Let me just say, I have no idea where this whole portrait/sculpture thing is heading. I probably have no desire to make busts of people… or at least making them resemble actual people… but I am digging how such miniscule changes in proporation have a huge effect on ‘identity’ so bear with me…
I usually have no problems seeing, I wear glasses and all, but with the computer I can see what I am not seeing, or at least see where I am off. So having the love/hate relationship with technology that I have, I decided to compare what I had with the reference photos I was using. At the point I decided to do this, I hadn’t put hair or ears, I was strictly dealing with facial features.
At this point I was digging the mouth, cheeks and nose. I could tell the eyes were off, and over all I think the head proportion was odd. (I didn’t notice that the left side was wider than the right until I started hollowing it out, but looking at this, it was clearly asymetrical)
Layering the two in photoshop confirmed this… the eyes were two low, and too far back, the profile was looking pretty sweet though.
So I dug out the eyes, and re-did them. I wasn’t going to mess with the mouth originally, the frontal was fine, by the profile show it being to big. Unfortunately I couldn’t let well enough alone, and I think the final mouth is somewhat less expressive than this one.
Here’s the final comparison, just before hollowing out:
Eyes is still off, but placement was ‘better’.
This shot shows how putzing with the face changed the profile for the worst. I was working with some pretty soft reclaim, and was kinda wondering if it actually slumped while working. Excuses excuses!
For finishing these, I have a bucket of ‘weathered bronze‘ cone 6 glaze. I’m still waffling with glazing with a shino and decaling them up, but will probably resist that until it’s a bust of someone I don’t know.
Per Professor Kline… the assignment was to make 12 things before 12 noon. Should be easy right? Add in coffee, 2 hour school delay, reading people’s blogs, shooting some pics for a blog post, coffee, pre-heating the studio, checking yesterdays pots to see if they are ready to trim… trimming them… coffee, a few quick poker games and it’s not as easy as it looks! But I got it done… 4 plates, 4 cups, 4 bowls.
The Assignment… mmmm nice dark stoneware for a change…
In other news… I filled the bisque kiln yesterday, and set the sculptures on top to make sure they are good and dry so I can toss them in with another bisque today. The a pic of my daughter is also below (I think someone commented asking to see the model), as you can see the resemblence is… um… non-existant lol! But I did fix the eyes before I finished, and I think I am getting better. I did one of my son last week, it resembles him slightly better… I’ve got a blog post started as it relates to his, but there’s a quick pick on top the drying rack with other pots waiting to be bisqued.
My little brother mentioned this software awhile ago. Zbrush is basically software for making 3D models (virtual models for animation), but with modelling ‘tools’ more akin to working with clay than the archetectural/geometric tools you may have seen in software like 3D studiomax. I guess making it more intuitive for artists.
Here’s some of the recent work Dave has been doing, and it nice animation of someone working on a kid’s head…
More action in the studio usually translates to less time bloggin… any given minute, time is finite ya know? So I thought that in between posts about what’s happening out in in Fletcherneck, I’d post a few quick items of some things that I’ve found inspiring.
From this day forth, I will strive to use more nouns as verbs.
I am back home, trying to work my way out of the post holiday funk, starting with this bust of my daughter Iva that I busted out Sunday and Monday.
Get it? bust… busting… noun as verb? Never mind that’s a bad idea anyways… forget it I even made the proclamation.
It sorta resembles my daughter, however she looks about 4 years younger. Over all I am happy with it, I’ve developed a lot since my last sculpture, but still see more room for improvement particularly the eyes and the transition from the cheeks to the ears. The eyes are driving me mad… the typical hollowed out pupils you see in classic sculpture wasn’t settling well for me, and these (the final) make her look hyptnotized. I’m hoping some deep black slip on those pupils will cure it… but I’ve had bad luck trying to cure a sculptural mistake using surface decoration, so I’ll be doing an extra bit of praying prior to the firing, and moving on to the next one.
Mom? Dave? Glenn? Get your rears down here some time, I’ve got plenty of reclaim to go around!
Hope your holidays were great, I’ve been purposely absent both online and in the studio, spending a little quality ‘real’ time around the holidays….
My brothers and sisters pitched in together to get my mom Philippe Faraut’s DVD series on sculpting. It’s an excellent series, and I highly recommend it. Not hat my mom really needs it, she’s a fine sculptor in her own right, but defintely has some tips and great information on anatomy and facial expressions. We previewed while at her house and I think all three of us (my little brother Dave, mom and me) were itching to get our hands on some clay to put some of this new found knowledge to use.
I decided since I had never haven’t drawn much anatomy since college, and all of that was drawing based (not 3d) I’d start with a study of the skull. I’m digging the results. I’m away in Seattle for next week, so no clay for me, but when I get back, I’ll hollow this out, start on something new, and bust out a bunch of orders I’ve been procrastinating on… I am usually creatively drained after the holidays for some reason and the last few weeks have been nothing but food, family, and a little poker. Now I am itching to getting back to producing and experimenting with new stuff.
Here’s the link the the DVD series if you are interested.
Just finished photographing and listing the items from the last firing of the year… check them all out in my etsy shop (http://khphillips.etsy.com), more to come tomorrow…
This dinner plate features an original drawing I did of basil leaves, originally for a set of pasta bowls - I did drawings of oregano, rosemary, thyme and basil.
A wood and soda fired “vase?” I guess we’ll just call it a vessel. A piece threw and then ’squashed’ so I’d have more real estate for my drawing. About 11″ high.
Voted best craft show in Asheville, this will be mine and Gina’s third Big Crafty, and each time we are more and more impressed with how original all of the artists are, Asheville truly is a mecca for creativity. Above is a picture of the belt buckle I made… artists were invited to create a belt buckle that will be raffled off during The Big Crafty. I welded up an upcycled spoon butterfly for mine. I really wanted model it for the picture, but the holidays have been blissful for yours truly, and my gut is showing the negative results…
So, here’s that platter again. Great example to illustrate how a glaze can change (or in this case soda on a flashing slip) during the decal firing. The browns got a little toastier, but the blue (a glaze) got muted. Since I knew I was going to have to decal this platter from the beginning, I went with some “safe” (or rather “predictable) slips and glazes. A little dissappointed the blue faded (loooove browns and blues) but still really dig the platter.
Here’s some other recent pots. Most of these are out of the Suburban Soda Kiln (not the wood kiln).
Another wedding platter, Turner White Glaze, goes milky in the decal firing…
A line of dishes I’ve been working on. Meant to be a line I can easily put into long term production that is reliable, durable, rustic and elegant. A dark stoneware clay body, a stencil motif with a shino slip is applied at the leather hard stage. Then glazed in a white shino with turner white sprayed over. Then a simple decal of a brush stroke.
