Year 2 Week 19

As I didn't make the course last week I did some research into my next stone sculpture. In other words I looked at images from the Internet of what I had in mind and I found some images of how other people had made sculptures of the same thing before.

I then made a maquette out of clay to see if it would work. I was pleasantly surprised by the maquette. Luckily my girlfriend's mum, Jean had bought me some self hardening clay for my birthday last year. It came in very handy now.

Below (at the request of Paul, my tutor) are some of the images I downloaded from the Internet to inspire me and below that some photos of the clay maquette.

Worked out what I am hoping to make yet?!?

I was inspired by walking through Russell Sq every time I go to and from my class. The squirrels are always running around. I had terrible trouble though finding a photo of a squirrel looking like I had imagined it. The picture above is the closest to what I was looking for. Body and head down, but tail up.

Below are the squirrel sculptures I found images of on the Internet.

None of them are that similar to what I was hoping to create. My favourite though is the one below as it is made from very similar colour stone to the piece I am using. I really like it. If mine turns out half that good I will be happy.



The next photos are of my maquette. In the second pair of photos I have added some details of legs etc. which I may or may not be able to carve out of the stone. I hope to make the stone carving a bit more angular than this. so it is a bit less cute!






In this weeks class I started the stone carving (see below). I used a hand saw to take a few big chunks out of the piece of stone. I then used a rasp on it just a little. You can probably see from my pencil marks the shape I am aiming at.

This is definitely my longest blog entry so far. I will shut up now.

Year 2 Week 18

I was unfortunately unable to make it to the class today due to illness.

I have been studying my photos though of the new piece of stone to see what I can do with it. My initial idea seems not to fit the stone as well as I thought but I am still hopeful I can adjust the design. I may need to make a maquette next week.

Year 2 Week 17

Today I finished the 'fist'. At least I went as far as I wanted to go with it. Pictures to follow.



A new supply of stone had been delivered to the Mary Ward Centre today so I chose myself a piece (possibly) for my next project.





It looks very grey but I sanded an area on the top and as you can hopefully see in the pictures below it is surprisingly a lovely brown colour when polished.

I already had one vague idea of what I would like to try next and the shape of this piece of stone seemed to fit very well.

Year 2 Week 16

I am getting to the end of this project I think but have still been doing a bit more fine tuning.

This week I had a go at trying to show some of the creases in the skin.

I used a sharp knife for this instead of a chisel (loaned to me by Paul my tutor).

I think the creases need improving but after that I will call it a day with this project.

So 1 more week and that's it!

I think!