A treat to work from a live model

Heidi Maiers · 04-13-2004, 03:02 PM

There's nothing like being able to work from a live model. There's so much more to see that gets lost when a model is flattened through photography.

This ceramic piece "Melisa" is the result of two 3-hour open studio's on back to back Saturday's. Classic Roman features and curly locks made this piece a joy to work on.

I was able to snap some photos of her so I could bring the piece home and finish it . Six hours is not enough time to complete the level of detail that I like to achieve. I'll post the finished piece after it is fired and a patina is applied.

Garth Herrick · 04-13-2004, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Heidi Maiers

There's nothing like being able to work from a live model. There's so much more to see that gets lost when a model is flattened through photography.

Heidi,

Congratulations on all you got done in six hours! That's quite a lot of finishing detail. This shows how competant and experienced you are; quite amazing. I can vouch how much easier it is to conceptualize and sculpt forms from life. The 3-D is just popping out before your eyes.

Did you mostly eyeball this or use calipers? Great job!

Chris Saper · 04-13-2004, 03:29 PM

Heidi,

This knocks my socks right off! I look forward to seeing more views, lots of details

Heidi Maiers · 04-13-2004, 03:42 PM

Thanks Garth and Chris,
Part of my bad habits as a sculptor is that I work much too quickly and don't use calipers until it is too late. If I am pretty far along and something looks out of whack, then I resort to my calipers to do some relative measurement checks on the piece. If I find I am off, I hate to go back and rework. Especially on water based clay. I'm sure a lot of painters share this bad habit that is hard to break of getting too far ahead before you really study your relative measurements for accuracy.

Geary Wootten · 04-13-2004, 03:42 PM

Heidi,

Thanks for sharing your gift with us here. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the talent of a sculptor. I took just about every art class offered at the four schools I attended (30 years ago) and three of them were in sculpting. I just never even got CLOSE! I just don't get it! WhoooHooo!

Bravo!

-Geary

Jeff Fuchs · 04-13-2004, 04:56 PM

Wow. That looks like fun. I want to change my major

Heidi Maiers · 04-14-2004, 01:09 AM

Spent a few more hours on her tonight and finished up as much modeling as I intend to do on this practice piece. I wish I had your quest for perfectionism Garth - but I get bored easy and am always anxious to get started on the next piece.

Julie Deane · 04-14-2004, 07:55 AM

Wow! This is a practice piece?!?

Heidi Maiers · 04-14-2004, 09:21 AM

Sure Julie, that's pretty much the meaning of an open studio. A place to get to practice making a "quickie" from a live model.

Geary, thanks. I always enjoy reading your enthusiastic and humorous posts. I can well relate to what you are saying. Hand me a piece of charcoal, graphite, pen and ink, and I know what to do with them. Throw color into the mix and I am TOTALLY lost!

Sharon Knettell · 04-14-2004, 10:21 AM

Six hours! I'm still scratching my head at that point.

Wonderful!