Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 19 “bringing home the bacon”

I unclamped the armature from the dolly to load it into my car and........... Houston, we have a problem! The base has warped from the heat of weld on the feet. The base is a basic potato chip. Fixing this is beyond my welding capabilities. This is a job for Blumenthal Sheet Metal. I think if they can weld basically a 2” wide frame around the edge, that would level the edge. It would still bubble in the middle, but that will not matter. I just need an edge that rests on the floor.

I will find out interesting he morning. 🤞 

Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 18 “bringing home the bacon”

 I added the man’s thrown back chin, a suggestion of his head shape, and reinforced his wrist and hands. I also added the pig’s tail, reinforced his hoofs, and a added a suggestion of some very big ears.

from the front 

From slight left  

Left side 

The back side  

The right side.  

Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 16 “bringing home the bacon”

Hands, hands, hands= frustration

I thought I had a really good plan of attack: draw out a hand the size I want, measure how big each bone should be, cut the bones, and tack them together. Once they are tacked together, bend them into position. This is where the frustration began. Some of the tacks would either not bend or some would break, and I would then have to reweld them. I did finally get them all together. I was mentally exhausted, so I decided to attach them permanently to the arms tomorrow when I am more refreshed.
I did just tack them just to see how they look. 

I hope I like them tomorrow. 

FYI - I put really big welds on the knuckles because I like knarly fingers with big knuckles. If you deal with livestock, you probably have some pretty banged up fingers. :)  

Digits barely tacked together  

Left hand gripping Mr. Pig  

Right hand gripping Mr. Pig  

Both hands  

The grip  

I am getting close to completing the armature.  

Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 15 “bringing home the bacon”

My day started with an empty tank. I was ready to roll and I had to run refill my argon tank.  :( 

really irritating  

Refilling my Argonne tank.  

After lunch I finally got to work. Yesterday, I started the pig’s groin. I figured a pig’s groin looks like a dog’s groin. Not true - I decided to double check, and it turns out pig groins are pudgy and round. Dog groins are more like an empty bowl. It’s good I checked! 
Here are images I used for reference. I googled “pig groin” and .....you don’t want to do that. People only post images of pig groins that a Veterinarian should see. I then googled “carrying a pig”. The below image shows how pudgy their grojns are.

Once I lay the lath over the armature, it will look a lot different. It looks weird now. I only put the armature at places that protrude. In the concave places, I will press the lath in. That is why the nose looks bizarre.

I can’t wait until tomorrow to do the hands. :) 

Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 14 “bringing home the bacon”

The tension is starting to build.

For this piece to work I have to be able to show the strain or tension between the man and the pig.
The pig is huge and would have been extremely heavy to pick up. And pigs are not comfortable being carried, he would have been squirming like crazy to pull away from the rescuer.  

I added the man’s head outline first. I want his head to thrust back to add to the tension between the man and the pig. Then I added the largest part of the pig's stomach. I need to know where the biggest part is in order to figure out where the man’s arms and hands are going to be gripping the pig. The man's hands will be just above the larges part of the pig gripping it tightly.

Front view  

You can now start seeing the tension created with the pull of the man’s head and his arms vs the pigs legs. 

Note to self on the head- make the armature on the small side, I can always add plaster to make it larger.  

From the back

I still need- pig ears, tail, and to finish the pig’s legs and abdomen. The man needs his head, hands  and more definition or volume on the arms.  

INSPIRATION- 

 I am always looking for inspiration to use when sculpting. I follow @mcteams3842 who photographs  Navy Seals in training. When I saw the image below I thought of the energy needed to of lift  a big pig. I took a screen shot and saved it to my file of photos I look at when working on the piece. I would love to have the rescuer’s head this far back ....... I will have to experiment with it. 

I highly recommend @mcteam3842 for amazing photography.  

I am thinking of putting a cap on him and loved the brim on the below Navy Seals cap. instagram is a treasure chest of inspiration. 

Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 13 “bringing home the bacon”

Chest,  hoofs and dewclaws 

Upper chest connected  

Hoof and dewclaw

Hoof and dew claw  

Hoof and dew claw

Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 11 “bringing home the bacon”

Today I made and attached the 2-4th legs and 3 hoofs. 

View from the front 

Left side view  

View from the back  

Right side view 

The legs are only attached by 1 piece of pencil rebar at this point. Once I know exactly what position I want them in I will attach them at 2-3 more locations.  

Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 10 “bringing home the bacon”

Pig nose  

Building up the nose tip.  

Aerial view  

Nose and snout 

side view 

back view 

The other side  

Front view- pig nose, snout, back and 1 back leg, clipped to rescuer  

Side view of rescuer and part of the pig. 

View from the back.  

Right side view.  

Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 9 “bringing home the bacon”

Today I adjusted the shoulder width, started the chest and connected the back extensions at the top.  

View from the front  

View from the back  

I might need to trim up his chest tomorrow. Grrrrrr

Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 8 “bringing home the bacon”

I started the upper torso.  

I always make the shoulders too broad and then have to adjust them. I will do that tomorrow.  

Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 7 “bringing home the bacon”

My work day was short today.  

Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 6 “bringing home the bacon”

Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 5 “bringing home the bacon”

Today I spent a lot of time cutting off and rewelding. The upper leg/booty was too big. After four hours  it now has a trimmer. 

