Concentration III : The Conjoined Twins - Construction

Before I start, let me just say... what. a. doozie. The process of sculpting these conjoined twins was probably one of the most stressful and time consuming of all the others I've made thus far. I think the problem was that I knew the effect that I wanted to make with the piece but I didn't know how to execute it. I knew I wanted to sculpt circus-y conjoined twins that were conjoined in an asymmetric, reimagined way but I didn't know exactly how they would look. All I really had figured out was the color scheme which only comes into play later. I also wanted one of the twins to seem sad and the other to seem more menacing and parasitic. Here are the many progress pictures and false starts that led, somehow, to the final product.

What.

Ew.

After these three false starts, I enlisted the help of a local model....

Drop dead gorgeous.

 So as you can see, I was making no progress with this weird parasite twin idea.

So OFF WITH ONE OF THEIR HEADS and on with a different plan.

.... and an even worse one at that. 

And then I finally found a happy medium between the two ideas and I magically learned how to sculpt again with the help of trusty Youtube videos. 

And then I finally started having fun again, adding my own Tim Burton inspired touches and challenging myself with sculpting teeth and strangely morphed lips and eyes.

And then I went crazy with the finishing touches adding a fun bow-tie, epaulets, and ruffles.

After weeks of confusion, indecision, and frustration, meet.... 

Phil and Lip, your favorite pair of conjoined twins! 

Breadth III : Multiples and Modules - Construction

This project really threw me off at first because I couldn't quite wrap my mind around modular art. To add onto this distress, I was extremely hard headed and I became infatuated with the idea that my medium would be thumbtacks. So here I was, trying to come up with some way to make a sculpture out of these pointy, transparent objects. Luckily, I found inspiration in the work of Jennifer Maestre, about whom I wrote a post a while back. Although I didn't use her medium or technique to create this sculpture, looking at her body of work greatly helped me come up with an idea for my own piece. 

I also took inspiration from Byzantine mosaics with their beautifully symmetric floral patterns and geometric tendencies. 

To be honest, I just started gluing things together to see what would happen and then my inspiration guided me the rest of the way. I began with the little tower shown above and using it as my center, I stuck it on a piece of cardboard and outlined the rest of the sculpture on it. I then had the proper guidelines to help me put all the thumbtacks in the right place. 

This process was rather punishing due to the prickly, blood-drawing medium and the hot, burn- inducing tools. 

The final piece resulted in a chandelier-like sculpture that refracted light in a rather beautiful way but failed due to its meager size and poor construction. This is probably the most non climactic of my pieces probably because I didn't really have an image in my head during its construction and it showed in the final product. I still think it has some interesting visual elements and that it'll photograph well. I might add to the piece by orienting it on a circular mirror to take advantage of the one thing that it has got going for it (previously stated). 

Concentration I : The Fortune Teller - Glazing Process

This glazing process has been taking much longer than intended due to my general indecisiveness on the color scheme and lack of knowledge of techniques in mixing authentic looking dark skin. It turns out that making pale-skin glaze is much easier than making dark-skin glaze, especially the sort of burnt tan color that I am going for for this piece.

I began the process by mixing a dark reddish-brown and applying it so that it fit into the crevices of the clay and then wiping away the excess with a watered sponge. 

Pre-Glazing Plans: I will be using this technique for each layer of glaze that I apply, each being lighter than the previous one and then I will go in with some undertones and highlights to finish off the skin. I'm also going to add funky eyeliner and eyebrow makeup as well as settle for a nice lip color and then have some fun with glazing her headscarf. I think I'm going to keep her blouse white and maybe add some watered down grays and black to add depth to the "fabric." I also plan on making her hair a dark brown and making her eyes a glazed over light blue color to give off the sense that she is having a vision. The overall color scheme is turquoise with gold details and brown skin and dark hair. 

UPDATE: The following are photos of the final steps of the glazing process. Enjoy! (03/01/15)

I then painted her eyes in more so they look like they are being rolled to the back of her head as if she were telling a fortune. It's quite creepy but I still think she is beautiful with her unique hair and makeup. 

She is now in the kiln ready to be fired! I put clear glaze over her eyes and mouth to give them a glossy feel and that is why they look slightly green in the above photos. 

AND FINALLY (drumroll please)...... THE FORTUNE TELLER!!

Concentration II : The Strongman - Glazing Process

Despite being my second concentration piece, The Strong Man ended up being the first to be completed due to its simpler design and color palette. 

A few things were clear from the get-go: I wanted him to be pale and I wanted him to have a leopard unitard. After spending what seemed like a million years trying to mix the perfect color for the orange in the leopard print, I enlisted the help of my teacher because I was getting NO WHERE. She taught me some techniques to mixing glazes and I feel a lot more comfortable doing it now.

I then proceeded to filling in the rest of his features and coloring in his eyes in as detailed a manner as possible.

I wanted him to be pale although he seemed textureless with the glaze I had mixed. To add depth to his skin, I added some pink undertones on his nose, cheeks, forehead, ears, and chin; layered over the pale glaze, then added watered down brown-black glaze to fill into the tiny undulations that I hadn't smoothed over before.

Finally, I added some clear glaze on some of his more prominent features to make him look squeaky clean and polished like a good strong man should!