Clay, Cold & Snow

This week, I continued progress on the Terre Haute commission.

Clay sculpting is mainly an additive process. I'm adding clay to the woman's leg.

Here, I'm adding clay to her waist.

I use a heat gun to warm the clay up, so that it is easier to work.

After the clay is warmed, it is smoothed into place.

The woman figure is getting to a point where I'm happy with her, and I can come back, after I catch up some of the other portions of the sculpture group.

This is a wire tool.

I use it to make a clean cut for removing the head of the little girl.

I made the armature for the head where it could be taken off the body and then put back on, without damaging the clay work.

I made a separate armature to hold the head steady and level, which makes it easier to work on and see the form.

I've added clay to begin making eyes.

The eyes are roughed in....

...and then refined.

The little girl's head is starting to look like the live model. There is more refining that needs to be done, but I will come back to it after catching up the rest of the sculpture group.

We've had quite a bit of snow. Several times, I've had to make the 1/2 mile walk from the highway to the studio, and back out. On one of these walks I saw these tracks. What's making those?

This snow print spells it out - it's a mouse. In fact, you can see clearly how big it is, how long is it's tail...every detail, except the whiskers.

....a sailing ship?...