New Marblex Sculptures and info.

I opened a studio. So nice to not work in cat hair. And paying rent makes make me sculpt more. Now that I'm away from my cat, I don't have dirt and hair in my sculptures. But Marblex does have little sand-size bits of stone in it. I thought before my cat had knocked dirt down from a book shelf that was over my work area. Nope, there is actual little stones in it. I can't feel them when sculpting. I only notice them when I get to the end of my sculpture and it is drying a bit. When I scape an area or smooth an area, I'll uncover a stone. I guess they are in there for strength? I don't know. I called Amaco and asked them, the person I talked to wasn't very helpful, sounded like she was making it up as she went along. No answer as to why it's called self-hardening and not air-dry either. So don't count on smoothing or carving this stuff once it's dry. It is so hard it doesn't carve and smoothing with a wet sponge uncovers stones. Here's my latest.

Fast, his hair is being blown behind him. Going to sculpt his hands on a steering wheel.

Pirate woman, she's sad, not mad. She's an introspective pirate.

He's mad, and charging.

Amaco Marblex - Finished Sculpture

Angelina Jolie

The photo above is a little overexposed to get rid of shadows. Marblex doesn't come out quite that white, but it does look nice.

 I like Marblex. Now that I'm done with a sculpture and it's completely dry, I know how hard this stuff is: pretty darn hard. I don't have anything to test breaking points of different materials but I'll tell you what I know. Check out my other article on Marlbex for how it sculpts.

Somebody asked if you could add new clay to dry Marblex. Yes, and it works well. Wet the dry stuff and it gets soft, add the new stuff. It shrinks very little is one reason it works, it doesn't pull away from the layer beneath. I thought this stuff would be easy to sand like paper clay. It's not. With 400 and 600 grit sandpaper I can sand paper clay quickly. Marblex doesn't sand, it burnishes, which is nice; a polished stone-looking texture emerges. It's so hard that the sculpture sanded the sandpaper and tore the grit off. I had better luck with 1500 grit. Seems the smaller grit is just right to burnish the piece without the grit coming off on the sculpture.

Because I thought it would sand easily I didn't worry about getting every blemish and bump out before drying. I used the wet scrubby pad side of a cleaning sponge to smooth out the surface. Problem with that was little bits of the scrubby stuff would come off and get stuck in the wet clay. Gotta find something better and smooth the piece before it dries, save some trouble.

Amaco Self Hardening Clay - Stonex & Marblex Review

I have been experimenting.  I thought I had settled on Creative Paperclay as the best I had found and was trying to do some figurines. Takes way too long for me. Creative Paperclay is too mushy for me, it's about the consistency of bread dough. After getting the basic shape, I can't get any more detail in the mush and have to let it dry and then carve and sand for detail. Takes too long. I have 3 sculptures unfinished because I'm just tired of working on them. Too much down time waiting for the stuff to dry, which is why I did three at once. I figured I would always have one to work on. Didn't work out.

I went back to the first clay I ever sculpted with, Amaco Terre Cotta clay. This is clay that needs to be fired for strength, I don't have a kiln. I don't care. It was so nice to just sculpt again. First thing I did was sculpt a bust of a woman, from my imagination. I was going to sculpt a smiling Viking woman with a helmet on. She started looking African so I went with that, then changed her features a little and she just looks like a determined woman. One day, a few hours, and I was done. Not completely done, some sanding and not sure about that base.

I went and got some more clay and tried to sculpt Audrey Hepburn. Maybe not quite right, but pretty darn close. (not dry in this pic)

This took a weekend and watching a few Audrey Hepburn movies. I went back to get some more clay at Michael's, but they were out. I looked around and noticed Amaco makes a couple of self-hardening clays. They are non-toxic and most importantly feel and work almost exactly like regular ol' clay. I bought a 5 lb box of Stonex and a 2 lb box of Artists' Self Hardening Clay. The latter was very hard. Not sure if it was supposed to be that way or just dried out.  It was probably on the shelf too long and dry. I added water to it and it soaked it up. It worked pretty well, though a bit lumpy due to adding water, some areas were softer than others. I can't find it anywhere. Even Amaco doesn't list it in their products, and I looked by product number. I think it's been discontinued and it had been sitting on Michael's shelf for who knows how long. If anyone knows, let me know.

