Posts Tagged ‘sculpture’
Visiting Cemeteries And Sculptures
Today, while at the Glenwood Cemetery I visited the places that I love the best. I visit Ellie, as I most often do. I realize that this little girl would be nearly 20 now. I never knew her, though each time I do a posthumous sculpture I feel like I do know my subject. Somehow we develop a relationship after death.
And I visit this sculpture created by Harriet Frishmuth. It is interesting because it has the same softness that I feel from the angel that I mentioned in my last post. I have seen other work of art by Harriet Frishmuth such as aspirations in the Forest Lawn cemetery in Buffalo NY. This sculpture is hidden in Glenwood and hard to find, but I always stop and say hello.
Though my other posthumous sculptures are not at this cemetery I think of them as well, and the mothers and fathers who love and miss their little ones. To those who have a similar loss, may you find peace and comfort in the celebration of the lives of these precious little ones. They are still with us.
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Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is the vice chair of the planning committee for 3DCAMP Houston 2012 http://www.3dcamphouston.com
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series http://www.godsword.net
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter and twitter.com/creategodsword
Follow me on Facebook
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast
Click on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
A Wonderful Lecture- From Fabric to Frankenstein- Thanks For Asking Me To Speak
and the ladies of 3-D Houston
Thank you to Archway Gallery and the ladies of 3-D Arts Houston for asking me to present Bridging the Gap Between Digital and Traditional Sculpture – Fabric to Frankenstein.
For those of you not familiar -this topic discusses how artists are using digital technology in their traditional art processes. I talk about how I use it in my sculpting studio and how other artists around the world are using the technology. There is a lot of basics, but also a lot of information in this lecture. We end the lecture talking a little bit about the ethics of 3D technology especially as it pertains to regenerative medicine and how one artist has brought this to other people’s attention through what I refer to as Frankenstenien art. The lecture also focuses on more than technology and art, but also on the psychology behind how a traditional artist embraces the new technology, ownership and other points of interest. I especially like having so many different artist featured in the lecture. I’m always looking for new artwork from artists using the technology. So even though I will repeat this lecture elsewhere, don’t be surprised if you find it contains more artwork from more artists.
The presentation at Archway was a small group, and a bit different from presenting that same lecture at 3DCAMP Houston while also acting as Vice Chairwoman of the event. Needless to say, I was very relaxed and loved presenting in an atmosphere of art and with such an intimate group of creative people. Our group and space at Archway allowed us the opportunity to have an informal discussion on some of the topics. I was glad that the group left with their brains spinning and a bit dazed at the amount and type information presented. I did my job. I was also excited to be able to hint at another topic that I have spoken on before about the sculpting of the deceased and the undergraduate research that I did that explained the science behind what some refer to as psychic. How do we have an emotional reaction to a piece of art? That is what that topic explains. It also talks about the unusual things that transpire around such commissions. I guess between the two topics it was very appropriate for the month of October. Maybe they will ask me back to talk about that topic.
This morning I received a notice from one of the the members of 3-D Artists Houston group.
Hi Bridgette,
Thank you so much for coming to speak to our 3-D Arts Houston group at Archway last night. We were a smallish but very interested group. I think you opened many eyes and minds to new, fantastic and wonderous things. If they are like me these new ideas incorporating technological tools will be rushing around in their brains for weeks. This happened to me after your first talk years ago at Lone Star Art Guild and again after 3-D camp and my visit to TxRx labs.The new fabrication processes you explained are like a whole new toolbox for creating. I have to learn to use the 3-d modelling tools! We appreciate that you took time out of a super busy week to make your presentation to us. It was a great success with our members. Thank you for sharing your artwork and very bright intellect with us.
Cheers,
Artist Cindy Rasche
For those of you who did attend the lecture I have added my notes in another blog post.
This lecture is great for many different groups, artists, sculptor, those working in 3D or those wanting to learn more about technology. If you are interested in having me present at your group on this topic of any of the other topics I speak on, please feel free to contact me.
