Film Noir

This is the film noir piece I mentioned in the first post. Couple of interesting things about it. One is color. We'd discussed doing it in grey tones to mimic the look of a B&W 30's film. It would have looked very sharp at the right reception. However, red is a great color. It's dramatic and attention grabbing even on something less than a foot high. With deeper colors good coverage is the key. In this case it meant several coats on her dress to achieve the richness. Getting the fedora right was a bit of a process. Sculpy is easiest to work when you're working against a support. Shaping the brim was an exercise in patience and light touch. Eventually, I managed to reach OK. Sometimes you've got to know when to stop fussing. On the other hand I'm very pleased with her pose. She also has a rather attractive derriere .

The other thing worth mention is the construction of the street sign post. Mostly the supports for my pieces are internal wire armatures but in this case the section of the post from base to just below the signs is painted brass tube. The alternative of building an acceptably smooth (and strong) vertical from an internal wire and clay coating was just too maddening to contemplate. The street names are the bride and groom's but perhaps that was obvious.

The Night and Gale

A friend of mine wrote a book and ask me to build a topper based on the two main characters, Gale and Lucas, for his launch party. Like the Legend of Zelda topper they are depicted in a romantic moment but I've gotten a bit smarter since  then. Three things made the project much easier. One, their faces are just a bit farther apart. Two, her hair has all blown to one side of her head. There were still moments of painting challenge but not so difficult as Zelda and it doesn't obscure the faces. Three, by placing the bodies at a slight angle it allowed me easier work access and displayed them for better viewing.








Gale is a supernatural character associated with ravens so the finished piece has a cloud of them swirling around the pair. I laid out a sheet of clay then cut out each individual bird before baking. The strength is distributed across all the small intersections. Since this a new technique I kept the size conservative. Visually, it probably should have been bigger. It is stronger than it looks but still would have been terrifying to ship. The best course would have been to leave them separate and have them assembled on arrival.


The book is "The Night and Gale" by Daniel Carrier. I'd describe it as an action romance set in the Lake Erie  island country featuring fantastic creatures that live unbeknownst among humans.

Step by step

After a design is agreed on, I sit down at my bench with a blank canvas. The glass cutting board makes a good base. It can go in and out of the oven and is absolutely flat. That's the project sketch hanging above my work light.

I reprinted the sketch "lifesized" as a guide. Normally I work by eye but the relationship between the figures was so tight I wanted a to scale  reference. 

The pins at the neck are removable. The option to remove and adjust various bits is very handy. Each step has been fired separately. This keeps you from sticking your fingers in something finished but still soft. A couple of surrogate heads here and the beginnings of arms. Overall composition is what's being worked on. Plus major details like the bottom of his tunic and the drape of her cloak/robe.

I bake a core for each head then add the faces to the firm foundation. After adjusting angle, distance and neck length clay is added around the necks and prayers sent up that nothing move during baking.










Lots and lots of details are added. The pin through her hood has a wire rod inside for strength. The faces are not connected just very close together.




I like to paint the big blocks of color first because it seems like you're getting a lot done. Painting from the inside out (skin to hair to clothes) is good too. Painting differently colored faces kissing distance apart is a road to madness.

And here's what you end up with. Warts and all.......

These are two different projects at various stages of completion though everyone is completely modeled. Even though they both loosely fall in the "fantasy" genre you can see how different the styles are. Also, I thought the photo gave a nice sense of the scale of the pieces. It's something that's missing from their official portraits.

The winged cats were a lot of fun . They turned out fairly convincing and made me laugh every time I thought about them soaring through the neighborhood. It may not be clear from this pic but the bride is suppose to be hovering. Hidden attachment points and cantilevered structures fascinate me. In this case the dress supports her but it could have been trimmed down quite a bit to give a lighter feel. Ah well, next time, yes?

Finishes

Most of my pieces are painted in natural colors usually incorporating the wedding scheme. Perfectly legitimate choice and it's very cool to have tiny you's on top a cake. I would however like to suggest that sometimes a more simpler finishes will have an interesting effect. This is "Monkey Man Odin".

He's done with with an undercoat of black paint and then rubbed with a silver finish using fingers and Q-tips. I think this finish would look very striking on top of a cake. Other metallic finishes are of course available. Gold is a classic but copper has an organic quality especially with some patina to it. Bet you've never seen a Norse chimp before.