Oh No!

By Bridgette | September 13, 2011 |

My original deadline was the middle of November. There was a delay in approvals from the college and that put us behind almost 2 months. Then I hear today that the deadline has changed and is homecoming which is the 30th? Oh, my… I’m not sure this is humanly possible. We will do our best. We have finished all that we can and are waiting on the university for approvals. If they don’t get it to us this weekend, I’m sorry, your panther will be missing in action during homecoming.

Posted in Monumental Sculpture, Prairie View Panther

Update- Panther Project- Progress, What Day Is It?

By Bridgette | September 13, 2011 |

It is a marathon to get this done and approved by the 16th of this month.

Where are those Prairie View Cheers?

I am setting up appointments for the approval of the sculpture for next week.

WHAT DAY IS IT? It is hard to say, my day starts at 6 a.m going into the studio and turning on the crock pots with clay. Then it is a marathon of sculpting until 11:30 at night. Often there is an intern at the studio who is helping me by smoothing things out or adding clay, keeping the crock pots stocked and cleaning up the mess.

The texture on the cat is taking forever, but I love that it gives the sculpture such movement, it will look great in bronze.

I so want to work on the paws and the head, but I am kind of saving them as a reward for the rest of the work. This weekend. Yes, this weekend, I will get to paws and head.

I’ll post more, but back to getting clay under my fingernails. Check back over the weekend. Do I hear paws? do I hear face? For now it is back to fur and legs.

This is a sculpture for Prairie View A & M University in Prairie View, Texas of their mascot the Prairie View Panther. The entire process is being recorded on a special blog designate for this project and can be found at http://www.prairieviewpanther.blogspot.com/

Posted in Monumental Sculpture, Prairie View Panther

Update Panther Project- Sculpting Like A Mad Woman

By Bridgette | September 13, 2011 |
The panther is checking out my studio from the front door.
My daughter helps me put wax on the panther
A waxed cat

WORK IN PROGRESS- 18 days to sculpt the panther day 4 and 5.
Now that the messy carving of the foam is done the sculpture is vacuumed and brought into the studio. I love this picture of him/her checking out the new digs before entering.There are several people on our Panther Team, all of which I’ll introduce in later posts. You have already met our big cat consultants from the Houston Zoo in another post. I have some pretty diligent helpers trying to assist me in making my deadline. Once the sculpture is in the studio we seal it with wax. This keeps the gritty foam from getting into the clay that will be applied to the sculpture.

Posted in Monumental Sculpture, Prairie View Panther, Sculpture

Panther Project-The Process of Sculpting

By Bridgette | September 13, 2011 |
The foam panther goes together outside. Working on sanding and shaping the panther
outside keeps the studio dust free. It looks like he wants to go in the doors.
The rear end of a panther.

This is the work in progress for the Prairie View A & M Panther. To watch the process from the beginning please click to previous posts.The sculpting of this project is a quick turn around. We need to finish the panther in 18 days. This is day 2,3 and 4 of the sculpting of the panther. The previous posts state that this is a foam armature that was milled and sent to us from Bridgette Mongeon Sculpture Design Studio’s digital design. A great deal of carving is done on this foam, indicating muscles and action before it is covered in clay. The process is messy and requires constant vacuuming and masks, but it is coming along.I loved being able to attach the tail. You will see that the tail is much different from the original design.

Spray foam insulation and skewers are used as glue to keep the pieces together.
More foam is added to thicken areas. Other areas are carved.
eye and lung protection is important
when using urethane foam.
Posted in Art and Technology, Monumental Sculpture, Prairie View Panther, Sculpture

This is a Collaboration- What Does The Panther Mean To You?

By Bridgette | September 9, 2011 |

I like to create process blogs for my clients. I will often put those same posts here. The process blog for this can be found at prairieviewpanther.blogspot.com .

I posted this on that process blog. I hoped students would read it and reply. I’d love to receive some inspiration with the process. What does this panther represent to the students? What does it make them feel? Anyone out there reading this blog?

One should lead never follow..

Sept 12, 2011 from audi 33

One should lead This looks great, I’m so excited about this project! I can’t wait until it makes its way to the hill of Prairie View A&M University. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!never follow..

Sept 12, 2011 from Jsmaliz

this is awesome!!!

Sept 12, 2011 from Cherokee

The Panther is a recognizable icon that unites the Past, Present, and Future of Prairie View A&M University. A Prairie View A&M University Panther, is someone that understands that from the rich and sometimes dark history of our nation, a first class institution was created in the rebirth of our beloved country, to educate and knowingly contribute to the rebuilding and progression towards a more enlightened society. The Panther, I believe, represents rebirth in all aspects of life, education is the cornerstone for any society, and Prairie View A&M University is dedicated to just that by, “Producing Productive People”.

Sept 12, 2011 from Cherokee

It is nearly 5 years since this post. I wish I had known about it earlier. My name is Elton McWashington, Jr. I majored in Graphic Design when I was at PV. This is a fascinating blog! It is cool to see the whole process play out. I can only imagine what dealing with Talley was like LOL!!! Sooooooo, what does the panther mean to me? The Panther is a dark and mysterious. I always felt like it symbolized the unseen part of a person. The potential. It has always been a reminder to push the envelope and to not be predictable. It’s a powerful animal, so it has also inspired me to find my own power. I haven’t been on the campus long enough to take a stroll since 2008, so I can’t wait to see this statue and take what inspiration I can from it.

