Saturday, April 26, 2014

#83, Confidence relief


Confidence, 23"x10", clay for resin

One of my first nude reliefs that I've sculpted in quite a while. This was made from my model Corinne who could have been a model from 20th century France. Her body proportions and facial structure are classical in nature and she reminded me of some of the Italian and French statues. 

Creating this relief was quite fun as I didn't have any drapery to struggle with. The pose is a simple controposto and from start to finish this took me about 6-7 hours. As is usual with my sculptures and reliefs, the face is the focal point. I have been trying to focus on the nuances and subtleties of the face while keeping the remainder of the relief with something of the original feeling. That is, I'm trying to leave my original tool marks from the blockout and not go back in too much for refinement. Lately the last few pieces I've done have a looser feel and for me this seems to work better. Plus, I'm not agonizing over every little detail which can sometimes drive me nuts.



Saturday, April 12, 2014

#82, portrait of Ashleigh, relief


Ashleigh, clay for resin, 17.5"x12.5"

I have been conscious lately of the forms and subtle nuances of the face as I have looked back on some of my life size monuments thinking "I could do better than that!!". The face has so many soft forms and as I am mostly working from photos or myself in the mirror things can get flattened out and simplified. On this portrait of Ashleigh I was conscious of these soft forms although I didn't want to take them too far which would age her very quickly if I got carried away. The forms are subtle and soft, but there.