The Stonex sculpture I did was a little too big for only 5 lbs of clay, or my armature (loosely wadded up newspaper so it can shrink with the sculpture as it dries) was a little small, most likely the latter. I tend to keep adding to fix things rather than reshape, keeping a watch on that. I ran out of Stonex and used LaDoll to finish her hair, thus the very white parts of her hair. Stonex is supposed to be white, and here you can compare to the whiteness of LaDoll (the very white) and the whiteness of Stonex.

I need to sand this down. As it dried, every little bump got bumpier. At first I found Stonex to work almost exactly like clay. The problem comes keeping it wet. I spray my sculptures with water from time to time so that they don't dry out. Stonex became very sticky, it was like working marshmallow creme. Still, it was the best self hardening clay I had come across.

I went back to Michaels and picked up a box of Marblex, their last box. I learned my lesson from spraying water on the sculpture and didn't spray very much. Marblex never got sticky like the Stonex did. It looks like about the same color as Stonex, though I haven't let this sculpture dry yet, still working on it. I also ran out of clay and used Amaco Artists' Modeling Clay, which is an air-dry clay. Very nice stuff but probably doesn't dry as hard as Stonex or Marblex.

This is supposed to be Angelina Jolie. I've tweaked her nose and eyes since I took this pic. Pretty darn close from the side, I'd say it looks like her. From the front . . . I still have work to do.Waiting for ordered clay to finish this, next week.

I ordered 50 lbs of Marblex from www.Hyatts.com .  Good price. With the shipping, probably the same price I would get by ordering through Michael's. But I don't trust Michael's. They take forever to re-stock their shelves and I have found moldy (yes, mold that grows) clay there. And customer service is almost non-existent. I will say when I do talk to someone they are very nice and helpful, just rarely happens to catch someone who isn't trying to avoid customers.

Now that I've found a good self hardening clay which is durable and workable. I'm thinking I might set up a shop locally for portrait sculptures and whatever else my mind comes up with to sculpt. Sculpting a person right in front of me is a lot easier than sculpting from a few pictures. I don't need the person in front of me all the time either. Who wants to sit still for hours? Not me. See ya.

Hand Painted Air-dry Clay Sculptures

The following sculptures are new, they took forever to make between drying, adding wet material, sculpting, drying, carving, and repeating that process over and over. The are available for sale on Etsy.com, while they last, they are one of a kinds. http://www.etsy.com/shop/clayworkman 

The hand is made from Creative Paper Clay. Hand painted, as are the other two. For the paint I used what I had, which is very thin air brush paint, and only in primary colors, so I had to mix everything. It took awhile to get a smooth coat, not showing brush strokes. If you want to know how good of a sculptor you are; sculpt a hand. Plus the practice will help on doing other sculptures of the human form. The hand can look so wrong, so easily.

The Mermaid above I didn't want to paint at all. She looked good as white. She is sculpted with La Doll and the color and finish of La Doll is very nice. There was a little bleed through of some red from the box I used as a form for the rock she is laying upon. The red came through as a just a slight pink in her tail. That was ok, it was kinda cool looking. But later on some other blemishes showed up and I had to paint it. I'm sure the blemishes were my fault and not the fault with the clay. Since I had to paint her I wanted her to look kinda fishy and other-worldly. With the dark colors, she looks like she's in the moonlight, looking up at the moon or stars. 

