An Old Dog New Tricks

  Hot July in Nashville. I know, I will stay inside and paint. Well, that was fun. Got a couple of pieces done recently with a new one about 2/3rds finished.
  I am going to be brave and attempt to enter the Springfield Art in the Park on September 28 up in Springfield TN. Royce and I are going to share a tent in another show. This will be two in a row for us at AITP. I am looking forward to it. Royce keeps looking at her watch, then at me and back at her watch. OK, so I am not going to have a thousand pieces for the show. BUT...yes I said but... I will have a little more variety to display.
 
The story goes like this... A couple of Thursdays ago, I went to the 'Boro to visit my sweetie. We were sitting at the table while she was working on making clay pieces for her incredible jewelry. We always chat while she is being creative. Our discussion turned towards clay obviously, and she was showing me basic stuff about it. Now don't get me wrong, I have fiddled with clay before. OK, I have stuffed clay into molds and went "Eureka!". Michelangelo, I ain't. I have never, even back in high school art class tried to sculpt a clay anything. It was time to put up or shut up. With a flourish and an abracadabra, I pick up a chunk and began to play. After counting my fingers to make sure my handling procedures with the tools were successful, I introduced a vague clown head figure. I even named it "Whiskers".

  Well, turned out ok. Royce really liked it, said she was impressed for my very first attempt. I know she wouldn't fib to me, so that made me feel good..... And lit a spark. OK, it's sculpted, now it needs paint. Hmm, I've never sculpted, so duh! I've never painted a sculpture. Deep breath, grab a paint brush and some garish paint color and get started....

  OK... maybe I'm on to something here. That was harmless. No fingers harmed, didn't thrash in my sleep that night. Didn't scare Royce.... AND IT WAS FUN PLAYING WITH IT....
 
   So being as I am as smart as a Pachlid from Star Trek, I started looking a sculpy tutorial videos. Eyes, ears, noses, heads, arms, feet, etc. Dam, I didn't know sculpture had so many parts. I though it was like the old joke about how you carve an elephant out of soap. You get a bar of soap and a knife and you just remove anything that doesn't look like an elephant. Not that simple. If you give it arms, chances are it will need an armature. I thought that was a part inside an electric motor. Go figure. Go simple or go home, I've always heard. So let's build a small cat.. It has 4 legs so it will need an (no this is not a setup for a pun) armature for the front legs. Long story short, I sculpted a small Olivia (Rooyce's cat) and painted it to look like her. Olivia, not Royce.

  OK, her face is flat, and it's a bit rough. One step at a time... At least it is in the form of a cat...sort of. Royce liked it... so that works...Two pieces down, time for more videos....lots of videos.
   Spent a little time watching various videos, I'm an expert. Right! Anyway, I decided to take a little more time and come up with something for my third piece that would challenge me a little bit. An ALIEN BUST. No, I'm not trying to arrest an alien. I am going to sculpt one.... Now, it just needs a name for the species....

  It turned out fairly decent, needs some more smoothing work. I need to work on detail stuff, finishing off blending better, but over all, I am pleased with my third piece. Who knows? I might actually figure this out by the time the Springfield festival opens. At least I'll have some novice sculptures for sale... Till next time!