Monday, November 23, 2009

So close...



"Inspire" is almost done. He still has a few bald spots (still trying to decide the best direction for those strands) and I need to add the inner curve to the top right border, but I am so close. I probably won't post again until there are glazed versions. Not that there's much surprised left to him, after so many detailed posts about his creation!

And as many of you who have followed this blog for a while now have already figured out, I am utterly incapable of multi-tasking. It is really difficult for me to put a project down and pick up another. So everything in the studio ground to a halt while I worked on this sculpture.

That meant that I didn't get my claybody custom photographed and loaded up to the Auction Barn before the holidays. I fear I missed my window, since many people find it hard to bid on items close to Christmas. I think I will hold off on the auction for a little while, but I will try to get her pictures up. She's too cool to hide away just because I got distracted.

It wasn't just the studio that has suffered from my obsession. The holiday baking hasn't been started. My family is beginning to wonder if I plan to feed them, or just show them a few more strands of clay horse hair!

8 comments:

Laura Dotson-Thomson said...

Howdy Lesli,
WOW! That's looking stunning. I hope I can get one, eventually :)
I did have a question though.
I have not owned horses, only worked with them on a small basis. Yet, I see this in medallions often and sometimes on sculptures: An artist will have the mane on both sides of the neck, but on one side it's immensely longer than the other. Like here, the mane is short on the side we see, but long enough on the other side for us to see it underneath.
This isn't by any means a way to critique your work, since I'd buy it either way. I was just wondering if this happens in real life (all short hairs go to one side) or more of an artistic expression :)

Lesli Kathman said...

I sure don't mind, Laura. It's a big problem, especially with medallions, because they can often look wrong with parts of their manes missing (often tails, too). It's also true that the manes (or tails) are the most mobile parts of the subject, and so they are often all you have to work with when you are trying to send the eye back across the design.

But the issue of lopsided manes is why there are gaps on this guy at the moment. What I was after was a horse that had a relatively long mane that fell to the other (non-visible) side, but still had sections that the wind had pulled over and across his neck. I think I can communicate that idea better if I pull some of the mane up again (instead of having it hidden on the other side), but I'm not sure what that will do with the design. So I've stopped so I can work some of the options out on paper once again.

Hope that makes sense!

Shane White said...

Odd what happens when you click NEXT BLOG...I actually went back in time about 20 years.

I used to be a sculpting director at metal-casting company and seeing your blog put me back there.

I wouldn't say it was the best of times but I learned sculpture and mold-making techniques and eventually ended up doing more 3D pieces instead of the frieze work.

I've since moved on, but hope to one day return to sculpting.

Nice stuff overall though.

=s=

Rayvin said...

I wanna get my grubby paws on at least one of these glazed by you lesli. Any idea how that is gonna work yet?

Lesli Kathman said...

I plan to have some in the Etsy store after the holidays. I'd love to get them in there before then, but I suspect it will take too long for the molds to dry for that to work.

Tracy E said...

Forgive me if I missed it in one of the posts, but will this medallion be available in resin? =cD

Lesli Kathman said...

Tracy, I'm going to get some quotes once I have a bisque original. If I can produce it in resin at a reasonable price, I'll probably offer them. If not, bisques can be cold-painted (and they don't require priming).

Tracy E said...

Awesome!! I'm really excited to hear that!