I have been finding new photos of sculptures that Chuck created that were finished in porcelain. Here are two: The Arctic Fox and Great Horned Owl (originally issued as limited editions by Cybis).
See Diana Simpson’s work in progress on our upcoming Friday morning live stream! She will be explaining the mold making process for bronze casting.
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New Student Work, March 4, 2021
I was thrilled to see what Cindy van Horck (Netherlands) was able to achieve following the Moorish Idols bas relief design as well as other projects from the free videos at our YouTube channel.
I emailed her the following message:
“This is great! You did an excellent job on all these projects, especially for just starting out. And air dry clay is much less forgiving than oil-based clay, which stays workable, so I think you did really well. I think it would be awesome if you’d try to paint the Moorish Idols design. That is what I’ll do once I get it into plaster. Meanwhile, could I post your work on our blog? I’d love to show off student’s progress. It is very inspiring to others too, and that is the whole point of what I’m doing. I think sculpture is a wonderful pursuit and it can unlock hidden talent and love of art. Thank you so much!”
The Moorish idols bas relief design is something I drew so students can follow along and learn bas relief sculpture. I provide it as a free download here:
https://oldhamstudio.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/0f539-moorish-idols-final-by-vicky-oldham.pdf
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New Student Work, March 3, 2021
Sculpture student Deborah Dean created her Barn Owl sculpture by following our Barn Owl Sculpture Project Guide. It is so well done! Click on an image to enlarge. Her surface treatment of the clay and originality of rendition is really wonderful!
Deborah Dean is also a student of renowned New Mexico sculptor David Lemon. You can see his amazing bronze work here.
Today, I did a live stream on the topic of plaster models, specifically a large plaster model that was intended for both porcelain and bronze. In storage for many years, I unpacked the damaged plaster model used to mold and cast “The Gift.” A mother and child sculpture by Chuck Oldham, the piece was originally created for a small edition of individually-made studio porcelains. It was later produced in bronze. Old, degraded lacquer is peeling from the plaster and it is badly damaged in a number of places. The baby is missing a finger. I’ll be showing how to properly repair this plaster model so the remaining bronze editions can eventually be cast. If you’d like to watch the live stream from today, here is the link:
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Collared Lizard Sculpture
Today we’ll be working on the build-up of the collared lizard sculpture. I started with creating the idea in the soft clay (using Clayette by Chavant, the soft consistency. I currently purchase the clay at SculptureDepot.net). Here is the link for today’s live stream at 7:30 am, Arizona time: https://youtu.be/2GhWedzvrg0
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Barn Owl, Day 13
Today, I am showing one side of the owl where I have mapped out most of the feathers. The other side still needs to be done. Here, you can see the process: how you go from the large forms to the medium forms to the small forms. I measure all the time, just to make sure I’m still on track with my idea. My goal is to be able to sculpt anything I want according to a plan. I hope to make a very realistic sculpture, but you can make anything you want with this technique. Get the PDF guide here—just $5 and supports our site:
https://oldhamstudio.wordpress.com/product/barn-owl-sculpture-project-guide/
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Day 7 – Barn Owl Sculpture
I was discussing the tools called “rifflers” in this video. These are great for smoothing out the basic forms. It gives me a good sense of the volume and relationships of shapes to one another. Here is a source I was able to find that are closest to the ones I use:
https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/hand-tools/files-and-rasps/rifflers/20139-detail-rifflers
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Barn Owl Sculpture, Day 6
The barn owl sculpture continues tomorrow, 7:30 am Arizona time (Jan. 6, 2021), as I work on the next group of shapes, the secondary shapes. I’ve measured the basic outer dimensions, and they’re pretty close. So now, here comes the start of the detail!
Get the guide to follow along here, and help support my channel and website: https://atomic-temporary-174583136.wpcomstaging.com/product/barn-owl-sculpture-project-guide/
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Barn Owl Sculpture, Day 5
Be sure to watch tomorrow morning at 7:30 am (Jan. 5) for another episode on making the Barn Owl sculpture in clay. We’ll be starting to define the main inner shapes, measuring our diagram model as we go. Here is the link — please share and subscribe:
Learn Sculpture! 