For this next sculpture I just wanted to make a quick, simple figurine. I did that, but I wasn't satisfied with simple, so I gave her a whip. Let me say here, this is a reflection of my sense of humor and not any preference. I think she looks like a simple figurine one would find from the 1950's, except for the whip. Judging by the people I work with, I know where most people's minds go upon seeing her holding a whip. But she could just be a lion tamer for all you know. I titled her "Lyin' Tamer" for a play on words. Or maybe she's virtuous and her prom date pissed her off. If you buy her, she can be whatever you want her to be. Here she is: 

She is sculpted from Sculpey Air-dry Clay. I figured Sculpey would make a good clay that blends well. I was right. This is the easiest air-dry clay to sculpt I've come across, and dries harder. If you sand, you'll have to sand a little harder. It shrinks a bit when drying, and thin pieces can warp. I tried to make a base for the hand out of the Sculpey, didn't work. I used Creative Paper Clay for the base on the hand and it had less warp as it dried. I think I like Creative Paper Clay better. Creative Paper Clay is a little harder to work just because you have to smear in new material and shape it again. The Sculpey air-dry is cheaper too, but I didn't like the finish compared to Creative Paper Clay. I would leave Creative Paper Clay unpainted, I don't think Sculpey looks so great on it's own. Good points and bad points, like they all have.

Legalities of Sculpting Celebrities

            I’ve been wondering what the legalities are about sculpting someone famous and selling their likeness. I mean common sense says there has to be some protection of freedom of speech, which is what art is. But celebrities are the ones with the money. There is that saying; those that have the gold make the rules. Well, I’m a rebel. I figure there must be some away around that gold for someone like me who isn’t going to make anywhere near what they make and certainly be no threat to their income off of similar images, or in my case; sculpture.

            My first attempt at sculpting a famous person went rather well, but I had no plans to sell it because she is a Hungarian actress, Andrea Osvart, and not a lot of Americans even know who she is. The sculpture turned out pretty good. Not perfect. The clay was new to me and too soft, but quite frankly doing a portrait sculpture was simply pushing the envelope for me at the time. In fact it’s still hard to do, but I’m more confident about it now.

            I posted a link to the picture on her fan site on facebook. She took a look and actually wrote me a very nice note saying she was honored that I did that, and posted the picture on her fan page. And to show how nice she is, she added me to her personal facebook page. 

Andrea Osvart

            Also on another personal note, the angel pilot sculpture I did, since it was inspired by Yvonne Scio who was in Tal Bachman’s music video; She’s so High, I put a picture of that up on her fan page on facebook. She “liked” it from her personal page.

            So far things have worked out pretty well for me regarding celebrities, and yes, these two are not considered super-stars here in the US, but it shows they weren’t ruined by success, they were very nice. And I wasn’t making any money off of it, but I don’t think they would care.

            So what happens when you make money off of a celebrity’s likeness? First of all you make money and second of all you may be sued by them. I read an interesting legal paper about sports figures and sport figure sculptures and how it has worked out in the courts. You can read the whole thing here: http://www.willamette.edu/wucl/pdf/sportslaw/spring05/mcmillens.pdf

I’m going to talk about the highlights of the cases in that paper.

The basic problem always seems to be a balance between what is allowable free speech on the part of the artist, and how that affects the right of publicity for the celebrity. Right of publicity, as you might guess, is all that licensing they do of their image and name. Do you have to have their permission to make any likeness of them? From the above linked paper:

In Comedy III Prod., Inc. v. Gary Saderup, Inc., the California Supreme Court fashioned

Its own balancing test to determine when a work of art outweighs a celebrity’s right of

publicity.  When an artist’s skill and talent is manifestly subordinated to the overall goal of creating a conventional portrait of a celebrity so as to commercially exploit his or her fame, then the artist’s right of free expression is outweighed by the right of publicity. An artist depicting a celebrity must contribute something more than merely trivial variation, [but must create] something recognizably his own.

           

            This was a California case, which would apply only to California, but could be cited as an authority in your state, whatever that state might be. In this case an artist made t-shirts with the Three Stooges on them from his own drawing. The court said it wasn’t artistic enough, basically.

Cardtoons, L.C. v. Major League Baseball Players Ass.n, 95 F.3d 959 (10th Cir. 1996).

