January 26, 2023
Post Winter Term Updates
I sculpted a snail shell out of paper maché months ago. It sat unfinished and snail-less until I was finally stricken down by covid and had nothing better to do than stare at unfinished projects all day. While it was tempting to let my brain continue to atrophy watching 90 day fiancé on autoplay, I figured I’d draw some sketches of sculptures as a low commitment brainstorm.
You can see the resulting sketches on the left. I was most captivated by the top drawing. It would be a worthwhile challenge to sculpt a figure that was so expressive in its body language. I did my high school capstone project on body language and the fascination never waned. However, I had sculpted and drawn so many bodies that were passive, focusing on the beauty of the figure rather than letting the body narrate its story. I started building my armature right away.
Lesson learned: I don’t need to have a fully developed idea to initiate working on a project. If I start sketching, the ideas might flow.
The original snail shell I sculpted. It was living rent-free on my tv stand for 8 months.
The armature. Lots of things I did wrong here, starting with using painter’s tape and tinfoil. More lessons learned.
Dremmeled the heck out of the shell to make it less lumpy.
Added hands
Added texture to the shell
