Fireside Manifesto #4

Friends,

In order to really understand Art, we have to talk briefly about the context in which Art exists-- culture.

Culture is a basic part of the human experience as social animals. Our culture organizes our world and gives us roles to play it. Some aspects of cultures seem to make people happier overall, and some make people less happy, but all cultures are internally logically consistent.

In all parts of the world, cultures are shared and passed down through stories. Not only fairy tales and children's books, but all forms of expression tell us stories in some way. What do friends do when they get together over beer or wine? They tell stories. What do we do when we go home and want to relax? We watch stories on TV, or read them in books, or experience them in video games. It is an important and fulfilling experience to connect with one another through our stories, and in doing so, we create, change and reinforce the concepts that our culture consists of.

Fireside Manifesto #3

Friends,

We didn't solve anything in the last post, but that's ok. Let's switch now from what Art is, to what Art does.

Art acts as a medium for expression. As in individual activity, it helps people understand themselves and the world. As a communal activity, it is a medium of communication. Just like any other form of communication, writing or speaking or body language, it can have a wide range of effects, and has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Eliciting a response is an important goal for a piece of artwork. Art can shock people, make them think, disgust them, and inspire them. Sometimes it makes people realize that there is beauty in the world, or reminds them of what is ugly. It can tell us stories. It can give us new perspectives. Sometimes, it tells us how we should live our lives. It can even change the way we think.

Fireside Manifesto #2

Friends,

First, let me mention that I can already tell that this discussion is going to take a long time. Please bear with me, everything I say is something that I think is important. If you have any thoughts along the way, please comment or let me know in some other way. And so we are off.

To begin, the first question that we have to ask is "What is Art?"

There are a hell of a lot of answers to this question. Some are thoughtful, some inspiring, some meaningful, some absurd, some limiting, and some abstruse. People talk about Art as Truth, or Beauty, or magic. About a year ago, I talked on this blog about Art as something that evokes a response, and something that helps the artist to understand themselves and the world. I've heard that Art is what Artists do, and also that Art is whatever Artists can get away with. Art is pretty much subjective, like what Potter Steward said about pornography-- it's difficult or impossible to define, "but I know it when I see it."

Personally, I think that this is my favorite quote on the subject:

"Art is anything you can do well. Anything you can do with Quality."

-Robert Pirsig

Fireside Manifesto #1

Good Evening, Friends,

Up to this point, I've been using SculptorbyDay to document my progress in artistic ability, and to share with my friends and family what I am working on. However, I've been told that, in order to get into a good grad school, I need to progress the conceptual side of my work as well as the skill-based side. I've thought a lot about art and symbolism and meaning, but I've never really had a clear direction or purpose of my own.

I was inspired to create this blog in the first place by my brother Noah, who uses "Its Computer Science Time" to get down his ideas, and to think through new and interesting concepts. My blog is going to start moving in that direction. There will be many more words than before, but I will try for concision and clarity. I'm excited-- I think this will be fun.

Be prepared, as you are about to be given a glimpse into the mind of Joel.

Behind the Scenes

I thought that it might be interesting to everyone to hear about what goes on behind the scenes here at SculptorbyDay studios. Over the past few years, and the past year in particular, I have assembled a large amount of art supplies and tools. The first picture is of the workspace in my room, where most of my work is done. The second is of my studio, which is another room in the basement. The third is of the tools that I use more than any others, by far. Not pictured is the workshop in my friend Chris's basement, where more major projects, like casting, take place.

It didn't really occur to me how extensive my collection was until a few days ago. I am lucky enough to have grown up in an artistic household, where a lot of tools were just lying around.

If anyone is interested, here are a few of the supplies and tools that I have bought, found, or been given: Plastilina, wax, Sculpey, blocks of wood, silicon, porcelain slip, resin, soapstone, alabaster, many types of wire, over 100 pounds of clay, saws, knives, pliers, wheel-throwing tools (wire tool, needle tool, bats, etc), wax-working tools, many brushes, sandpaper, custom-cut and polished granite, paints, hammer and chisels, files, glazes, drawing tablet, a Dremel, and a dozen kinds of adhesives.

Getting a Head of Ourselves

Lots of changes to her, beyond just adding the head. She still seems a bit off proportion. I'm thinking of abandoning my original plans for her, and taking her in a new direction. I'll post when I figure out what that direction is.

Mother and Child, 2.0

The last Mother and Child figurine was fine as a fine piece, but definitely had its issues. I have been working all week on this reproduction. This one has a lot more motion to it, and artistic license. Although the sculpey is nice in many ways, it has its weaknesses as well, and can be very frustrating. I was only able to get this far through perseverance- I had to remake the faces over and over before they looked acceptable, for instance.

