Grambling Tiger

The rock is pretty much complete, thanks to the wonderful milling at Across the Board Creations  They were able to take my digital model of the rocks and enlarge it along with the cat.  It has come in sections so that we can take different sections of the rock down and work on the paws attached to the rock.  We painted the rock to look the same color as the clay.

We are spending a lot of time on the tigers head.

Working on the mouth of the tiger. Now searching for reference of the carnassial 

Bridgette Mongeon is creating this sculpture for Grambling State University. To watch the entire process you can use the categories on this blog or visit the project blog she created for the client at http://gramblingtiger.blogspot.com/

I am becoming very intimate with the mouth of a growling tiger.

 Though the foam armature gives me a base for the sculpture there is still a great deal of sculpting to do. Because the sculpture is in pieces. I can work with the head of the tiger on a comfortable table instead of while balancing on a ladder.

Searching through reference of tigers I find myself becoming intimate with the snarl and growl of a tiger.  Of course their are several looks of a tiger with their mouth open, some give me reference of the teeth and tongue but there is a great deal of difference between a yawn, growl, snarl, and roar.

Bridgette Mongeon is creating this sculpture for Grambling State University. To watch the entire process you can use the categories on this blog or visit the project blog she created for the client at http://gramblingtiger.blogspot.com/

This morning, after we cleaned out some space to receive the sculpture, we awaited for  Acts International Crating . The guys were troopers, they helped us take the crates apart and unload the many puzzle pieces. This weekend we begin to assemble the bases and the bottom portion of the sculpture. I’m thankful the head is not on the body, as I will begin to put some details in the head this weekend. That will be much easier as it sits on the table than if it were up in the air.

Bridgette Mongeon is creating this sculpture for Grambling State University. To watch the entire process you can use the categories on this blog or visit the project blog she created for the client at http://gramblingtiger.blogspot.com/

Where does the inspiration come from?  I am surprised that I feel a tremendous amount of tiger energy as of late.  It comes from the most unusual place, you see last Saturday my daughter had her first baby. I thought it was very strange. For several  months before the baby was born I began to feel like a mother tiger protecting her cub. Don’t mess with my kid during this pregnancy/delivery. I could feel my claws coming out any time someone tried to. So, during the beginning of this project, I feel a tremendous amount of tiger energy.

Bridgette Mongeon is creating this sculpture for Grambling State University. To watch the entire process you can use the categories on this blog or visit the project blog she created for the client at http://gramblingtiger.blogspot.com/

I ran to the shipping company today to look at the crates that hold all of the many, many pieces of the tiger. It finally arrived in Houston. This is what I found. So this is what a tiger in boxes looks like. Tomorrow it arrives at the studio and we begin to put the entire thing together. Remember that we have been working on this sculpture as a digital model and have sent it out to a milling company to be enlarged. Now this blog will begin to get busy. Keep watching, as their are more posts to come.

I’m so thrilled that Acts International Crating has helped me with getting these from Idaho. A wonderful shipping company. Ask for Lace if you need to ship something somewhere.  She will also be shipping the Neil Armstrong Sculpture to Moscow for me.

Bridgette Mongeon is creating this sculpture for Grambling State University. To watch the entire process you can use the categories on this blog or visit the project blog she created for the client at http://gramblingtiger.blogspot.com/

I’m thrilled to have been approached by a new vendor for this project.  This vendor enlarges my tiger sculpture that sits n a virtual world in my computer and enlarges it to  the size that I need it in the real world.  It comes to me as a foam armature.  I’ll still do lots of carving and sculpting on the piece, but having this enlargement process in foam, expedites the processes considerably.

The vendor and I  have been going back and forth for the last 5 weeks, looking at digital files, changing them, comparing notes, searching for the best way to create the Grambling State Tiger. When they started milling it out they kept saying. “My word this is a big sculpture.”  I believe I heard someone say, “I think this is the biggest sculpture of a cat climbing on rocks in the USA.” I’m not sure if this is true, but I’m sure I will be repeating the sentiment, “my this is a big sculpture”  when the milled foam armature gets to me.

 I’m happy to say that our foam armature is on its way to us from Idaho.   I expect the arrival to be Friday or this weekend, at the latest. The new vendor did send me a few photographs  as they were putting the many pieces together in their own shop.   Yes, the tiger is in many pieces. It will be like a puzzle for us to put them together. Will be sure to show you how our team looks as they figure out what goes where!

Bridgette Mongeon is creating this sculpture for Grambling State University. To watch the entire process you can use the categories on this blog or visit the project blog she created for the client at http://gramblingtiger.blogspot.com/

Now that we have the green light on the tiger I am spending a good deal of time planning.  We are calling vendors and securing our schedule, and ordering materials.  There was a bit of delay in getting the green light so we have to start over in this planning stage.

Besides planning vendors we are also planning the armature.  Planning an armature is an important element to any sculpture. I always tell students, “if you armature is bad it can ruin your entire sculpture. ”  Just imagine you are working on a large sculpture and all of a sudden it begins to fall over.  In the case of the tiger, it could actually hurt someone.

An armature is what is inside the sculpture to hold it up while we are working on it.  It takes a bit of engineering and a bit of history to know exactly what to do when building an armature.  While I plan I send my plans off to others for them to look at and weigh in.

The main body of the cat will be milled out in foam. The foam, when it is together will probably weigh in at about 160 lbs.  We will be adding wax on top of this as well as clay. This may add approximately another 300+ lbs to the piece.  That is a lot of weight to be so high in the air.

The rocks are another element that has to be created.  This will most likely be sculpted out of a different type of foam and then covered in clay.

We are still figuring the best way to sculpt this tiger.  The artist in me says let’s put him together and work on him, which means I need a warehouse that is about 15 feet and have to move my entire studio.    I like the idea of being able to see him all together.  It also means I’m sculpting very height in the air, on ladders and scaffolding.

Another thought is to sculpt him in two pieces   The first piece will be the rocks and his tail and back legs. The second piece will be the upper half.  This way it is much safer for myself and my interns.  I’m leaning in this direction. Though we will have the basic shape of foam and tiger put together before we separate these two pieces.  So we will be able to see the design as a whole.

More to come.  Meanwhile we are finishing up our last project and moving things around getting ready for the tiger while the vendors are getting our foam ready.  Time before we receive foam should be about 3 weeks.