Hyper Realistic Reconstructed Sculpture#6 Part 6

I thought it would be good to have a short little post on #6.  This is a sneak view of "little one". It's starting to look more like a small child and less a anatomical model. The clay is being built up slowly and carefully to the sculpture in order to avoid distortion during the process.  While modelling,I do refer to tissue depth measurements for children as a guide but I find that information only moderately useful. Intuitiveness is still an important element in the modeling process. Modelling by charts and measurements strictly will often lead to incongruity. This sculpture series is about interpretation not a literal translation.
So far,sculpting a child's face has been a welcome change from the rather robust older adult male subjects that were done earlier in this series.  But doing depictions of children is by no means easier. Their soft rounded  contours,their topography is extremely subtle and not easy to read.
In the meantime, I'm working in the studio during the holidays. I find this is a good time to work because it's quiet, less stressful and it gives me extra time to experiment with some new materials.
I hope to be back before New Years with some new updates.  Talk to all of you soon. Cheers.

2011 in Review

Greetings to all,especially  to those who are celebrating holidays at this time of year. It's been almost ten months since I started this blog and I wanted to say thank you to all of you for stopping by.  I also want to thank friends and colleagues for their encouraging words both public and private.
I wanted this post to return to some of  the images that have appeared over the past year. Starting with the earliest to the current.  Here we go.

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art D iLella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

It's been an extremely busy year for me and I will be making changes to the blog for the new year. The pages section will be reorganized to better reflect various media I work in but as well to allow readers better access.

I 'll be back later this week with new images of #6. Take care and enjoy the Holidays!

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

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Hyper Realistic Reconstructed Sculpture #6 Part 5

The focus of this past week was to get the neck and shoulders of #6 "caught up" to the head.  When I begin a sculpture, the main strategy is to model all aspects of the sculpture simultaneously. The reason of course is make sure that the sculpture grows gradually and remains in balance. That's why I was a bit concerned last week that the head was too far advanced in its development while the rest of the sculpture remained neglected. This can lead to proportion problems with various parts of the model.

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright Art  Di Lella

The next stage is to return to the head and try to fill out the face and then return to the neck and shoulders for any further readjustments. In an earlier post, I had mentioned about doing two versions of this sculpture,one ecorche version and one complete. I'm still interested in this idea but I feel that its best to move on and complete this model and return to the other idea later. We'll see what happens.
In the meantime,I have a special post coming.  Watch for it later this week.
Take care.

Hyper Realistic Reconstructed Sculpture #6 Part4

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

 I'm a few days late with this post. It's been really hectic with projects taking a bit more time than I had originally anticipated.  But I had some time here and there to work on #6. I've been mainly focusing this week on the neck and shoulders. I feel the need to get those parts further along and to catch up to the face otherwise things can go a little out of whack. I like the direction of this sculpture so far but the personality of this particular subject will be better expressed once the skin is applied. We'll see.

I'll be back next week with some new updates of #6 and some images of the various happenings in the studio.

Cheers.

                                                                                                                                                         

Hyper Realistic Reconstructed Sculpture #6 Part 3

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

The studio has been very active this week so far with a number of moulding and casting projects to complete.

I had a bit of time here and there working on the newest bust.  I've been putting more effort in detailing the facial musculature on this sculpture which is different from the previous  individuals in this series.

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

I'm still early in the process and still undecided as to how far to go with this detailed anatomical approach.
As I had mentioned before in the previous post, I might go to a two stage route,first an Ecorche' version followed up by a complete one just like the others in this series.
Perhaps,it's a little unusual to do an anatomical bust of a seven year old person but having two versions opens up more possibilities for serialization instead of a one off sculpture. Lots to think about but now I have to focus my efforts on finishing this stage.
In the meantime, I'll will be back on Tuesday next week with some new images of #6 as well as some pics of other studio works.

Hyper Realistic Reconstructed Sculpture #6 Part 2

Back again with latest images of #6.

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

At the end of last week, I began to sketch out #6 and took a different approach this time.  Normally, I don't sketch out the facial muscles with that much detail because from my point of view this is usually redundant. Forensic reconstructions often use this as part of their methodology and as a way to avoid artistic subjectivity in their models. But in my case, the purpose was more about curiosity or maybe having an ecorche' version of the same subject, I'm not sure.
It's early on and having some fun exploring. We'll see what comes out.
I'll be back with a new post on Thursday.  Cheers.

Hyper Realistic Reconstructed Sculpture #6 in Silicone

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Today, I wanted to introduce #6 in my series of hyper realistic busts in silicone. This one is a real departure since it will be the only depiction of a juvenile. This child's skull has definitely different proportions from the adult subjects in this series. It has a shorter face both literally and relatively to the size of the cranium when it's compared to an adult skull.  It will be a challenge to come up with a distinctive face on this skull. From my own research, I find young children's skulls to be very much alike. They seem to acquire more "character" or distinctiveness once they hit puberty.
 I really like the rather angular forms of this particular specimen with it's rather bulbous forehead which is typical of juvenile crania. The face, as I mentioned before, is short  which will give the eyes more emphasis and the nose which will likely be short and broad. The other features as well should be typical for a child of this age.

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Over the next couple of days, I'll begin roughing out the musculature and map out the facial features as well.  This sculpture project will take several weeks  to complete with  many revisions but I'm looking forward to it.
Like the others, I will publish the latest images with descriptions and show as much of the process as possible including the silicone cast.
Next week, I should have some new pics of #6 plus some other studio news.