Some Drawings

Here are a few more drawings that I've done with my drawing tablet. They are all from reference material, most notably Frank Teran's concept art for the video game Mushroom Men.

On another note, my benevolent patron has received his commissioned piece. Overall he seemed pretty happy about it, but had a few critiques. Most importantly, he was not entirely satisfied with the faces of the mother and child. I have to agree with his assessment. Overall, we both rated the piece a "B". Not bad for a first attempt at this kind of thing, and definitely plenty of room for improvement.

Its Computer Science Time! Again!

Its been almost exactly a year since my twin's last Guest Spot on SculptorbyDay. If you haven't seen his blog, its one of the links on the right side of the page. Check it out if you are ready to go down the rabbit's hole into a realm where Category Theory dominates, the Lambda Calculus confuses people into submission, and Turing Machines are wrecking havoc everywhere.

Like last time, this post has nothing at all to do with what Its Computer Science Time is about. Rather, my bro shows off his amazing pen trick skills. If you missed the first appearance (with a butterfly knife), you can find it here-

http://sculptorbyday.blogspot.com/2010/11/its-computer-science-time.html

Mother and Child, Finished

Here, finally, are my pictures of the finished mother and child figurine. I have my own opinions on how it turned out, but I choose to keep them to myself for now.

Walking Nude

This is my newest digital drawing. It took me about a week to make. Its related to the clay figure that I posted recently, and is based on a reference image that I used.

I have the mother and child figurine back. I have to do what I can

today to hide a small crack, but I'll post pictures soon.

Apple Turkeys 2

Here are this year's apple turkeys. Noah made the snowman, Jeremy made the elephant triceratops, my dad made the alien turkey, my mom made the only regular turkey, and I made a steampunk turkey.

Digital Painting

This is my first finished drawing using my new Wacom Bamboo Create digital drawing tablet. It was expensive, but I've been thinking about getting one for a long time. I have such a difficult time drawing that I thought that I could use any advantage that I can get. So far it feels like digital drawing might be the best medium for me. I drew this in GIMP, but I think that Photoshop is still my application of choice.

Good News and Bad News

The good news is that I got a glimpse of the Woman and Son figurine today, and it looks like the firing went fine. The colors are a little darker than I had expected, but the clear glaze looks good. The bad news is that I only got a glimpse of the sculpture because it is currently at a few hundred degrees Fahrenheit. I'm going to have to wait a few days until its cooled down to room temperature and they can take it out of the kiln (they are very cautious). So no figurine quite yet.

Hopefully I'll have another post for you guys tomorrow.

New Project

Pictures are in chronological order. After a failed attempt at building the form, I had to bake some of the clay on to make a more sturdy armature. This piece is taking many, many hours. I'm using a mix of 2:1 Sculpey Firm and Super Sculpey, which seems to work really well. I have big plans and a complex thought-process with this one, but I'll share that next time. She does have a head, but that is also for another time.

The sitting female has also been fully repaired. Next step is buy materials for the patina.

Going to Pieces

I got my pieces back from CreativeClay on Saturday. As you can see, the female figure fell apart on me. I am currently putting her back together with foul-smelling exopy putty. It smells like chemical tuna.

The mother and son faired much better-- no damage at all. The colors look very much the same, but a little darker and richer. I took her to my car, put on two coats of clear glaze, and brought her right back to the store. I'll get her back again soon, so everyone pray that there is no crazing or crawling or milky clear-glaze.

My bro's guest spot is on hold until I can get Blender to stop lagging, or learn to use a better video editing tool. Or shoot a continuous video, whichever comes first.

Everyone's Favorite Horseman of the Apocalypse

 I had a good time remembering how to paint. These are water-based acrylics made for painting models, called Vallejo's Game Color paints. When I do this again I think I'm going to get Citadel paints, and get an ink wash* this time.

*Ink washes are thinned paints which fall into the cracks of a model, making for easy shading. They can also provide a mostly transparent layer of color on top of another paint.

SculptorbyDay, The Early Years 3

 















This little guy was probably my favorite back in the day. Its kind of a complex model, but it is a guy with swords coming out of his arms and two cannon-arm thingies coming out of his back. He has a huge backpack on that is a teleporter. So awesome. If you look at the enlarged version you can see how I tried to paint the gems as if they were clear, keeping in mind that they are 1-2 mm long.

