The man’s hands and the pigs belly.
Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 22.5 “bringing home the bacon”
Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 22 “bringing home the bacon”
progress-
Hands and hoofs
hands
Hoofs
Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 21 “bringing home the bacon”
Today’s progress-
Feet and legs
International WaterMedia Exhibition - Invited
One of the most coveted words an artist can hear or receive in an email is “invited”
I am so pleased and grateful to have a piece selected. 🙏
Seven cyclist
Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 20 “bringing home the bacon”
What a relief, I was able to get the piece in my car and to the sheet metal fabricators. .
The sheet Metal fabricators did a beautiful job leveling the steel base.
With this cold weather it is nice to get out of the garage and working inside my studio.
I will take down all the drawings, I want them to be very pressed for the exhibit and I need a clean wall to use as a backdrop as I work on the next stage of the sculpture . In order to press them I bought two pieces of sheet rock to press them under. I also stack my bronze hats on them for extra weight.
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 17 “bringing home the bacon”
As I near the end of working on the armature I am starting to think seriously about the texture of the finish.
I walked around my welding studio and just looked at textures. Here are a few that stood out.
Floor dry mop
Bin of scrap metal
Rusted wire cloth
Floor waxing pads
Broombristles
Cracked mud and grass
Root
Nylon bag strings
stump
Whisk broom
cracked saddle straps
Rope
Feathers
Paint
Straws
Legs of “Sonata in 4D”
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 17 “bringing home the bacon”
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 later that night- “bringing home the bacon”
I clipped the in-progress pig armature to the in-progress headless man armature. It may look crazy now, but it is coming together fine (I think, fingers crossed) so far. I have some new ideas on how to create the texture of this pig water rescue and I cannot wait to see if they are good ideas or bad idea..
Hurricane Harvey - sculpture day 12 - missing body parts - “bringing home the bacon”
Both pieces are missing major body parts. The man needs arms, neck, and head. The pig needs the bridge of his nose, pig belly, the third hoof, ears, and tail.
I decided that before I finish the last body parts, I need to attach the pig to the man. That is the only way to know where I should position the final pieces. Once the pig is in place, I can put the man's arms around the pig. I can then manipulate the position of the pig's legs, head, and how big his abdomen is.
The first step is to clip the pig to the man where I want to weld him.
It is important that the piece balance. It is standing on its own. The piece is about the physical energy of rescuing livestock; in this case, a pig. The pig would be uncomfortable being hoisted up, so he would be fighting or trying to wiggle out of the man's grip. I also want the man’s face to be seen from the front, so the pig is off-center.
I welded in between the pig and the man small pieces of rebar as spacers. These spacers will give me room to wrap the lath on the man and lath on the pig. The lath will hold on the plaster.
I won’t attach the lower half of the pig until after I adjust the position of the pigs legs.
Before start bending the pigs legs and head around I will attached the mans feet to the base.
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