…another head:
There's something intense about this guy's face, almost sinister. Maybe part of it is that wonky eye that I didn't notice until I was painting him. I can't decide whether to try to fix it or just leave it as is.
Still pondering the many options for what to do next, so for now I think I'll just keep making these heads.
I started another sculpture the other day. Finally.
I'm not really sure where it's going yet. It'll be a full figure, in the round (as opposed to the half-round mounted torsos I've been doing lately), and I'm contemplating making it poseable, with real clothes instead of all sculpted. But beyond that I'm not sure yet. I'm hoping to turn it into another small series, so I'm trying to come up with ideas that I could use for other sculptures too. A few thoughts:
* party people, like these, because I friggin' loved those little hats. Or maybe people with different hats? Or masks?
* circus & sideshow people, because the last novel I read was Water for Elephants, Mimi Kirchner made some inspiring tattooed men, and the circus is just cool. This could make for a large and very involved series (maybe more involved than I have time for right now?): ringmaster, lion tamer, unicyclist, clowns, sword swallower, trapeze artists, Siamese twins, bearded lady…
* people in animal costumes. totally trendy right now and probably overdone, but also fun to do and might look pretty cool.
* characters from nursery rhymes or children's stories…Jack Sprat and his tubby wife, Goldilocks (and people in bear costumes, as above?), little red riding hood
* a chess set? would have to switch back to just torsos, but could be pretty awesome. or maybe just a little person with a crown. crowns are cool.
* something with nature, 'cause I like it…moss, rocks, trees…I have no idea what this means or would look like
* members of an imaginary band. It could be fun to sculpt little guitars etc. Or totally infuriating.
* no theme, no clothes. just little naked people. maybe this would be more "fine art"-ish, less crafty (something I've been struggling with lately)…something about fragility and vulnerability, blah blah blah
So, that's kinda what my thought process looks like right now. Votes for any of the above, or other suggestions, are welcome!
Well, I'm a day late, but here's the latest sculpture, as promised.
I've been trying to set some small art goals to get myself back in the swing of things; right now I'm hoping to spend thirty minutes every day working on art of some sort. Of course, with the amount of time these sculptures take I'll only be able to finish one every two weeks at that rate! But, it's a start.
Well, we didn't make it out to Boston, which turned out fine, since no one else did either (but poor Paul & Maura are stuck with thirty pounds of ham!). And the upshot was that I finally got to spend a little time finishing up some sculpture work. Say hello to Lulu!
So, I've had a few different sculptures in various stages of completion lying around for the past few weeks, and was going to wait until they were all done to unveil them here, but I've hit an unexpected snag with the supply for my wooden plaques and it may be a few weeks before I can finish the rest of them, so I figured I'd put this one up sooner rather than later.
I'm really happy with how this turned out; I've been oddly drawn to lacy patterns and filigree lately (so not typical for me, I'm not usually into "girly" stuff) and I like how the background echoes the lacy collar.
detail:
with my hands, for scale:
I've been really itching to do more sculpting, the past few days especially, but I need to focus on holiday stuff and get it out of the way first. The next week's going to be a frenzy of baking madness, but I'll try to post some photos (and recipes!) as I go along.
Hope you have a great weekend!
Okay, maybe just a tiny sneak peek…
I'm so excited about these and can't wait to show you the rest! I still have a lot of work to do on them though, and don't know when I'm gonna find the time! I'm off to run errands, gotta try to fit in some holiday planning asap, and my parents are coming over for dinner. ah, the holiday season…
Totally unrelated note: I realized that I could see the google search strings that people visiting my blog have used, and I am apparently the NUMBER ONE search result for when+where+peas+domesticated. haha.
I wanted to title this post "successes and failures", but I've already used that title; I think I could use that title for just about every other post (the remaining posts would be titled "in progress", also used already!) For every sculpture that I make that "works", there is at least one that has not worked. And even of the ones that I deem acceptable, only about half are ones that I actually like.
But I've really been appreciating the failures lately (no small feat considering what a perfectionist I am used to be). With every sculpture that doesn't work out, I'm learning. I'm figuring out what I like and what I don't, the facial proportions that match the vague image I have in my head of what these people "should" look like. It's difficult at this small scale -- a millimeter less between the eyes, a slightly different angle to the cheek, an accidental dent to the chin -- any little change has the ability to create a completely different, unintended or unwanted look. But these missteps are valuable. And with every success, I am, I think, committing these tiny strokes of finger and tool to muscle memory, developing patterns that I hope to be able to repeat again.
Managed to finish up a bunch of eyes last night, which is good since I probably won't get to any more sculpting for the next few days. Still trying to figure out a way to make the eyes more regular (or at least have each pair be irregular in the same way). Thinking a lot about backgrounds for my little sculptures too, and will probably spend some time experimenting with that I soon as I can.
First snow today!
The past few months have flown by so quickly; it's almost winter and I'm still catching up to the idea that it's fall. I can't believe Thanksgiving is in two days. We're going out to Boston to see Ryan's (enormous) family, so I don't actually have to do much cooking (though I wouldn't really mind if I did). But Thanksgiving reminds me that Christmas is only a month away, and I haven't even begun to do any planning. There are cards to make and send, presents to make or buy, a tree to cut and decorate (and figure out where to put!), meals to think about…eep! Will try to delay stressing about the next holiday until after this one.
Well, I stayed up waaay too late last night, and Emmett took a long nap today (which I should've used to take a nap myself), so I managed to finish this self portrait of sorts:
I was trying to mess around with the features and make them a little differently than I usually do, and I only had large-ish eyeballs left, so she looks a little weird. Apparently I envision myself as the love child of Ricky Gervais and Allison Janney.
It doesn't really look much like me, but I wasn't really going for accuracy as much as a kind of symbolic me. It works, I think.
We got our wood today, a mere two hours after we ordered it (now that's what I call customer service), so though I was looking forward to getting some sculpture work done this weekend while Ryan can watch Emmett, it looks like I'll be working on this instead:
Have a great weekend!
It's past midnight on a Thursday and I'm sitting here sculpting impossibly tiny glasses. Yeesh.
On a completely different note, does anyone have any recommendations for a decent, inexpensive tripod? I'm using a Nikon d40 and will mostly be using it to shoot indoors, so weight/compactness aren't necessarily issues.
