Textured Wings

In the final piece, the wings wont be attached like they are now-- I just stuck them on to take a photo. The placement is pretty important to me, so I'm going to spend some time thinking about it.

Kid Icarus

The next step in the Wax Girl's journey. The wings took much longer than you might think from looking at them. They still need a lot of work, but I like how they are coming along.

And a Turtle

Updated "Metamorphosis Part 2". And a turtle.

Misc.

Even if I'm not posting, I'm still doing some work almost every day. Here are a few miscellaneous pieces that I have made over the past week.

Apple Turkeys

Apple Turkeys for Thanksgiving. My siblings and I have made apple turkeys every year for as long as I remember.

It's Computer Science Time!

Sculptorbyday's brother blog, "It's Computer Science Time", is having a guest spot today. Although the blog is about computer science, the guest spot is about playing with a butterfly knife. Check out Noah's blog at http://itscstime.blogspot.com/.

"Finished" Wax Girl

I have big plans for the Wax Girl, but for now she is finished. Knowing when to stop is always hard for me, but I just can't take any more time trying to get her perfect. I'm getting to a point of diminishing returns, where many hours of work only makes her marginally better. Anyway, I'm actually reasonably happy with how she turned out.


The ruler is there for reference.

These guys are such tools

One of my main goals in having this blog is to share my process in creating individual pieces, as well as my process in attempting to become a skilled sculptor.

I think that the Swiss Army knife might be my most useful tool. You can use the different points for detail work, and the blades for larger areas. It has a rounded corkscrew, a toothpick, two blades and some other things, so a lot of different shapes to use.

The spoon is good for smoothing out wax surfaces. Like the knife it can be heated over a candle.

The wooden tools have great angles on them and are a little softer than the knives.

Wax girl

She needs a lot of work, especially her torso. I just wanted to share what I've been working on.

Alabaster Base

This is what I've had in mind while making these wax figures. My goal is to finish them enough to actually be satisfied, and then cast them in metal somehow.

Metamorphosis Part 3, unfinished

Metamorphosis Part 2, unfinished

Metamorphosis Part 1, unfinished

Just the basic form for now.

Wings

Here is a new wing concept.

Bird Woman

I am thinking of expanding on this idea, and I would appreciate any comments/suggestions anyone might have.

Waxing and Waning

I have been messing around with wax a bit recently. At first I wanted to make and remake humans figures over and over to get practice, but I've found that its tough to do a project unless it really holds your interest or you are in class somewhere. I finally cut up the 10 pounds of wax into manageable pieces, so I want to start working with that as soon as possible.

Update

I'm still working, I just haven't posted anything for a while because I've been really busy with work, lifting, ballin', friends, gf, family, etc. I'm working on a male figure in wax, because I think that I really need some more practice before I try to make an actual "piece".

One thing that I'm looking forward to is using all 10 pounds of wax from Plaza Art to make one big sculpture.

one last arm

I'm not sure if it comes across, but the metal parts are supposed to be forearm bones. There is a cloth covering where the arm ends. Noah will recognize the influence of the claw.

More bionic glove sketches

This one has a crude support structure. I think that I will do one more before moving on. I like the pistons on the knuckles.

I like said- I can't draw. I was trying to mess around with the sizes, which is why the guy on the bottom has a gigantic fist.

Scythe-hands

I've made some more progress on this guy over the past week. Honestly, though, I don't think that I can do much more on him-- its kind of frustrating. I just don't know enough about the human body to make him realistic. My mom gave me her old figure-drawing anatomy books, and my plan is to take figure sculpting at the Torpedo Factory in December.

New Project

This is for a new project, kind of like a sketch. There will be a person attached at some point. I'll show pencil and paper sketches soon, and you all can see why I make sculptures and not drawings.

Words!

I’ve put off my work on the Athena sculpture for now. I still want to talk about the power of allusions in sculpture, though. Please read if you have the time/patience.

