More snow and cold but spring is not far off...

The snow and cold have kept me inside so I have kept busy with this water clay of dancer Sergei Polonin.  I have also been fascinated by dance and as there are lots of photos and videos online, I thought I'd try my hand at a portrait.  I am going to do a series of small bronze dancers and I will use this as reference for some of the work.
The head and chest were made hollow to begin with, a wood dowel runs the height of the piece to stabilize the head.  After I added hair I realized it was adding a lot of weight and could be an issue so I split open the head and removed the excess clay, filling the void with damp paper towels.  In this photo I have added arms which are supported by pieces of clay and wooden clay tools.

I rearrange the supports as I work using an upside down cup which offered more stability.  I have a second prop under the hand.  I scooped out the clay from the arms by using a wire tool to slice off the tops of the arms stuffed in damp paper towels then put the slices back with slurry and worked strips of clay where the cuts were made.

Now that the arms are lighter and the clay has begun to dry a little and stiffen up I can remove the supports.  The supports left deep marks under the arms which I filled with slurry and clay.

He is almost finished, just a couple of bit of finishing to go.

My  maquette for Earth Dreamer has been drying ...

Pretty soon I will be able to get back to the Lion.  There are a few areas I want to refine and his teeth need to be defined...



There was another snowfall followed by temperatures near zero.

The road was plowed but not much more than one lane.

A tree in the lower field casts its shadow on the snow.

Icicles on the house seem to cage the birds which come to eat the seed I put in the front yard.

A bit of mud trapped in ice.

Ice in the bark of a tree

Finally the snow is melting and temperatures are getting more spring-like.

It's still cold, so.....

We have had a bit of snow and cold lately with more on the way according to the weather forecast.  This is the predator from Predator and Prey peeking out from the snow.  No carving outside when there is this much snow on the ground!

Ice has run down the back of the Lion.

A few icicles but for the most part the lion is not taking weather, except....

There is some precipitation running down the side of the sculpture.  I have not beveled the top enough in to keep rain flowing to the back and away from carved areas.  I need to move the scaffolding back to this side and recut, I haven't been able to remove enough stone by working on top, I need to work from the side so I can better judge how much stone to remove and the angle of the cut.

As I can't work outside I have been working inside on "The Kid" (that's a working title).  I bought shoes so I can more accurately represent The Kids footware.

I make the shoes a little big and carve back the forms.  I am also doing laces instead of Velcro fasteners.

I tip The Kid back to work on the underside of the face, neck, arms, etc.  Amazing how much work I discovered!

I enjoyed making my last clay models so much I decided on another as I am a bit snowbound in the house.  I discovered a video on youtube of Sergei Polunin dancing to "Take me to church" by Hozier.  I have also been fascinated by dance and gymnasts and so decided to try my hand on this portrait of the dancer.  It starts out fairly horrible, I have constructed it in a similar manner to the Earth Dreamer, the head and chest are hollow, filled with damp paper towels, with a wood dowel that runs from the board to the top of the head for stability. 

Better though still fairly horrible.  I am working with reference from the internet.

I move the piece from the computer to the front room and work from memory.  For some reason  I do better (sometimes) working from memory.

I add an arm...

And another arm.  Both arms need a lot of work.  I am using clay as a prop under the left upper arm and a wooden clay working tool and clay as a prop for the upper arm.

With these wintery conditions, I seem to spend half my time feeding birds

A sunflower seed fell into melting ice and refroze.  This is on a partially finished pink marble sculpture.

While the weather is cold...

While the weather is cold and there is snow on the ground - I decide to work up some models for small sculptures.  A couple of the pieces are designed to fit in existing stone which are sections cut from larger stones.
The first sculpture is entitled "Uneasy Dreams" which will be carved from the stone above.  It will be placed on a somewhat smaller, angled block, the figure will be hanging over the edge of the lower block hence the "uneasy" quality.  The inspiration for the piece are the stones themselves, I was looking for a way to make use of this scrap stone and concept came to me.

A rough sketch of the sculpture...

A quick water clay sketch of the figure.

This scrap of stone is to be "Earth Dreams".  I know, all this dreaming, don't ask me, I'm doing what is in my head.  This will be an earthwork piece though I envision her in the middle of a mound though that may change.

This is the rough sketch of the sculpture intended.

I am doing water clay for this model as well.  The head and chest are built up clay around a wad of damp paper towels.  I have a wooden dowel that will offer support to the head and keep it from falling over.

features are added..

and refined.

one arm is added...

then the other...

then she lies down..

then she gets her hair.  More refinement to do though.

While I haven't shown a photo of the stone, I also would like to do a little tiger cub in the Sylacauga Marble.  It is white with black striped marbling, should be interesting.

Lights reflected in double pane glass.

Carving Conversation's legs and Starting Predator and Prey

This rock will become the legs of the piece I have been working on entitled "Conversation"

I moved the stone in with my crane truck, setting the stone upright .  The toes are overlapping for additional thickness and strength.  This view is looking down at the top of the stone.  I don't have much wiggle room, the feet will barely fit in this stone but it was the closest in terms of length, width and depth to what I need.

I draw on the profile of the legs.  Though the legs will lie horizontally, it is easier to do the bulk of the carving with the legs upright. 



I am leaving the large corner until the rest of the sculpture is carved.  The weight will stabilize the stone.  When I have partially carved the legs I will move it into relation to the head and shoulders of "Conversation" and finish the carving there. 



While working on the American Lion I looked at a lot of reference material, photos, videos, etc.  As a result I became interested in working on a concept I had a few years ago.  In the two blocks above there are drawings on the stone.  On the left block there is a drawing of a gazelle, on the right, a cheetah.  The working title is "Predator and Prey" or "The Miss" as the cheetah has just missed the gazelle as it zooms off in the other stone. 

First, the stone with the Cheetah is moved closer to the studio and the drawing reinforced.

The cat will be right at the face of the stone.  I begin by carving the profile of the head.  This is how I began carving stone back in 1991.  I started at the nose and worked my way back into at stone.  I have made a very shallowly cut line for the body.  If I haven't made the body long enough (I hadn't) I can recut a longer body line.

I establish the profile of the right front leg - I have also added length to the body.

I cut wide on either side of the leg to give myself wiggle room.  The paw is pretty much firmly placed at the end of the block.

I concentrate work on the head of the cat.  At this point it starts to look more like a cougar than a cheetah so I listen to the stone - cougar it is, chasing a deer.



Establishing and detailing the head first helps me to find the rest of the cat - head leads to neck, neck to shoulder, etc.  I am documenting the progress with videos -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daZCn7IUCVk

and this-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsWwxANFd0M

An impression of a leaf in ice.