When at first you don't succeed....

I sculpt, then I smoosh, then I sculpt and smoosh it again.  For two days I've been working on the same piece.  The clay has been behaving oddly, I'm finding colour on my hands (panic!) that I can't figure out the source and have re-sculpted the mouth over and over and over again.  At one point, the face looked more like a skull in a Nazi officer cap.  Then it looked like a bug, followed by someone whose lips puffed up due to some horrific allergic reaction.  I've pulled out my "How to sculpt a face" book, watched a few videos on line (thank goodness for the pause button), and looked at other work just to try to get the basics right.  I am not attempting realistic, just recognizable. 

The face is finally finished.  My problem now is that this piece is looking just too much like a previous work.  It didn't start out that way, but is certainly headed down that path.  Deadlines are not always good for art.

This go round I have enjoyed working more than I did even a week ago.  Turning off the phone, television and shutting down Facebook helped.  Playing the Gregorian Monks was very relaxing, though may be a contributing factor in terms of the macabre appearance.  Hmmm, not sure why one should follow the other.  While this work is a little dark in terms of mood, it feels comfortable.  After I get the oven cleaned (homemade pizza is messy) and can fire the clay, I can move on to the next step.  We'll see how it comes out.

Earthling or Alien?

I'm working on a new piece, laughing at myself as I ponder whether this one looks more like an Earthling or alien.  Sculpting is hard!  The practice causes me to lose all sense of time.  It's been a long while since that's happened.  Concentrating on the work and silencing the inner critic is still a challenge, but I'm certainly doing better than a few weeks ago.

I've worked with Sculpey clay for a number of years and don't know if this extra squishy batch is squishy because of the colour, or what.  It's a mash up of four separate packages of the same colour and feels odd.  Every time I sculpt one part of the face, another looks like the melting Wicked Witch of the West.  I've got to work on sculpting without smooshing.  How can I wrangle those out of control fingers?

Back to the grindstone.

Progress at last!

I set aside the piece with which I was struggling as advised by my valued teacher/supporter.  What a smart suggestion!  After cursing a lot at my printer and snarking at Photoshop, I worked on a different project for a while.  Glancing at the unfinished bits today, I picked them up and started tweaking and, hurray for me, got an idea and ran with it.  Progress!  Tomorrow I'll make the support stand, but the primary piece is finished.

My sister called me tonight and we talked about art for a while.  She's amazing.  We make very different art and have very different styles.  Her style - make what you love, love what you make, and to heck with what anyone else thinks.   She is happily prolific in her creativity.  Her work has been selling at a consignment shop in northern Minnesota where she lives.  I listened to her tell me about having had to drop the prices on some of her work but just flat out refusing on others (the ones that sold!), as well as sharing about taking up more merchandise yesterday.  Not once did she ever express reluctance to share her artwork, nor worry about whether or not anyone would like or buy it.  Oh, and she works in whatever tiny little corner she can find in her home, without the benefit of a well-stocked studio like me.

From what gene pool did I spring?  I've been such a prat.

This is the body I finished today:

Have I blabbed on about the second piece?  I want to focus on past generations, people to whom I owe my life, quite literally.  These are the beautiful and soulful eyes of previous generations of my family - my mother, my grandparents, my great grandparents and other members of the family that passed away decades ago.  They should be more than simply unidentified faces in photos tucked in a box in the closet or under the bed.  This will be an interesting project.  I have played with gradient backgrounds (the printed fabric isn't as much blue as faintly bluish shades of gray) and layers.  If nothing else, I do like the fabric.

More play time tomorrow...

Breakthrough!

After feeling incredible pressure to be creative on a time schedule and sharing my thoughts (not often enough) with my cyber support team, I feel like I've had a breakthrough.  I stopped looking at my library of "how to" books and just started working on images to use in my project.  I don't know why, but I had an epiphany about the next step this afternoon and am ready to crank!  I'm going to use a new technique (OK, I got the idea from one of my books on paper cloth, but I haven't looked at it for months).  I'm actually looking forward to the next few days.

What a relief.