For the upcoming “Art of Racing in The Rain” Show at the ES Public Library, I thought I’d try my hand at sculpting. So I settled on a portrait of our greyhound, Serena, for the subject. (Click the images for a closer look)
Although we do plenty of ceramics, we rarely do sculpture. So we don’t have much equipment, especially when it comes to armatures. So I used a paper armature (fancy term for balled-up newspaper), and stuck it on top of a piece of copper pipe, which I clamped down in a rotating vice. When I’m finished, the paper can stay in and will burn away in the kiln.
This is the point when I realized that the thing was going to stay together and would eventually look vaguely like a dog. So, I needed some reference pics. Good thing our dog just lays around, she wasn’t hard to find!
You can see my model sheet there in the background, as I set upon trying to find the right proportions and capture somewhat of a likeness.
This was the end of day 1:
The next day was mostly fidgeting. Being a novice sculptor, I wanted to keep it simple, and wasn’t going to try and work up a lot of fine detail. I’m all about manageable goals!
There you have it! Next stop, the Kiln. I’m pleased to say that it survived both firings, the first one burned out the newspaper armature and, for the second firing I used a clear glaze in order to keep it smooth and white:
I cut down the copper pipe I used to hold it up while sculpting and reinserted it, then attached it to a wood base.
And that’s it! It was done in time for the show and well received. Thanks for looking!
–Neal