Because I didn't think that the colors were well-represented, I have included a third, modern-day pic of the whole crew as a bonus.

SculptorbyDay, The Early Years 2

Here are two more figures from my youth. They are about the same size as the green guy from before. I was big into this color scheme at the time. Tomorrow I will post my favorite model, and then the finished death sculpture the next day. I also dropped off the mother and son figurine, and it should be fired by next weekend.

SculptorbyDay, The Early Years 1

The first picture is of the first figure I ever painted. Its a robot beetle thingy, about half an inch long. I painted it when I was in elementary school, hanging out in my friend Paul's garage. The second picture is of the last figure I painted before I moved away from this hobby, when I was 15. He's a little over an inch tall. I took the photos during my first foray into posting my work online, though I wont tell you guys where because there is also embarrassing teenage poetry posted on that account.

In any case, painting the death figure is going pretty well, but I think I'm just going to dry-brush the highlights instead of getting down to every detail by itself. A good friend of mine once told me that my work has a heaviness to it, and I'm seeing what she meant with this guy. I think that the goal for my next project will be to move away from that heaviness.

Paint and Childhood Memories

I've started to paint the death figure with water-based acrylics. I am at the stage of the piece where I start to see everything that is wrong with it. I do want to finish it however-- I looked around my room and saw how many projects I have left unfinished.

It was the mother and child figurine that really made me realize how difficult it can be to actually see a sculpture through to completion. After asking around for quite some time, I have finally found a place that should get it fired for me, named Creative Clay. Most places don't want to put other's work in jeopardy because they don't trust that a stranger knows enough to keep his or her work from exploding. And the Torpedo factory does not do bisque firing. Thankfully, firing is one of the services that Creative Clay offers specifically.

While I paint the death figure, my plan for the blog for the next few days is to post pictures that I took when I was 13 or 14 or something. I was painting tiny war game figures at the time, from Games-Workshop. I hope you guys like them. Also, I have another guest-spot planned from everyone's favorite Computer Genius, The Noah. Stay tuned.

Death, Ready for Baking

I've spent 3-4 weeks on this guy, and I think he is ready to bake.

I really like making these models. If anyone has ideas of a character that I could make, I'm open to suggestions.

Death, now in 3D

While I work on getting the figurine fired, I have started a new project. I'm pretty excited about this guy. I need to spend a significant amount of time tightening up the form and details, but the final plan is to cook him (its made of super sculpey), and then paint him with acrylics.

I'm really liking the super sculpey. It feels like soft cheese. Along with a sturdy armature, it is a nice medium to work in.

Figurine Update 6

The painting is finally done. It looks similar to the last post, but the lines are more clear, and there is no clay showing anymore. There may be a few more tweaks, but this is pretty much how the figure will look. Now I have to actually figure out when, where, and how to fire it.

Stare Death in the Eyes

I'm real happy with how this turned out. Of course, I'm not going to pretend like I free-handed it. I copied it directly from concept art by the artist Joe Madureira, even going so far as to trace the outline. Check out his work-- Its awesome.

I like drawing in charcoal a lot because of the looseness and the fact the you can use your fingers. I never thought that I would be able to draw in pen, much less enjoy it. Its exact and meticulous, two things that I am not. Amazingly, I really enjoy drawing with pen. Things that you draw in pen always have a clean, official sort of air about them.

Pen Sketches

These are all sketches that I am working on in anticipation of my new project- making Death from Darksiders II. I like the story of the game studio that is makes Darksiders (Vigil Games). They were just a few young guys trying to achieve a dream, and it paid off in the end. I'm not going to actually start this project until the figurine is finished- the dress still needs more painting.

Watch out tomorrow night for another update. I am finishing up what is probably the coolest drawing I have ever done.

Figurine Update 5

Finally getting around to posting an update of my progress on the figurine. The colors are more washed-out than they will be when it is fired. The painting is taking a long time because I need to do three coats of the whole thing. When I make mistakes, I have to chip the paint off with a knife, its not like acrylic where I would just cover it with another color.

I've also started working on another project that I've been thinking about for a while. I'll post pictures later this week.

Mushroom Man Again

I was going to post my progress on the mother figurine, but my camera is out of batteries and I can't find the charger. Quick update is-- I've started painting, but just barely. Instead, I have another mushroom man pose. I've been messing around with Blender again and I have to say, I really enjoy it. Because this blog is about the process, I have taken a screenshot of the actual view in Blender.

When I have more time, I want to attempt a more complex animation. I finally fixed the legs bones in the armature, so I can actually do something more complex now. I was really happy about that.