Forum

[raspero]

Well, here goes:



A piece that is still in clay, almost ready for a polyurethane mold.

And an entirely different material and subject: the Universe perhaps?



And then we have the resident lunatic (it has been said) in his world: Fantaciworks.



Richard

[scrapartoz]

those are great pictures of your work.
The chrome stiletto will get some unwelcome attention I am sure.
The accuracy /precision of your 'universe' is well above my ability. Do you have engineering tools to achieve that?
I think I need to see the nude's face to see if you have a masterpiece there!
the star wars fighters (string thing) don't work for me .
thank you for showing them. I hope others will do the same .a

[tonofelephant]

Great Clay piece Raspero.

I still check this site every morning before sculpting for the day. I enjoy seeing both the abstract as well as the figurative work. When figurative or abstract is done well it is an uplift for my day. Usually don't comment on figurative since I am not well-versed in the intricasies of how the human body goes together ie. what proportion is the head to the overall body, etc. And unfortunately or fortunately figurative does not rev my engines as much as abstract.

One of the major reasons to taper down on my posts & interaction was the "edge" to many of the discussions. "Edge" being a polite way to say bordering on nasty. Some of these discussions seemed to be pointed at Scout & Joe. The worst & longest duration ones were pointed at GlennT in my opinion.

Most of the discussions usually seemed to revolve around proving that they could beat down or wither down the person being talked to. Don't know about anyone else, but did not want to comment on anything in those discussions so I would not have bile dumped on my head also.

I understand what is in it for the berater - they get to shout at someone with no consequences. But it is not much fun for the one being berated.

[raspero]

My experience exactly. There was a lot of arrogance here. I attempted for a while to join in their "learned" discussions but my posts were pretty much ignored.

Thank you for the comments.

I don't have a photograph of her face since I have worked on it. I will take one tomorrow and post it here.

Richard

[raspero]

The accuracy /precision of your 'universe' is well above my ability. Do you have engineering tools to achieve that?

Only a lot of patience, extensive planning, and attention to detail. A drill press and a bandsaw were the primary tools involved. There are 480 #2 Allen head machine screws holding it together.

Richard

[PTsideshow]

Great stuff! Thanks for posting them

[cheesepaws]

I actually really prefer the forum format to FB for chatting about art.

I've been gone for a while now, but I was pretty open to posting pictures and commenting on others work (IMO). It just got tedious defending the multitude of styles, intent, materials, education, that are possible in art/sculpture against bitter attacks by those with stricter definitions of what THEY count as art. Those "arguments" always ended a dismissal of anything but the personal tastes of a few stubborn - but vocal - members.

Honestly, I never understood what they took away from a "forum" style discussion if they weren't open to different views?

It could be a great place if the numbers grew again. A cacophony of inclusion and support to drown out the naysayers.

I also agree with some who have pointed out how non-intuitive it is to post pictures. That certainly makes FB more appealing.

[raspero]

As promised:





I have her face pretty much to shape—a little work on her mouth; it seems a slight bit crooked—and then the final attention to her face to give her a personality and perhaps even an attitude.

It was devilishly hard to get her face right without being able to view it from all angles.

Richard

[mantrid]

Its looking great especially the feet which are very well done. Not sure about the hair though. There is a tendency to try to sculpt in too much detail to try and replicate individual or small groups of hair but it never works with clay. ive looked into this alot myself as Ive been guilty of doing this. What Ive found on looking at hair on figurative sculptures is that it looks more realistic if you ignore trying to put in fine detail of the hair and just sculpt the general shape with a few deeper cuts to show any larger gaps in the overall hair shape, it then looks less mop like

something like this
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/attachm...hmentid=152052

[Mack]

Very nice work...I agree with Mantrid re the hair treatment. Just the form without the detail except for a touch here and there and it would blend in more with the smooth texture of the rest of the piece. Maybe less than the example he put up, so it doesn't distract from the sculpture as a whole.

[raspero]

Thank you Mack and Mantrid.

I see what you mean. I will experiment with her hair and post some results over the next several days.

It's studio season for me now. My studio is air conditioned.

Here in southern Mexico in April, May, and June, it is way too hot to do any foundry work. It's usually around 80 F at 5 o'clock in the morning, and very humid too. It will cool off considerably when the rainy season begins in late June.

Richard

[scrapartoz]

Richard, I LOVE the girls face her imperfections make her real not a porcelain emotionless doll makers model. I kinda like the hair but Ive no idea whether you could cast such detail. you have achieved a great attitude in her face.....IMO for me I see resignation , acceptance of a recent life's drama , but also resilience / strength of character also a bit dreamy / a long way away. ............were any of these emotions your intention.

[scrapartoz]

Originally Posted by raspero

Only a lot of patience, extensive planning, and attention to detail. A drill press and a bandsaw were the primary tools involved. There are 480 #2 Allen head machine screws holding it together.

Richard

Mate ! , with that level of patience and skill you could build some very fancy kinetic clockwork sculpture . Or does this Universe of yours turn ? ( is driven by a motor or crank ?????) of do you change by hand the orientation of each part as your mood pleases?