Aug 24, 2016 from Unknown


Posted in Monumental Sculpture, Prairie View Panther

UPDATE- COUNTDOWN BEGINS!

By Bridgette | September 2, 2011 |
Bridgette <spanSPELLING_ERROR_0creating a bronze mascot for a university by Bridgette <spanSPELLING_ERROR_1
A LARGER THAN LIFE PANTHER IN 18DAYS?
DAY 18-16
*The digital file of the Prairie View Panther has been prepared and sent to my vendor.

*The vendor then sends me an enlarged version of the sculpture milled out in foam. I’ll post some of their pictures of
their process when they arrive, but on to the studio process.

How to create a bronze mascot for a university by Bridgette <spanSPELLING_ERROR_2
*The foam pieces arrive in a box. Then we must put them all together and mount them on poles for stability. The poles are on a sculpture stand that we can roll into the studio.

The temperature is in the 100’s here in Houston,Texas where my sculpting studio resides, but the foam is gritty and makes a mess, so we opt for working outside. I’ll be sculpting into this foam to add detail and shape, before we cover it in wax.
* There are hundreds of reference photographs that we must keep from blowing around the yard.
We can hardly wait to get the panther together to see the size. The neck came in a later shipment adding to our anticipation.

* The Sculpting process begins. The foam is soft and allows me to carve into it before we add the clay. The foam piece becomes the armature that the clay will be added to. Muscles are sketched in and now I begin the process of roughing in the body. Friday 3 people are schedule to put the two layers on the foam. one is wax to seal the foam the other is clay. I hope I can be ready. These are long gritty days. I could use some Prairie View A & M cheers here. Just 16 days before I am hoping to get approval.

* That is a big cat! I removed his ears for the time being so that I won’t accidentally knock them and break them.
I’m post more photographs as soon as I can, but now it is on to sculpting!

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Bridgette <spanSPELLING_ERROR_6

This is a sculpture for Prairie View A & M University in Prairie View, Texas of their mascot the Prairie View Panther.  The entire process is being recorded on a special blog designate for this project and can be found at http://www.prairieviewpanther.blogspot.com/

Posted in 3d printing, 3D Scanning, Monumental Sculpture, Prairie View Panther, Scanning, Sculpture, zbrush

More Reference

By Bridgette | August 25, 2011 |

Yes, you can never have too much reference material. It is important for any artist to know the anatomy of the subject they are working on.Unlike a human subject I can’t say to a “panther,”strike this pose for me, then take pictures from all sides. Instead, I rely on my years of artistic experience and a tremendous amount of reference.Once the foam armature comes to the studio, I’ll be studying it to see what needs to be shaved, carved, lengthened or turned, before I begin to add clay and personality to the piece.For anyone interested in the anatomy of animals I would highly suggest the bookAnatomy of Animals By Ernest Thompson. It was originally published in 1896 but you can get copies of it.Another fine book is Eduard Lanteri Modeling and Sculpting Animals.

This is from the Prairie View A&M Blog created for this project.

Posted in Monumental Sculpture, Prairie View Panther, Sculpture, Sculpture for Landscape

ENLARGEMENT BEGINS!

By Bridgette | August 25, 2011 |

The file is off to my vendor in Oklahoma- introducing Synappsys Digital Services. They will take my digital file and enlarge it using foam and a milling machine. I wrote an article about this process in the Winter 2007 issue of Sculpture Review.Here is a pdf should you like to read the article and see the process.

The old way of creating an armature for a large sculpture was to weld an armature or create its skeleton using plumbing pipe and chicken wire. Clay is added. The artist uses the pointing up method of enlargement take measurements of a small maquette and then match them to a point on the large sculpture. This is a tedious process and can take months. Now, with Synappsys digital services, I send a digital model or a scan of a maquette and they mill it out of foam to the specific size.
Here is a video I created on the process of using digital presentations. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6JemANEo4_g
If you fast forward to 2:07 you will see how we created the sculpture of Jenna using these digitally milled armatures.
The foam is just the base that the clay will sit on.
The same process will be done with the panther. When we are done I will be creating a video of the entire process. Synappsys is recording the process of our cat while he is out of my possession. I am told boxes of cat parts will arrive at the studio on Thursday or Friday. When they arrive we piece them all together and cover them with wax and then clay, or my intern will do this. Then I can focus on the real sculpting. Working in the computer is nice, but I connect with the clay when it is in my hands. I can’t wait to get my fingers dirty. We are ready.

This is from the Prairie View A&M Blog created for this project.

Posted in 3d printing, 3D Scanning, Monumental Sculpture, Prairie View Panther, Sculpture, Sculpture for Landscape

Is There A Prairie View Cheer Someone Can Send My Way?

By Bridgette | August 25, 2011 |

Trying to catch up! We are behind on our deadline which means that I will be working my tail off to try and recover. I could use a little cheering on. Certainly there must be a PVAM cheer. Can someone please send it my way?

You may not see many posts between The 25th of August and the 16th of September. That is because we will be working night and day to catch up. But… I will be documenting it all as we work and posting our progress after that date, or maybe when i need a break. Around the middle of September, if all goes well and my hands hold out, we will be having a visit from the school to approve the sculpture.

I don’t hear any cheering yet. It is awfully quiet out there.

Posted in Monumental Sculpture, Prairie View Panther, Sculpture