Milk does a body good

I wanted to keep my sculpture white instead of trying a patina. My professor suggested a milk finish.

I used organic skim milk (because I had some left over in my fridge, not because I’m a organic food snob) on my sculpture. I got up to about five coats…and then I stopped counting.  Let’s just say that you should keep painting until a nice translucent shine is achieved.

Safe to say that using milk as a finish was incredibly successful. Next time I think I might try to use whole milk. A friend in my class decided that she wanted to try a milk finish and you can see on her sculpture that the finish is a bit more opaque. 

An extremely brief eulogy & the plaster mold

Today, we celebrate the short lives that were Kelly’s plaster mold and clay sculpture. *sniffle*

Both served her well, and she hopes that they find peace in whatever landfill they’re dumped in.

*sniffle*

But here is the outcome…so far:

(Dramatic lighting not intentional)

It came out of the plaster mold today and looked pretty great…except the nipples didn’t come out and there were a few bubbly patches from the huge amount of olive oil hairspray I sprayed into the mold before pouring in the plaster:

Today I made another batch of plaster and slathered it on a good portion of the sculpture (and I rebuilt the nipples). All I have to do is sand away the rough textures and I’ll be finished!

I also really need to fix the nipples that curiously look an awful lot like…

Fantastic. 

Allison

(Allison, graphite & charcoal)

Life Drawing

After a few weeks of drawing nude men, we finally got a female model for our class. 

While the hair is a bit wonky, the foreshortening is pretty successful. 

To sculpt or not to sculpt? That’s a really good question…

Sculpture class is extremely early in the morning (I have to wake up at 6am). So during the course of this project, I kept forgetting to bring in my camera to photograph the progression of this torso bust.

Luckily, I brought it in today and got a shot of what it looked like after the fourth session:

And then photographed the almost done torso bust after today’s fifth session (and our last day with the model):

I’m glad that I’m taking two classes where I study nude models because then I get to experience the difference between drawing the figure and sculpting the figure. I made my schedule like this on purpose so I could decide this semester if I’m just going to major in Drawing/Painting or if I’m going to double major with Sculpture. Decisions, decisions…

After I trim up a few areas, we are going to cast this bust in plaster. This clay bust will probably be destroyed…but I hope it won’t.