Sunday, April 5, 2009

Too much to sculpt....never enough time!



Last Thursday morning I hurt my back lugging the vacuum cleaner up and down the stairs (there's a lesson here folks), so had to spend the day standing up......a perfect excuse to do some more work on the Griffon head. I was shocked when I looked back through my documentation, to see that I haven't touched it (except to move it a couple of times) since last July! Then we had that incredible heatwave a couple months ago and the poor thing was literally melting....the original horns fell off along with an ear and oil was leaching out of the clay. So, some re-working was definitely needed. I ended up working on it all day Thursday and again Friday. It's evolving fairly significantly from the original drawing I did, but I expected this to happen.....I don't often draw things out first as I think more clearly in three dimensions and prefer to work out problems in the sculpture as I go along. This piece needed some kind of plan however, mainly because of the size of it. It will be around seven feet tall when it's eventually finished. You can see more of the initial planning in my old blog archive on my website. Click here. There is something wonderfully freeing about sculpting something this big.....of course down the track there will be much cursing and gnashing of teeth but, for the moment, bliss reigns.
Till next time.


7 comments:

  1. Wow Lorell It's wonderful...
    But I'm so sorry that you hurt your back to get back to him... 7 Ft. Tall??
    Is he made of sculpy or paper clay? He's fantastic!

    Don't lug anything.... : )
    Pattee

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  2. Hi Pattee,
    ....yes, my back is a delicate thing....years of lugging and abuse in my younger days! I forget myself sometimes and do something silly like move furniture or sit at my worktable for hours without getting up.....and then I pay the price!
    I'm sculpting this head with Kleen Klay - it's an oil based, non-drying clay....when it's finished I'll be making a mould and casting the original in a lighter material....should be interesting, I've never done any mould making before, but I've got a very experienced contact whose going to give me some guidance.

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  3. Aha! It's going to have mould! That of course makes sense!
    I really can't wait to see him done. It will have such presence when it's done.

    Take care of that back Lorell!
    Pat
    http://odd-dolls.blogspot.com

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  4. I love him! what are you going to be casting him in? how do you like the kleen klay? the batch I got seemed very sticky..

    so jealous of your workspace.... and all your gorgeous sculpts....

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  5. Hmmm....not sure yet. I have a couple of options but need to talk to my special effects guy.....at the rate the sculpting is going *read "slow"* that's still a long way off!
    The Kleen Klay is quite sticky compared to polymer clay, but I really love working with it.
    Thanks for the compliment :)

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  6. Oh Lorell, I can't believe you call your self a procrastinator with all that you do. Or that you have self doubt when you create such amazing pieces. I guess it's just the nature of the artist.

    Thanks again for spending time with us.

    hUgs,
    Heather :)

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  7. hello,
    this griffon looks like so AMAZING! It reminds me to the Griffon in the Storyteller series!

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