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Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is the vice chair of the planning committee for 3DCAMP Houston 2012 http://www.3dcamphouston.com
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series http://www.godsword.net
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter and twitter.com/creategodsword
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast
Click on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Notes From Bridgette Mongeon’s Lecture at 3DCAMP Houston 2012
Thanks to everyone who attended my lecture at 3DCAMP- Bridging the Gap Between the Digital and Traditional Studio and Fabric to Frankenstein.
I really enjoyed presenting and interacting with all of the attendees.
In my lecture I spoke about a few different things. I thought I would list them with links in case anyone wanted to have further information.
- I spoke a bit about my process of using 3D and how I got involved. I covered my use of Poser, Daz , Mudbox and ZBrush in my presentations and then in obtaining enlargements that were milled with a CNC machine in foam. I have a YouTube video on this, should anyone be interested. It is on my YouTube channel and called Digital Art For the Traditional Sculpture Studio
- I also showed another video in the lecture that demonstrated quick sketches in Mudbox.
- If anyone is interested in some of those processes I have several special project blogs where I document my work. For example:
Project Blog-Evelyn Rubenstein
Project Blog- Prairie View Panther
Project Blog-Grambling State Tiger
- I talked about Data Direct to Mold from Synappsys Digital Services. Here is a pdf of an article that I wrote for Sculpture Review that talks about that process and the digital technology and the work on the large sculpture by Shan Gray called “The American.”
- There are several links to information on the work created by Hauer and the reproductions of his panels in this article: Reviewing Technology at the SIGGRAPH Convention.
- The Mudbox book that I wrote with Mike de la Flor is called Digital Sculpting in Mudbox: Essential Tools and Techniques for Artists.
- I also mentioned about ethics and digital process and spoke about the Frankenstenian art. I have several posts about that, but I would suggest you listen to the podcast that I did with Oron Catts. You can find the link to the podcast in this blog post titled A discussion on living art with sculptor Oron Catts. You will find a link to the podcast that I recorded with him in this blog post. It is fascinating. Here is another article I wrote titled Frankensteinian Art.
- The video that was playing in the conference room that also impressed me on regenerative medicine is with Gabor Forgacs. It can be found on You Tube. It is what I found a few years back when I asked myself the question, ” if you can shove anything through a 3d printer…?”
- The book I referred to in the lecture is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The authors website has a lot of information about ethics as it pertains to human subjects.
- The school that I am so impressed with that does 3d printing in ceramics is Solheim Laboratories. There was an article about them in the Ceramic Arts Daily. I forgot to mention that several hackers are working on extruders that can be added to the home made printer the the rep rap machine.
- I also spoke about ownership. I should probably write an article about ownership as it pertains to the psychological process of transferring from traditional sculpting to digital. I don’t have one yet. I do, however, have some works on the copyright issues. Antiquities, Masterpieces, Rights of Ownership and 3D Scanning is an article I wrote, but I did not get to talk about this in the lecture. I’m including it here because it intrigues me.
- I also mentioned about 3D and copyrights. I did podcast about that with Kevin Gillespie and that can be found in this blog post. All of the Art and Technology podcasts can be found at DigitalSculpting.net.
- There are several companies that can “Get your work out of the computer.” The company that does my CNC milling is Synappsys Digital Services. They are in Oklahoma. I will however be pricing my work out with Steve at Smash Designs because he is local and I just discovered he offers these services
- There are several companies that create work from the computer. I mentioned my favorite was imaterialize. I think because I podcasted with Joris Debois and because they come from .mgx which does such quality work. FYI I think that .mgx is working in the largest build envelope (size) of rapid prototyping. They are also working with foundries in American to create a new sort of process. You all saw Kraftwurx at the conference and there is Shapeways as well.
