WORKTABLE WEDNESDAY

I'm going to try to get back to my old posting schedule, now that things are simmering down a bit. I've got all my holiday orders completed, and can relax and enjoy the holiday decorating, baking, etc.

I haven't given up on trying to do the tutorial either. I just have decided I want to do a video tutorial on a DVD, so it's taking me a little while to figure it all out - especially since my video camera is just about as old as my daughter! (17) My digital camera will take video, but only for about 5-7 minutes at a time. LOL Would take quite a while to piece together a video tutorial that way!

Here's a bloodhound that I did for a very nice lady recently:

WORKTABLE WEDNESDAY

On my worktable today are more miniature dog sculptures in little Halloween scenes. I am having a lot of fun with these. They are only 2" tall and about 3" in length. I just love tiny things and I see a lot of people share that feeling.

I'm still debating on the tutorial I had been working on. I don't really care for the pdf format. Would much rather do a video tutorial but not sure how to go about it just yet, so that project has been on the back burner lately.

In sculpting though it's really just a matter of forming basic shapes and then blending them together. It's the refining, and the details added that make the difference in taking those basic shapes and transforming them into something special. It's adding clay to a piece or taking it away, and refining it til it looks the way you want it to. At least that's what works for me. I have seen in a book where someone tried to say they developed this method of sculpting with clay, to the great amusement of myself and many other clay artists, because it's the method we've all been using since we began sculpting with clay! The refining and the details just become better with experience.

So what begins as a little lump of clay has other bits of molded clay added to it, and those pieces are blended together, and the whole piece is refined and detail is added until we have the finished piece.

Starts out pretty rough, doesn't it? Hard to believe that blob is going to turn into anything recognizable, but it will. :o)






Still a bit more refining and detail needed, and a tail as well, but the little Bichon Frise has come a long way from its humble beginnings no?

UPDATE

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've last updated my blog. I've been going in a variety of directions, trying to enjoy summer vacation with my daughter, amongst other things.

I am working on the sculpting tutorial, but finding it slow going for sure. There are hundreds of recognized dog breeds, so of course I can't even begin to scratch the surface in attempting to explain how to sculpt them all. So I am focusing my first tutorial on the basics of sculpting some of the longhaired breeds like Yorkies, Maltese, Shih Tzus, etc.

I've developed my own techniques over time to aid me in sculpting many different breeds, but what works for me may or may not make sense to or work for someone else. Also I don't always use the same techniques for the same breed. So it's making writing the tutorial an interesting challenge. I'm really just going to try to break it down to basics so someone reading the tutorial can get started but also develop what works best for them.

The tutorial will focus on sculpting flat pieces, just the heads and necks of the dogs, for use as pins, pendants, ornaments, etc.

Other than that, I've been on kind of a break from sculpting for ebay or anything. But now I'm gearing up to do some holiday pieces for Halloween and Christmas. My favorite!

And my daughter and I are looking forward to the Coldplay concert this weekend! WOO HOO!

I'll try to update again soon!



Recently sold Maltese pendant