Later on I will start shaping and working the gesture, but for now this is a great start. (Commission for St Anthony Hospital, Gig Harbor)
A Day in May
Today I had a visit from Mrs. Jan Liepman's Class of six high school art students from Harbor Christian Schools. I enjoyed showing them the process of sculpture and explaining the process of getting a commissions through the design and research phase up to building an armature in the life size. There is always so much to cover in Sculpture, but the class seemed to enjoy their new found knowledge of the process.
Above: I made some new tools. The five smaller ones are made of Teak and the larger ones are made of Afromosia I needed some new and larger tools for working on the life-size.
Building the Inside
Here begins the building of the insides with blocks of styrofoam. This has to be done before you put clay on because it will make the piece lighter, easier to move, and you will use less clay. It is also helpful to attach the clay without it falling off or sagging. The goal it to build the styrofoam allowing 2"-3" of clay to be added.
Commission for: St. Anthony Hospital, Gig Harbor WA
I finally have the blocks of styrofoam glued up to the head now. I used "good stuff" and bbq skewers to help hold the pieces together as the glue dried.
Hot wax gets applied to help bond the clay and prevent pieces of Styrofoam from being everywhere. Then St Anthony & Child get loaded into the truck for the ride from the Bronze Works to my Gig Harbor studio. Oops..looks like his head had to come off to fit! Good thing we made it that height to fit in the studio.
My family's "Big White" vehicle comes in handy when you are a sculptor.
Now the sculpture is ready for some clay! (wrapped with wire mesh)
The Making of an Armature - Life Size
Take a close look at the head of the armature! They constructed it so the head of St. Anthony and the Child's Head can come off! We had to make certain the sculpture could come in and out of my studio since the height of the garage door opening is only 82". We later found that the height was also important for getting it in the truck!
Above: Steve, at the Bronze Works (Foundry located in Tacoma, WA) is welding up the armature for the life size sculpture of St Anthony & Child. Sculpture Commissioned by Franciscan Health System's new St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor.
Once the maquette (1/4 life size version) was completed I took it to the Bronze Works Foundry to get molded, and then they cast a couple waxes for being cast into Bronze (we'll cover that process later). Because the life size is so much bigger, the armature (structural "bones") have to get welded up and secured well at the waist. This will make it more stable to handle the weight of the clay, working on it, and the transportation back to the foundry after it is completed.
Above you can see the stick figures of both the Child and St. Anthony. It is very important the armature is mathematically correct and in the proper locations such as the ankles, arms of the child, and the shoulders. It is also important to have the overall gesture of the figure. If you don't you may have pieces of your armature sticking out of the surface of your clay and you will have to pull clay off and fix it (if it is simple enough....)
At this stage you have to forget about shapes and forms, get over the fact that you are looking at a 3-D stick figure.......And think visually how best to get the bones in the proper places....!!! It can be quite mind numbing.