- For information on stone CNC milling check out the Digital Stone Project. There is also a service bureau that stemmed from the Digital Stone Project. I’ll include it once they contact me. While I was e-mailing them I asked them for a podcast interview- stay tuned.
- Some of the artists I talked about were Robert Lazarini- skull and phone booth – optical illusion, Nathalie Miebach- weaving data, David Beck- gps of friends, David VanNess- 3dprinting multiple pieces, Caleb Weintraub- cnc milling of large figures and adding stuff to it. Eric Van Straaten 3d printed fine art a bit risque, Stelarc- freaky guy with ear on his arm, Orron Catts – coat of skin- see interview and above.
- If I think of any more I’ll let you know.
Thanks once again for coming to my lecture and also for supporting 3DCAMP Houston 2012. If you know of anyone who would like me to speak on these topics or others please feel free to contact me.
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Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is the vice chair of the planning committee for 3DCAMP Houston 2012 http://www.3dcamphouston.com
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series http://www.godsword.net
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter and twitter.com/creategodsword
Click on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Fox Coverage of 3DCAMP Houston 2012
I thought I would share the unexpected coverage that 3DCAMP Houston 2012 received this year. Here is the FOX Houston news coverage. More posts on the incredible things that happened at 3DCAMP Houston, 2012 to come.
VIDEO NO LONGER AVAILABLE
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is the vice chair of the planning committee for 3DCAMP Houston 2012 http://www.3dcamphouston.com
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series http://www.godsword.net
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter and twitter.com/creategodsword
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast
Click on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
An Austrian Student Interviews Me On Comparison Of Digital And Traditional Sculpture
processes and the traditional sculpture studio.
I have worked hard over the last few years exploring the digital technology and trying to bridge the gap between digital sculpture and traditional sculpture. I have explored the process in my book Digital Sculpting inMudbox Essential Tools and Techniques for artists, with the Art and Technology podcasts, and in lectures that I have presented to organizations and institutions. Should your institution want me to come and talk about these topics, please feel free to contact me with the details.
My graduate studies and the writing of my first novel distracted me for the past year, but I’m looking forward to getting back to the topics surrounding digital technology. The technology continues to change. I really want to write a book about the technology and the processes. It would be wonderful to focus on the incredbiel artwork stemming from the use of this technology. I see it as a guidebook of resources, as well. There are also many new issues surrounding the use of digital technology that need to be addressed. I’m still looking for a publisher that will get behind the need for this information.
Today, I woke and found an e-mail in my in box from a student from FH Vorarlberg University in Austria. Mathias has the same desire and direction and focus that I have with sculpting/digitally and traditionally and wants to interview me. I’m flattered, but more than that I feel comforted. In my life, it is extremely important to pass on information and help others. I find it in all aspects of my life— a driving force. To see that my podcasts, articles, books and desire have reached half way around the world to someone else with the same passion and direction, is inspiring. I thought it would be interesting to answer these questions publicly on my forum.
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Sculptor, Writer and Speaker
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
Sculpting Tiny Hands
hand with Classic clay.
When creating a figurine, as I am now, I usually sculpt the head and hands separately. The difficult here is making sure your head, and hands match the size of your sculpted figure.
Because this is a commission piece, I have a full figure photograph of my subject. I can measure how many heads high my subject is and then I can be sure that my head is in correct portion to the body. Believe me there is nothing worse than working on a head for a week and then discovering it does not match the proportion of your sculpture. At this small size a sixteenth of an inch can make a huge difference.
the hand in comparison to the face.
Once I have this done, I can move on to the hands. If you take your hand and put the wrist area at your chin. This is the portion that has the creases in your wrist, and then roll your hand up your face, you will find that your middle finger will come to your hair line. Unless of course you are a middle age man and losing your hair.
To create the hand, I start by making a wire armature. You will see that these fingers in the armature actually have two pieces of wire. I have narrowed the fingers to just one piece of wire later in the process.