I am trying to decide if I need to reinforce the lower half of the body or move on. Once I reinforce the joints it is a lot more difficult to make changes. If I move on without reinforcing the welding joints, the piece could fall apart. That is my dilemma. 

Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 4 “bringing home the bacon”

Connecting the legs and reinforcing them.  

Building the hips and connecting the legs

Side view  

View from back

I create triangles to give the piece stability and strength.

Left side view with triangles 

View from the back

view of the right side

Using scraps to create triangles to strengthen the ankles.  

Looking back, I can now see the hips are not right and are exaggerating the movement. I will have the movement exaggerated when the piece is finished, but for the armature, I will have to tone it down.

Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 3 bringing home the bacon

This sculpture is about the movement and the energy of rescuing livestock (a pig) during Hurricane Harvey. Today I have to decide on where the figure's weight needs to be to best balance the sculpture and express the energy of hoisting the swine to safety. The photos I took of Griffin while he was walking helped me committe to the foot placement. For the weight, I need new reference photos taken from each side. I am fortunate that my husband is always agreeable to posing for me. We wrapped a stool in a towel to stand in for the pig. Below are the new photos.

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View from the front  

View of the left side  

back view 

Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 2 “brining home the bacon”

Step one - I find or take a photo to use as a reference. Many times I take screen shots from videos I find online. This time I took photos of Griffin and Alex. At the time I was planning on sculpting “The Guy In the Astros Cap”. I had Griffin carry Alex and I took photos as he walked. I can still use the pictures of Griffin walking. Alex is too cute and tiny to stand in for the pig. I will have to wing the pig.

Photo if Griffin’s feet.  

Step 2- I start with the armature for the feet, piecing  them together from the small leftover scraps of my last sculpture.

Left foot, right foot  

I really like the pigeon toed aspect of this photo. 

Even though I like work from photos I feel free to change anything I want. 

Gust- patina

November 15, 2018

I am working in the spacious new Glassell Foundry. There is abundance of space to work in.  

Hat 👍🏼 Patina👍🏼 Torch👍🏼 Welding gloves👍🏼 Paint brushes👍🏼 Respirator👍🏼 Eye protector👍🏼 

The patina I am using is a layered hot patina. First I heat the piece with a torch. Then I start laying a heavy dark brown, then a heavy layer of titanium oxide. About 30 minutes in I spilled the titanium patina.  

It is really a bummer because once I remix it I can not use it for 24 hours, the chemicals need to bind together. Grrrrrrrrr.😬  

November 19,2018 

Starting where I left off.  

Three days before thanksgiving and I can’t help myself, I want to finish this patina today.  

After a heavy layer of titanium ash I ran out of butane. Luckily a second tank was ready to go.  

Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 1 “bringing home the bacon”

My first thought was to make a sculpture to be exhibited with the drawings of a man rescuing a woman and a baby. I loved how obvious it is in this drawing that they are strangers. He is carrying her but with his body language he could be carrying a sack of potatoes. His energy is focused inward, perhaps he is worried about his own family. She is the same, she is affectionate with the baby but she is not snuggling into her rescuer. There is not a  history  between the rescuer and the girl. 

“The guy in the Astros cap”  

After some consideration, I have decided to make the sculpture a livestock piece. I changed my mind because I feel the livestock pieces need to be very large to properly convey the extraordinary feats some people went to in order to save their livestock. I also like the fact that it is unexpected to make the sculpture of a pig rescue. I can always make a sculpture from the other drawing later.

 “Bringing home the bacon”

Peace pigeon project #17 - Pareidolia

In the fall of 2016 I decided to experiment with sculpture materials. I challenged myself to sculpt a new sculpture a week, each week in a different material. As my subject, I chose the German beak crested trumpeter with leg muffs pigeon because he allows me to express a lot of movement and energy. I have many drawings and a bronze sculpture of the German beak trumpeter. From a sculpturing point of view, his feathery feet keep him balanced without a pedestal allowing for lots of the expression of energy and emotion.

It turns out that the bird known in the US as a German beak trumpeter pigeon is the same bird that Picasso drew as the peace dove. Everyone knows His famous "peace doves". This particular pigeon was given to him by Henri Matisse. It is described as a Milanese pigeon. Possibly it was from Milan, but you can tell by the fancy feathers on his feet that it is a German beak-crested trumpeter with leg muffs. In German and French, the term pigeon and dove are interchangeable.

I am no longer committed to sculpt a peace pigeon a week but I don’t hesitate if a material or found object jumps out at me to turn it into a sculpture.

The very last beak break.  

Sapling #7 - lath, 1st coat and second coat.

My daughter special requested this piece. She asked if I could make her a sapling. My response was I could try, but the pencil size steel limits how thin I can make the tree limbs. Long story short, the sapling grew old fast. After the first coat the sapling limbs we're no longer sapling thin.

Covered in lath

Keeping an eye on my mix

The first coat - the bronze leaves are covered in green plastic to protect them.

First, I paint on the bonding liquid.

The piece is now ready for coat number 2.

Coat number 2 ✅

Here is the image edited super light in order to show the texture.

More details

Detail of upper branches

A little more concrete need under the bird.

Detail of trunk

The lower trunk and base.

The abundance of knots is evidence that this tree is the host of many insects and good bacteria. Bees and other insects use trees for nesting and receive antiviral properties from the fungus and bacteria that grow on the tree.