[obseq]

CP, You were definitely one of those few who were generous with your insights into other's work along with sharing your own — the sort who really helped to keep the backbone of the forum strong.

Like you and others have mentioned, an increase in the numbers of those willing to stick around and contribute would be great.

Originally Posted by cheesepaws

I actually really prefer the forum format to FB for chatting about art.

I've been gone for a while now, but I was pretty open to posting pictures and commenting on others work (IMO). It just got tedious defending the multitude of styles, intent, materials, education, that are possible in art/sculpture against bitter attacks by those with stricter definitions of what THEY count as art. Those "arguments" always ended a dismissal of anything but the personal tastes of a few stubborn - but vocal - members.

Honestly, I never understood what they took away from a "forum" style discussion if they weren't open to different views?

It could be a great place if the numbers grew again. A cacophony of inclusion and support to drown out the naysayers.

I also agree with some who have pointed out how non-intuitive it is to post pictures. That certainly makes FB more appealing.

[Art-Deco]

Originally Posted by cheesepaws

I also agree with some who have pointed out how non-intuitive it is to post pictures. That certainly makes FB more appealing.

How hard is it? you click the little yellow icon and enter the url for the picture and it's displayed, there's hundreds of free picture hosting sites, photobucket, imgur, sure better than Farcebook's clutter, stupid "timeline" thing and ads!

[grommet]

just collecting some tumbleweeds for sculpture.
I went to facebook because it was easier to find like-minded people, and the format is more compact in some ways.
but here's a pic from last year. steel and stuff about 5 1/2 feet tall

[raspero]

Great piece. I have missed you.

Richard

[PTsideshow]

very nice!

[cheesepaws]

G. Nice indeed. Decompresses elegantly without ever losing its gestural strength.

[grommet]

thanks for looking and comments.
It's good to see folks pursuing their muses, beyond the confines. Keep kickin'!

[underfoot]

..Nice one grommet..I like the gestural pencily sketchyness of this piece..(not au fait with all that sculpture terminology)

I also haven't been around here for a long time..no real reason, just faded out with all the rest I guess.
it would be good to see it return to it's busy, informative, crotchety and meandering old self..
Some new blood and the return of some of the oldies would be good..I'll be watching..

[Mack]

I lke it also Grommet...it's beautiful!... Finding in myself a movement away from creating more sculpure and moving toward music...I love to sing and so being able to accompany myself on an instrument is quite a treat...market for my work is so slow right now, have to consider the expense of things: shipping, molding, casting,etc. before sending a new clay to my foundry. It may all change, but till then its music.

[Art-Deco]

Originally Posted by Mack

Finding in myself a movement away from creating more sculpure and moving toward music...I love to sing and so being able to accompany myself on an instrument is quite a treat...market for my work is so slow right now, have to consider the expense of things: shipping, molding, casting,etc. before sending a new clay to my foundry. It may all change, but till then its music.

Yeah kind of similar here, though I sold a bunch of sculptures in recent weeks all of a sudden, and had a woman ask about a custom model for her new home's portico. She wanted some large, odd French styled door surround and sent an example photo of what she had in mind. The surround was mainly just beat up stones with little more than a plain molding carved in them.
I told her that for me to model all those pieces and cast them in concrete plus ship all that would be insanely expensive, but she could get something done maybe with stucco or concrete shaped by someone and I could could model the keystone she wanted.

So then she changed the design and sent a photo of a huge 4 foot tall salvaged limestone keystone from an old mansion that had this really poor, amateurishly carved female mask on it and asked if I could make one like it smaller.
That was 3 weeks ago, haven't heard back yet.

Oh just heard from her today, from the fancy ornate French thing she wanted she decided to go with a simple commercially made cast concrete surround instead LOL!

The face she loves on that piece is really lousy, it looks like a students' early practice work, hard to imagine such poor work came off a mansion built by a very wealthy name who could have easily afforded to even hire some big name stone carver from France, Italy or something.
In a way I'm glad not to model that face, it is boring, nothing baout it has any interesting elements to it either.

There were other keystones pictured at the antique place and they all looked lousy, I wouldn't even buy one of them that's how bad they are, they want $3800 each and it's just a face on a huge block of stone about 4 feet high, 2 feet wide and deep, things must weigh about a ton each.



I've been taking a sideline foray into miniaturia with building a 1:12 scale room box which is something I've wanted to do. This one has a theme I am developing with various objects that are yet to be added to the scene, they will suggest someone has come home and suddenly exited the room through the open door, having rushed out so quickly they dropped the telephone receiver which can be seen dangling from the table by the flower vase. There is a bottle of whiskey on the round table and there will be a bag of groceries and the newspaper carelessly left on the floor askew. The room is not yet finished with crown molding or understairs enclosure etc, but when it's completed it will have glass and a picture frame front. The viewer will be left to interpret the scene with the telephone, open door, groceries on the floor etc in their own way.

[Mack]

Really impressive!

[Art-Deco]

Thanks Mack.