            This is a 10^th Circuit case which is above the State level, the final level before the U.S. Supreme Court, and again can be cited as an authority in your state even if you aren’t part of the 10^th Circuit, and I forget where that is. I used to know. I know I live in the 9^th Circuit which has a reputation for just making up crap as they go along, and sometimes, surprisingly, making a good decision.

            Anyway, in this case a company was making trading cards ridiculing baseball players, I guess as caricatures. The court found that the Oklahoma law protecting the right of publicity was too protecting and that society would be deprived of entertainment and social commentary, and the baseball players stood to benefit very little from it.

            Where this puts us is; if you get sued, it’s up to the Judge to decide if your art is artsy enough. And the argument that a perfect likeness takes incredible talent and time and is the highest form of art, doesn’t count. Or it may count. Each case is different. That argument hasn’t worked in the past, but it may in the future with different circumstances and different judges.

            My personal opinion: I would not sculpt other people’s artwork. For instance all the comic book heroes, at least not without permission. It’s going to be pretty hard to say you are making art that is different in a very different way when you are copying them. Duh. Secondly I don’t want to copy someone else’s artwork. Creativity isn’t copying.

            Sculpting a celebrity is different. People look up to them, or admire their talent, and/or their beauty and I don’t see what’s wrong with immortalizing that in a sculpture. I don’t stand to make nearly what they make from their talent and publicity. Even if I make a sculpture of say, Angelina Jolie, and I make 20 of them and sell each one for $2,000 (similar case in that legal paper) $40,000 is a drop in the bucket to her. She probably makes that much in 10 minutes. Quite frankly if that caught her attention and she wanted her cut, I don’t care. It is true I wouldn’t be making anything off of it if it weren’t for her fame. If she demanded I stop because she thought it was a terrible sculpture, ok, it is her likeness. I’m reasonable. That doesn’t mean everyone else is reasonable, or that being reasonable would keep me out of court. Remember a woman sued McDonald’s for spilling coffee on herself. Court sucks, you never know what will happen in court, try to avoid it.

            I’m going to go see if I can sculpt Alison Krauss. She looks like a nice person.If you don't know who Alison Krauss is, here's a video, relax and take your mind off the stinking legal system. 

Art Snobbery

I am not an art snob. I like what I like regardless if it’s approved by the art snobs. By art snobs I mean those that have a preconceived notion of what art is and what art isn’t. Why are bronze statues referred to as “fine art” while the same thing cast in concrete or resin isn’t? The same skill in sculpting went into all of them.

Norman Rockwell was looked down upon by the art snobs and his art wasn’t considered fine art because he did commercial artwork. Rockwell even agreed with them. But you know who Norman Rockwell is, you may even have a painting of his hanging in your house, I do. Comic book art was looked down upon as sleazy commercial artwork. Now there are galleries that specialize in selling comic book art.

Ancient Greek potters were the lowest of the low in the Greek pecking order. They began putting art on their pottery. At first they copied Egyptian and Syrian art. Then they surpassed those art forms. Now the low of the low’s art goes for millions of dollars. The art snobs eventually catch up to the rest of us.

Now for the next great thing that the art snobs will have to accept, someday: Comic book hero figurines. I would say this art form is on the cutting edge of sculpture today. Bronze is so yesterday, yesteryear, yestermillenia. Move on art snobs. Look at this. 

Yes, this is a sculpture.

 You can see more like this at: http://www.hottoys.com.hk/product.php

The two videos below is about Tony Cipriano, the artist talks about how he got into sculpting commercially (funny story) and shows the process it takes to make those amazing figurines.

 

Clay Sculpting Advice for the Beginner

Inspired by Tal Bachman's music video and the actress Yvonne Scio

 

            I am going to talk about general design and personal technique on the human form, because that is what I sculpt most of the time. I use clay, different kinds, and I’ll talk about the pros and cons. There is no one best way to sculpt. You will develop your own style and find your favorite tools over time.

