Finally...Introducing Rocky Mountain Thunder (bighorns)

I can finally post a picture of the new Rocky Mountain Thunder, depicting two bighorn rams fighting on a rocky ledge trying to gain the rights to breed the females.

This was fun to do and I loved the research as this is one of my favorite animals to watch (if you missed the post where I created this one go back a few  months) it was actually November 21st.

 

 

 

Creating new work...Whitetail Deer

I had so many people checking out the post on armatures that I thought I would take you from the start of the piece as I did in the beginning of this blog.

This will be a large piece of work and hopefully it will be clear, I used a standard armature for a sculpture around 15 inches high.

 You will notice all the wire coming off the pipe and T for legs, neck



This shows where I have measured for all my leg joints which is very important to do before adding any muscle or movement to the figure.

Book that I could not do without during research as to the position I want my animal and whether he be standing, running, walking etc. Muybridge was fantastic

Here I am actually beginning to see the form, notice I have marked major muscle in rear and shoulder, the head is just stuck on to give me something to visualize while I get the "sneak" or following a doe look.

Antlers have always been a problem because you have to have flexibility, strength, and strong hands to wrap the tiny wires (or unwrap if you are not lucky to get it the first time) and I always have to play with this so that I get what I want. I always run into the fact that my wrap ends up being wider than I want the clay to be so it gets unwound and rewound many times. I make my antlers separate from the animal just where they do not have to be cut off in the mold process. I place a small clear tube (Home Depot) in the head so that I can insert the antlers as I work to make sure they look correct.

I will follow this up later because I am experimenting with different wire and may end up using different ones. I may tear a piece down several times before I really feel that it is coming together the way I want it. This may happen over a period of months.