Painted Lady

Heidi Maiers · 11-05-2006, 02:56 AM

Here is a fun piece I did last month just because I got the urge and wanted to experiment with multi-colored sculpture. I love everything Japanese, so I got to play God and create this imaginary woman. I know I should have enlisted a model for a more true to life portrait.
Anyway, this is about 20 inches tall and cast in FortonMG. I still need to make the base for it.
First attempt at anything multi-color and although I think it looks ok, I still prefer monocolor sculpture. I have a photo of it in the WIP section when it was all white, and I rather like it plain.
I'm also going to make some 1/2 casts of this as a wall hanging.

Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco · 11-05-2006, 06:44 AM

Heidi, this is beautiful and absolutely you did not need a model. Casting it will remind of the big chinese terracotta army, an army of perfect beauty!
I think in japanese traditional make up women only applied red lipstick in the middle of the lips, but I am not sure.
I also prefer the unpainted version, as it enhances your flawless modelling, but I think you did the right thing in painting one copy just for fun.
I am sure the piece will bew a success
Ilaria

Heidi Maiers · 11-05-2006, 10:25 PM

Thank you Llaria.
I've seen the lips both ways, but since I will probably keep this copy, I painted them full since I like that look better. Once I get the base made, I'll take some better photos. The contrast is way off on these ones - the patterning on the light face shows too much and the patterning on the dark hair and kimono shows too little. Hard to get a good photo on a piece that has both black and white areas.

If you want to see something really interesting, check out this video.

http://www.escultores.com/escultura.php?g2_itemId=494

It's a video made in 1954 of a sculptor sculpting an over life size bust of Abraham Lincon in about 20 minutes. Pretty remarkable.

Claudemir Bonfim · 11-06-2006, 06:06 AM

I loved it, and I'd love to have both the traditional and the painted ones in my home and office.

Ngaire Winwood · 11-07-2006, 06:26 AM

Heidi

You amaze me each and every time I see your work. Well done, she is beautiful.

Julie Deane · 11-09-2006, 12:04 PM

Heidi, it may have been done without a model, but one gets the sense that this is a very real human being. Beautiful work!

Alexandra Tyng · 11-09-2006, 08:26 PM

Heidi,

I love it when an artist takes a chance and tries something different just because she/he wants to. This has been fascinating to watch in progress (you have such an impressive understanding of anatomy in 3-D) and now we get to see the result--or both results, colored and uncolored. They are both wonderful in their own ways. Thanks for trying this and sharing it with us, Heidi!

Heidi Maiers · 11-10-2006, 03:52 PM

Thank you for your kind comments Claudemir, Ngaire, Julie, and Alexandra. I try to do something experimental with every piece I make - still, it is always better to work from a model otherwise I start sculpting what I think I know rather than what is real.

Here is something I just started that is much darker and true to life than the last fun piece. It is a self portrait. I like to do one every 5 or 10 years because it's great practice and good for progress comparisons to earlier years. I will probably leave this one fairly rough, but it still has a ways to go.

Heidi Maiers · 11-10-2006, 04:15 PM

Just for fun, although I hate showing these old things, here is proof positive that I was born with no talent at all and that everything I have learned so far has come from years of practice, practice, practice, and observation.
Hopefully, in 5 years I will look back at this latest one and think it hideous as these first two examples. I think the dates on these are 1980, 2000, and 2006.

Tom Edgerton · 11-10-2006, 06:48 PM

Fantastic!

Love the oriental piece, with the "Painted Lady" pun--assuming that IS a Painted Lady in her hair.

Thanks so much also, for the gallery of self-portraits...it's a true lesson that all good work comes from struggle and that there aren't any shortcuts. But the comparison over time from the beginning to the mature style should inspire that to get better, one has to stay with it...that the action teaches itself over and over.

It's great to have some accomplished 3-D'ers posting here. You're the real thing.