First completed piece for 2010!

Yay for me! After what truly seems like an eternity, I have completed my first piece for 2010.

This is 'Sienna' and she is a very sulky faerie girl. Having three daughters (delightful though they are) I had much to draw on for this piece. I love the idea of faeries in moods other than the commonly depicted cheerfulness....and let's face it, anyone who knows anything at all about faeries knows that they are unpredictable, vengeful and contrary little blighters!

I really tried to get not only the facial expression to convey Siennas mood, but also her body language.....she is definitely not in the mood to compromise!

I had lots of fun constructing Siennas costume, most of it being comprised of leather and felt - two of my favorite materials to work with. She stands 40cms tall to the tip of her pig-skin cap.

Even though I have my life-size goblin built, I have started sculpting another piece.....suffice to say that it involves a snail.....truly I have the attention span of a flea!

Till next time.

ps. Sienna is for sale on my website. Not all Faeries are Beautiful.

Back to work at last!

After a very slow start to the year I finally feel settled in my new space and have spent the last few weeks working on a number of projects. The piece that has my full attention at the moment is the 'life-size' goblin in the first photos. The head took three days to sculpt and another two days to build the body armature and put him together (very awkward at this size). He needs more work on his knees and elbows and there's still the painting and costuming to go, but I'm pleased with him so far. I'm aiming for a fairly high level of realism with this piece....the scale is certainly helping, larger pieces definitely make their presence felt!

You may notice in the studio shots a small faerie girl on my worktable. She was actually my first sculpt for this year, but I was side-tracked by the big guy so she remains incomplete. I will be working on finishing her over the next few days and will post pics as soon as she is done.

I promised myself that this year I would devote more of my work time to drawing (my first love) and the young girl is the first piece of work that I completed in my new studio. While sculpting seems to set off a chain reaction of ideas and concepts in my brain, hammering at the back of my eyes demanding to be let out, drawing has a very calming effect which I completely forget about when I'm not doing it. I'm talking here about tighter, more 'finished' drawing as opposed to rough sketching and doodling (see bottom photo), which I do a lot of, most of it at a frantic pace before the idea is lost. I spent two days on this piece (it's quite large) and it was a lovely way to ease back in to the work year.

And so it begins.......

Till next time.