Monday Morning Detail

And, skeleton diagram from the back.

The First Tomato

I think you don't see something until you really look at it. Ha! How obvious though. Right? But what I mean is that even if I were just to draw the differences in the widths of the little branches of a tomato plant, the result would be interesting and beautiful. I would never notice these differences, however, unless I had first taken a good look at the plant. And, the best way to take a good look at something is to try to draw it. So, I can draw in order to really look. Then I can draw what I see.

Detail of Michelangelo Bacchus

Naming the Skeleton

And, oh look, another garden drawing. This is a tomato.



Drew a better skeleton and named the parts. Once, I worked in a flower shop. I remember taking delight in learning the names of the flowers. It seems to me that there is something significant about knowing the names of things.



It's a beautiful day today. Here is a picture of one of my favorite places to draw in the summer.

Mint Plant

Everybody Needs a Skeleton

Awhile ago, I posted about my impasse with the Joseph sculpture. Well, I did decide to actually go ahead and try to learn human figure sculpture. I've spent years saying I was *not* a human figure sculptor. Yea. I said that and at the same time completed several figurative pieces with with a I was not really happy. So, I'm going to do it. Or, at least I am going to start doing it. I'm going to learn how to do this right.
Here is my first step. A little skeleton drawing from a human figure website called Anatomy4Sculptors. It is a little thing, but it is a start.
A friend very kindly pointed this website out to me as a resource. Her name is Shana, by the way, and she is studying liturgical art in Florence. Her blog is http://www.john1v14.blogspot.com. Check it out.

The Washed Out Dogwood

Scissors

Charcoal and the Herb Garden

Dill



Bachelor Buttons



Geranium Bud

Little Bethany

The plastic fetal model I carry for sidewalk counseling.

Bachelor Button

15 Min. Sketch

Actually, the toothbrush is a rather interesting shape.

Sketching Geranium Leaves

This would actually not be bad material to sculpt something off of. The surface of the leaves is very 3 dimensional. I could make a composition out of the surfaces of the leaves and adapt them to a bas relief.

Face of Madonna from Pitti Tondo by Michelangelo

This is mostly a visual blog. Sometimes, however, there is commentary. Today there is commentary.
I'm at a block with Joseph and the Little Girl statue. I don't like it. It's too cute. I can't get the faces right, and I have no clue how to do the hair. The clothing folds are OK. In order for it to be worth my while to finish this, it needs to be something worth reproducing. It needs to be worth looking at in and of itself. The mold making process is expensive and time consuming. Plus, then I've got a mold on my hands. (Unless I can find and figure out how to use a 3-D scanner...) Then, it would have to be of interest to other people. At this point, the statue is not worth reproducing. I'm not happy with it. I don't want it "out there." It doesn't do justice to the subject matter.
So, what would it take to make the statue worth reproducing? I would need to actually become a decent human figure sculptor. Ahahahaha. Oh, that's funny. People go to school for this, you know.
No, really, what would it take? Maybe some YouTube videos and a book on anatomy. Maybe a class at the Compleat Sculptor? I mean, I don't need to be Michelangelo. I just want by figures to be decent enough to be taken seriously, decent enough for the form not to distract from the content.
OK. So, maybe I should look into that.
There's another option here: Destroy this sculpture and work on something for which I actually have the skills. And, for what do I actually already have the skills? I think I do want to continue working in clay. What can I make in clay? Anything for which I have a model I can look at, really. OK, then maybe I can look for things that I think are worth imitating. They would need to be fairly compact, 3-D objects. So, no trees. Or could I sculpt a tree? I don't know. How far do you push imitation?
I could try both... Brainstorm both ways to learn sculpting the human figure models for other sculptures.
I think that is a good plan.
In the meantime, I will not destroy Joseph. I can just put him away for a bit.