Fingers are actually much easier to make when they are not on the hand. Roll small tubes of clay, being sure that you make some smaller or larger (thumb and pinky) than others. Also being sure that right hand and left hand are mirrored and similar in size and shape.
Once I have all of these sausage shapes I’ll roll the side of the sausage in two spots, just above the middle knuckle, and just below. I usually do this on a round tool.
I can then add some more clay for the knuckles and underneath the finger carve out the areas below the knuckle where the finger will bend. A simple angular cut with a knife will do fine. I did that with this tiny finger and then stuck it on the wire. Pushing the tip of the finger up , at the bottom, makes it look much more natural.
FINGERNAILS
Fingernails are really quite easy. With just two strokes of a sharp object I have the basic nail. In this case it is an X-acto knife. Place it on the side, and scrape it over the nail in an arch pattern. Then place it at the other side of the finger nail and bring it to the middle again. A third stroke to separate the nail from the finger at the top is the last portion of sculpting the nail. Push the sharp object in and pull down over the finger tip.
Though I have a good start on this hand, there is one more area that I would like to point out. Note that when your hand is flat the skin flap where your finger meets your knuckle. The pinky and ring finger have a crease that goes to the ouside of the hand and between the middle finger and the index finger the crease is to the thumb.
The two on the right point to the right, the one between the middle finger
and index finger point to the thumb.
MORE SHAPING
The placement of the thumb is also an area that new students will have difficulty with. The thumb is not placed on the same plane as the figners but instead points down to the ground when the fingers are straight up. Also note that the top of the hand is curved and not flat. Because this is a very expressive sculpture, I will be counting on capturing that expression within the hands as well. More on that later. This short little tutorial will get anyone started on a good sculpted hand.
Unfortunately there are two figures in this sculpture and four hands as well as 20 fingers. I can expect to spend a good full day on or a day an a half on hands. I am just thankful thee are no bare feet in the sculpture.
I’ll post some more photographs as I continue.
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Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
Working Through Presentations- Daz-Poser-Zbrush-Part 1
Poser– In my life as a sculptor I rarely do to show clients, not hand drawn sketches. But over the past years I have begun utilizing 3D resources for presentations. I have mentioned this before in my blog and also talked about it in some of my online videos. I am presently trying to come up with a design for a figurine of a person playing ultimate Frisbee.
Of course the first place I turn to when I am creating these type of presentations, if I don’t already have what I need, is Daz. I liked the Michael model as he had the youthful appearance I was after. Plus he also came with many different things. And to discover he was free was a plus. Of course I also invested into his clothes, as I felt these would give me the closest look to an Ultimate players clothes. The model posing set for this was definitely worth it as it comes with individual arm, and leg poses. Of course if you have worked with Poser you can pose the model yourself, but it is much easier to do that if the model is close to what you want, then you can tweak it as necessary.
I must say my Poser 7 was giving me a little bit of a trouble if I tried to pose these two characters individually and then merge them-crash after crash. I was much better to pose one then bring another into the scene in neutral position to pose that one. I should probably choose to use the free daz program, and I have downloaded it but I am quicker at Poser. I am not sure that upgrading to Poser 8 will make much difference for me.
I am working with a couple of different designs with this piece. I really want to get the main character off of the ground. Flight seems to be such a big part of ultimate. However, flight is hard to do when you are working with bronze. Sure, I can have him coming up into flight with a foot touching the ground. But that is something that must be engineered. Depending on the size and weight of the piece it can be a nightmare.
After watching hours of ultimate video and stopping and rewinding, I decided I could have my main character “secured” in flight to another person. Especially if they were kind of body slamming. So this is the beginning of one design using Poser. I know my client may like to have just the one figure in the piece, but I think having two really adds the action to the sculpture.
I’m not sure why Poser is giving me the “banding” on the pants. But I have future plans for this presentation before the client sees it. Stay tuned- more cool stuff coming in the next posts.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast