iSculpt.org

Note: This is the second part of a multi-part series. If you didn't read the first part, this might make more sense if you read part one first.

Man, I really like this Chavant Professional. Being new to oil clay, I have no opinion as to how Chavant Professional compares to NSP, Roma, or any other oil clay, but I know I really like it. I feel like I'm sculpting again. Now, I know somebody who reads this is going to take that the wrong way, and I don't mean it as an insult or even as a statement about the worth of any other media; it's just a statement of my subjective feeling. You see, I started sculpting with ceramics clay, usually in larger scale but without an armature. For almost two years, I used water clay exclusively and, as a result, I have a deep, abiding love for water clay, especially for manipulating it with my fingers. I moved on to other materials and scales for practical reasons, but none of them feel as good to me as water clay and I really love being able to do so much of the sculpting with my fingers.

I've known about plastilina (aka oil clay) for a long time. I don't honestly know why I never tried it before today, but I'm kicking myself for it. Wax, polymer clay, and epoxies are all great media, but because of where I started with sculpting, none of them excite me the way manipulating clay with my fingers does. I work with other media extensively and enjoy creating with them, but there's something about the feel of natural clay that just sends shivers up my spine. A freshly opened bag of water clay is still one of my favorite smells in the world.

Oil clay, at the right temperature, has the same feel (sadly, not the same smell, though). Warmed up, it's got that same wonderful slipperiness as a fresh bag of ceramics clay, and man, I just spent an hour in heaven. The only thing that would have made it better was if I'd have been working from a model instead of a bunch of photographs.

Anyway, after typing the last post, I realized that I was sculpting like a newbie, doing the shape of the legs without blocking in the major masses of the torso. When I started again this evening, I didn't wipe out what I had done — you never know, it could be right — but I did start working a little more like somebody who knew what the hell they were doing. I first blocked in the basic shape of the ribcage and pelvis. I even took a caliper measurement for the width of the chest, though I did pretty much everything else by eye.

After getting the torso and pelvis blocked in, I felt much better about myself, but also became worried. One thing I don't like about this particular armature stand design is that it doesn't give you the ability to change the angle of attachment to the armature. Now, the trade-off is that this design is extremely stable and easy to build, but the loss of one angle of adjustment hurts: I've got a section of about an inch where the armature has to be perfectly vertical - the inch that's comprised of the brass t-adaptor. With the pose I'm sculpting, the model has her spine arched going forward from the pelvis. In fact, I'd say that the curve of her stomach and back is really what defines this pose, and I really want it to be right. That darn vertical inch happens to be right in the part of the spine that should be curving. I think I can work around it, but I don't want to find out I can't after spending lots of hours doing other things, so I'm going to work on the curve of the stomach, then the back and buttocks just to make sure that the t-adaptor is going to fit completely inside the sculpt.

I got a start on doing so before I had to do round two of bedtime stories (my oldest daughter is a night owl like me):

I think I'm going to be alright with the T-adaptor, but I may have to play around with it a little bit, moving some clay from the front of the torso and stomach to the back. Overall, I'm enjoying the hell out of this project. The oil clay, combined with doing a larger piece has really brought back some excitement and magic back into sculpting for me. Even though it's late, I'm considering going back down and doing a little more. What the heck? Everybody else is asleep? Or maybe I'll just go to sleep.