember the camera on my phone ;-)
This week I did a standing 3/4 nude on a large scale. It was hard to keep the clay from slumping on such a large scale (about 26-30"). I was determined that on this piece I would do a better job with the paper core to avoid having to cut and hollow the piece. My goal was to allow for a lot more freshness and looseness on this piece. I probably got about 1 1/2 hours done on Wednesday. On Friday, I found that the sculpt had compressed a bit, the movement to the pose and back were still quite nice, however. Throughout the next three hours I was furiously and managed to get her nearly complete, including her hands, face and hair. The piece had a roughness and grace to it and I really made progress in keeping that fresh, painterly feel.

Since we'll be going on Spring Break, I needed to take the sculpt home. Bad call...while I was successful in transporting the other sculptures, this one probably had about 30 pounds of wet, top-heavy clay. Even with good bolstering in the car, she broke and collapsed on the way home. I was unsuccessful in fixing this time. Wish I'd have photoed before I transported.

Oh well, I went into the class expecting everything to crash, explode or fail, just to make myself do the work for the sake of learning, and doing the work. Very freeing and I'm glad that I'm sticking to that goal...

Plus-sized nude model

We had a plus-sized model this week. Again, I had just a little over 4 hours with the live model. I took the sculpt home and worked another 7-8 hours from memory - including time to cut her into pieces, hollow out and reassemble.

I was too excited to start sculpting and forgot Andi's paper cores...I started sculpting her solid and once I'd gotten a ways it was too late to turn back. So I went ahead and sculpted solid for a little while, then cut her into three pieces for hollowing out. I'll be sure to try and be more restrained on the next piece and really try to get the paper core down and this time, with thicker walls of clay to better support and have less problem with paper coming through to the surface... ;-)

The large model was a new challenge for me. I've never worked with heavy models before and the mass and weight and gravity were new and interesting. It was a different way to sculpt and see things since I usually work with more muscular or thinner more angular figures.

Another area for me to work on is my photography. Granted, these were done quickly to document the stages of work, but the photos aren't very good. Hopefully I'll get some better photos done when I fire and do the patina.


I also wish that I was able to keep the freshness. I'm at war with myself; one part of me wants to really work out the anatomy and the other part of me wants a looseness and spontaneous feel. While I like the mass and roundness of this piece, I think I missed the mark with going for a more artistic feel. I think that having to cut into pieces for hollowing and then repair the damage from the cutting encourages me to get too fussy over the finish and obliterates the stokes and marks of the clay - making it too 'rendered'. Well, there's always the next one...always the challenge...