Newsboy- The Sculpting
September 8-10, 2004
Sculptor Bridgette Mongeon has documented the entire process of creating a figurine of a newsboy and a life-size bronze sculpture. Watch the artist work through these posts. In this blog, she has also included information for students and teachers. In the previous post, we learned about the beginning of the sculpture.
If you are lost and want to go back to the chronological running list of posts, follow this link.
Even without the final photographs with the new outfit, there is enough reference in the first photos to put together a roughed in version of the clay on the small the sculpture. I am excited about doing this because I will be able to see the form in three dimensions.
Sometimes, during different presentations I have a friend create a 3D version of the sculpture in the computer. With a little help from a program called Poser and Photoshop, he can simulate what a sculpture might look like and we can view it from several directions. There is an example of one of this process using 3D models on this YouTube post. You will notice with the Ellie sculpture; however, that the sculpture was modified as we went along. The computer rendition is nice, but there is nothing like seeing it in clay. Then, it is my fingers that manipulate the sculpture, giving a twist here, a turn there. It’s then that the fermenting of the creativity that has been withheld for so long can come forth. There is a tremendous feeling that is associated with creativity.
The process of putting the clay to the sculpture is taking some time. Mostly because sculpting the newsboy is my treat. I’ll work on commission A and B for a few hours, and after I do that, I will reward myself by working on the newsboy for a while.
SCULPTING THE FACE
I have the general shape of the body finished, and I am very pleased. Whatever has not been worked out in the design, will work itself out as I proceed. I begin to focus on the face.Working on a one inch face of someone is no easy task. There will be a point when I will work on the face with pins and sharp knife blades, anything that will allow me to get the details that I want. My job today is to get the basic shape and to make sure it is in proportion to the body. This is essential and sometimes can prove to be a difficult undertaking. Once again, a fraction of an inch on something this size translates into something much larger when life-size. It all must look like it goes together. I force myself not to just look at the face but keep looking at the entire sculpture. I remember times when I was first sculpting when I would forget to do this and work on the head as a separate entity. I would have it perfect, and then put it with the body and find that it is off, not by much, but enough to have to start all over.
Let’s go on to the next step and learn about More Research on Clothes and Sculpting of the Newsboy.
STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
Art and Math
• On the previous page I talked about the scale of the sculpture and that the scale was two inches to one foot. The size of the finished small sculpture will be approximately ten inches. Approximately how tall is the real Dusty? If I changed the scale of the small sculpture to be three inches equals one foot how tall will the small figure be?
• What does 3D mean?
• How did the computer generated 3D figure of Ellie, in the link from above, change in comparison with the sculpted figure?