The ability to convey a concept is one of the most important aspects of art. Art, like literature, is a medium of culture. The mindset of a culture is created by what is passed down through generations, and having a say in this passage is a powerful thing. People can be sometimes be convinced of things through logic, but they take for granted hundreds of seemingly strange or unhappy or illogical things because of their culture.

Although I wouldn't dare to get into a definition of Art itself, I think that a general definition of art deals with its ability to evoke some type of response. Meaning is created in the interaction between the viewer and the work- they call it reader response theory in literature. Sometimes people doubt whether the response that is evoked by a piece of art is one that art is supposed to evoke, like Damien Hirst's cow halves. Often, I think, what a piece intends to evoke is simply beauty, or motion, or something simple like this (abstract art often is in this category).

Some art intends to convey not a concept, but a message. A painting can employ a scene, and therefore an interplay of objects and people, to convey its meaning. Sculpture usually does not have this luxury. Therefore, the use of allusion is all the more important.

Because I see things in terms of literature (if you hadn’t noticed) I will now explicitly state my extended metaphor- literature is like sculpture. A writer could write a paragraph describing a particular situation, or they could write a single sentence alluding to a myth and convey the same meaning. The allusion is even more effective because it engages the reader, and encourages them to both recall the myth and fit it into the present situation. It also makes the story more relatable because it draws off of shared knowledge.

Of course, if you want to say something new you have to do more than just mention a myth; you have modify it. This was the main concern of the Greek playwrights- they told and retold old myths in new ways, focusing on different characters and making up new details in order to convey their message. The concept of cyclical time is important here, where events are only important in how they refer to a mythical past. But that it outside the scope of this post.

Back to sculpture-- sometimes all you have is a single sentence. I believe that the deepest depth of meaning that you can achieve is through allusion to, and modification of, some piece of shared knowledge.

Of course, it would be absurd of me to say that all sculpture has to follow what I have outlined here. This is something that makes sense to me.

air drying clay

Air drying clay is difficult to use for things like this. You can't use armatures, apparently, because the clay shrinks as it dries. Otherwise, I like it- it feels like real clay more or less. Anyway, you have to spend half your time keeping the thing supported and worrying about putting too much pressure on it. I'm planning on going back to extra firm sculpey for the next piece.

Wax

I think that this has been the longest between posts so far. I am still making things though- I've just been busy.

Here is a new wax figure. My girlfriend graciously modeled for me. Its not done yet- she will have a face, hands, feet, and hair at some point. I will also do some more work to refine her body (the sculpture, not the gf). Hope you guys like it.

Wax

I bought a pound of wax the other day. It might be my favorite medium, although porcelain is up there. If anyone wants to buy me the 10 pound block from Plaza Art, I would not refuse (its $90).

I think that it is serendipitous that wax is perhaps my favorite medium to work with, and one of my goals as a sculptor is to someday have a piece cast in bronze.

Gorilla Glue Casting

I made this for an instruction manual for a Gorilla Glue competition on this website called instructables.com. If your not busy on October 10-11, go to the site, make a profile, and vote.

Some words

Right now I am working on a few projects, but I feel like posting some words instead of pictures. I'm doing a glue-casting of Day 60 that is coming along nicely. I'm thinking about the logistics of large backyard wire sculpture. I'm also thinking about/experimenting with my own interpretation of the goddess Athena.

I've always tried to keep the posts on this blog short- I know that no one wants to sift through paragraphs of text. I took a whole class on writing for the web at CNU, actually. However, I am planning on posting a few paragraphs on the use of mythic allusions in sculpture. Hopefully it will be at least marginally interesting.

Thanks for checking the blog- it really helps to know that people are seeing what I make. And thank you, internet, for letting me share my work with people who live anywhere from a few hours away, to halfway across the world. Pretty neat.

paperclip army

Sprinter

Another track and field sculpture. You can see a smaller discus thrower in the background- he doesn't get his own post.

Sculptortoday

My sculpture for the day. Trying out my new Plastilina. Its pretty awesome.