Dryad (Tree nymph) in progress
After a sketch I’ve done for a drawing group. The theme was “Unusual Trees”. Here is the sketch:
Trying to stick to the sketch…
Discipline out of the window, she’s transforming into a tree nymph. Sketch useless now, other than her arm position.
Should I feel guilty about abandoning the original idea midway…again…?
Day2
Almost finished. I am not sure about the vine…Does it enhance the nymph and will it break off later on? I’ll have to think about it. Meanwhile, if anybody has an opinion, go ahead, I’m listening.
Day3
Problem solved itself. While drying, the vine broke in several places. Off it came along with the hand, which I like, but not on this piece. It started to look like a zombie nymph lol. It’s pretty much finished now.
Her face is asymmetric, but that’s how I like it, as I noticed on Medusa. I don’t know what others think about it, but that’s how I feel. Makes a more interesting face. I really like that bronze colour of her, unfortunately don’t know how do paint patina. I’ll try anyways and hope for the best.
She’s looking gorgeous. I think artists should always feel free to deviate from the model. …unless you have a professor looming over your shoulder with a gradebook demanding you show your skills at rendering like a copy machine or if someone’s commissioned you for a realistic portrait…those are the only times I can think of and honestly, people probably don’t mind if you make them better looking in their portraits and professors really don’t have a perfect eye and tend to be a little off on what is a perfect rendering so even there is leeway.
ok, i’ll stop rambling.
what kind of clay are you using?
Kim, thank you for the reassurance. Yesterday I was thinking of the same thing: commissions. I don’t think I will be able to do commissions, unless given total freedom. I don’t feel very good about commissions anyway…
This is boneware clay, a self-drying clay. It’s only my second piece. I have mixed feelings about it. It’s good for detailed work, but dries very fast, as you can see on her right hand, the white shows dry clay. Looks like the piece has to be done in one sitting. I’m not sure I can do the hand detail now. I gave it a good spraying, see if it softens it a bit. And it shrinks quite a bit, about half an inch at least. She’s actually standing on the armature now…shocked!
This way you got two good things: the drawing and the statue. I like them both–I didn’t think you could pull such a nice tree out of that realistic clay woman.
[...] Link for the making of this sculpt http://erikatakacs.wordpress.com/2008/03/26/dryad-tree-nymph-in-progress/ [...]
Swallows, I’m glad you like it.
The bark texture is excellent. I keep looking at her hands and am convinced they are really logs! Most importantly, she has a graceful stance. Nice.
Thank you, Kim.
Yes, I thought that branch-hands would go better with the theme. But it was hard to hold back not doing real hands. I love to work on hands.
really interesting piece, dont change your direction
Thank you Michelle!
Oh my! I found your blog trying to find information on air dry boneware clay and found we have a similar interest in tree-nymphs (or whatever they are!)
I use apoxie sculpt for mine… it doesn’t shrink and there is a 2 hour window for working with it… it sticks to itself very well so I do mine in phases. It is also very strong, but it looks a little “plastic” when it dries. Would you suggest trying the air dry?
Hi Funky, thank your for your visit and interest. Boneware clay is a good substitute for wet clay, if you don’t have a kiln. I did a few more pieces after this one, and discovered with regular spraying it can be kept wet for a few days. I don’t like to work in phases, since my pieces constantly change and evolve in the process. Boneware doesn’t have the plasticity, but it has to be sealed, which takes away the mateness I like. I’m not sure about its strenght, most likely more fragile then fired clay.
I never tried apoxie clay, your tree-nymh looks really, really nice.