Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Down from the High Lonesome (p11) Coming to the head of the Matter


Starting the head of the horse, you have to be very aware of the bone structure. The skin is very close to the skull. The picture above shows the progression of blocking in the skull. I use a real horse skull as the model. (Remember you can click on the photo to enlarge it)


Creating the ear is a matter of rolling clay between my fingers as shown in fig. 1, forming a cone shaped piece of clay about the size the ear will be.
(fig. 2)Using the inside edge of my thumb, I form a pocket, as shown in fig. 3, that will eventually form the inside of the ear.
(fig. 4)Once formed and shaped I place the ear in place on the head. I add clay to the bottom of the ear, to reposition the ear till it lines up where is should be. I make the second ear, using the same method for the first ear. In figure 5 you see them both in place.

(fig. 6)Now I start to work on the right side of the head, by making the nasal passage, with a metal tool.
The thing that makes sculpting different from drawing or painting is, you have to do the 380 degree view. So the right and left sides of the head have to balance and line up.
(fig. 7)I start the lower lip.(fig. 8)I add the front form of the jaw muscle, and (fig. 9)I place the back side of the massive jaw muscle. This blocks in the final shape.
Now the head is pretty much sketched in. I can now adjust the direction of the ears, to create a story of where the horses attention is, and then by placing the clay with the first horse, I can see how the composition is working.

All of this covered a two day period of work. It's time consuming aligning and measuring and just balancing. I still may have to move things around.
Well tomorrow I work on the other horses head. I'll hold off adding to the blog till I get that one done and start the saddles. Till then, hope your enjoying this journey.

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