Bustin' Loose

Going into this class I was probably most excited about learning how to sculpt a bust. As a fan of portraiture I'm quite drawn to busts and always saw it as a natural progression for my own work.

As usual we spent an entire 5 hour session working from a live model for this piece, but I spent most of my time working on it at home from digital images taken during the session. Here are a few photos of the bust pre-firing.

They all start bald like a baby

Getting there

Here's the finished version next to his doppelgangers, waiting to be fired

Side view

This piece is a good example of how over glazing can ruin a piece. I wanted this piece to turn out well so badly that I spent too much time fussing with the glazes, instead of performing careful glaze tests prior to the final glazing. The end result was a muddied mess.

It wasn't a total disaster, but I wish I had put as much care into glazing the piece as I did in sculpting it. Oh well, lesson learned. Hopefully this will just be the first bust of many. 

Jellyfish Tattoo

In keeping with the conversation started last week on style here are two stylistically different versions of the same drawing.

Which do you think is more effective?

Of Beards and Bees

I haven't had much time these days for sketching but I plan on getting back into it now that most of the work for the Advanced Style Coloring Book is done. A couple of years ago I was working on a series that combined antique portraits and insects. I always felt like there was more to explore there so I decided to revisit the concept in this drawing. Hope you like it!