Anatomy is the key to good sculpting of the human form. Many new sculptors focus on a smooth surface. I know I did until I realized; what good is a smooth surface when it doesn’t look right in the first place. My first sculpture barely looked human, there were eyes, a nose and a mouth and I thought my mistake was just being able to blend them all together seamlessly. Wrong. There are a zillion details and they all have to be in the right place. Thankfully clay is very forgiving, just remove it or add it.

I find myself studying people. I look at very specific things, the corner of their mouth, the arch of their brow, the slope of their forehead; the details. Unless you are very talented, you will need some photos of the human form. Don’t go looking for a picture of a beautiful model. Those photos will be in color and have many details airbrushed away. You need details. Black and white photos show more depth too. What you want are anatomy pictures, or even go buy a book on anatomy. There are such books for artists; your local craft store should have some.

For me the easiest clay to sculpt is oil based clay. There are different kinds and different levels of hardness. A number 2 plasticine clay is about the right hardness to do a bust. It’s hard enough to sculpt detail but still soft enough to push around. You will find the kind you like. What’s nice about oil based clay is that it doesn’t harden. When learning sculpting, and even later, it’s a good idea to get away from your sculpture, cover it up and don’t look at it for awhile. Your eyes can and will get used to looking at flaws and accepting them as accurate. But when you leave it and come back and see it anew, usually flaws will be glaringly obvious.

Don’t be afraid to jump around to different details of your sculpture. Sometimes while working on an ear you may find yourself drawn to that little flaw on the eye. I just quit on the ear and go fix the flaw on the eye. I work all over, where I see the need. It all comes together in the end. The end is an elusive place. Don’t declare it the end until you are sure. Go away and come back and see if it still looks complete. Bad sculptures are just sculptures that aren’t completed. Oil based clay needs to have a mold made and a casting made from the mold. You can use the clay over and over.

I learned to sculpt on air dried clay because I could buy it locally and it’s pretty cheap. I used Amaco terra cotta clay. It must be kept wet. I use a spray bottle and keep it wet while working on it. When not working on it I would spray it down with a spray bottle and cover it with a plastic bag. It slowly dries out anyway. You have a limited amount of time you can sculpt with it. This kind of clay will have different consistencies depending on how wet it is. When you first open the package it should be soft and moist, it won’t hold detail very well. But the nice thing is, when you get the general shape done, you can control the drying so that it gets leathery, then detail is easier. I have re-constituted dried clay by soaking broken pieces in water. It’s a mess, and takes time and effort, but you can do it. There are other types of air dried clay and you can find reviews of those on my blog.

Most of your sculpture can be sculpted with your hands and fingers. When you get down to details too small for your hands, you will need some tools. One that is probably universally used is one that is slightly spoon shaped, and it is used for smoothing and adding. My other favorite tool is a straight needle, and I have three different sizes of diameter. The thickest one accidentally got slightly bent on the end and I have found I like it that way; I can sculpt very tiny curved lines with it, like eye lids. I also use a couple of wire loop tools. Loop tools are used for cutting away and can be used to smooth a surface, or the edge can be used to push clay. I use a round one and a square ended one mostly. I also like a triangular one for making slightly undercut, well defined lines. You can buy sets of tools at craft stores like Michaels, or order them online from a specialty store. You will find your favorite ones to use; there is no one best way to sculpt. Or you can even make your own tools from household items.  A rotating table, or lazy susan to work on is invaluable.

You will need to look at your sculpture from many different angles. When sculpting a head I like to hold it in my hands, that way I can turn it any way I want. Looking down from the top will reveal flaws in the forehead, cheeks, and nose that you may not have noticed when looking straight at it. You probably shouldn’t worry about sculpting facial expressions until you’ve mastered sculpting a face. But don’t let me define how you sculpt. We all see things differently. We all do things differently. Don’t worry about trying to duplicate someone’s exact technique, and beware of teachers that tell you their way of moving clay around is the only way. It may be the only way for them, but you aren’t them. Be you, everyone else is taken anyway.