Hyper Realistic Figure #1 Details and Roughing Out

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 the end of the week,I just wanted to show the latest pictures of my natural size figure sculpture.

I thought showing some detail shots might help in giving a clearer view regarding it's current state
After the "roughing out" stage is completed,there still will be a further need to adjust everything before going on to the refinement and finishing up of the clay model.  I'm hoping that won't take too long but we'll see.

I'll be back early next week so I hope all of you have a great weekend.. Cheers 

Hyper Realistic Figure #1 Homo Erectus

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Hi, back again with some new images of my prehistoric juvenile sculpture. I have to say first off, that this sculpture has been more of a challenge than I had originally anticipated. The main reason is the head and body proportions are not at all like a modern adolescent. The original fossil remains are an odd combination of a juvenile head around 8 years with teenage body about 13 years that has body length proportions of a hyper tropical adult.

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

 In the above picture you'll notice that the arms and hands are at the beginning stages and have a rather skeletal look about them. I've been moving cautiously on the arms and for that matter the entire body because I'm trying to find the right proportions and harmonize all these body parts together so it makes some sense to me.
Once the arms and hands are roughed out,I'll begin to build and adjust all the figure's masses,shift things around until I'm satisfied with all the forms.  After that there will be final refinements and texture but that won't be happening anytime soon.

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Here's a quick shot of the feet, the foot cast in the foreground is a cast of my youngest child. I use life casts sometimes as reference,they're useful but somewhat limited.
This week, I'm will be continuing to work on this sculpture plus I'm working on a number of moulds as well.
Talk to you all later. Have a great week. Cheers.

Hyper Realistic Figure#1 Homo Erectus Juvenile

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

I'm back again with a post that I was hoping to publish on Monday but as I mentioned in the previous post, last week was incredibly busy and I'm still trying to catch up .
Anyways, I have some new images of my latest sculpture.

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

As you can see I've made some progress on the lower part of the sculpture including the feet! But all the modelling at this point is in a state of flux because I'm still working out what is appropriate for this figure. I don't usually follow any prescribed method on arriving at the correct body type or proportion, it's more intuitive less a technical execution.
You may  have noticed that I'm starting to work on the arms as well and hoping to have them roughed out maybe next week. We'll see.
In the meantime, I continuing to work on new mould making for other artists and hope to show some pictures of those works next week.
I'll try to make it back here one more time this week. Take care,I'll talk to you all soon.

Cement Casting and a Doll House

Hello everyone,I'm sorry I missed last Friday's post but the past week was extraordinarily busy. I'm posting just some of the images I took this past week.

The photos copyright by Art  Di Lella                       The Doll House copyright   Susan Kordalewski

This is the cement project that I mentioned in my last post. It's a Cement Doll House by the artist
Susan Kordalewski.
I would like to give a little bit of background information first. Back in the late fall,Susan had contacted me about a post she had seen on my blog about concrete casting for the artist Chris Curreri. She was referring to a post that I had published in November of 2011. Susan was interested in having a doll house moulded and cast in cement. There are some serious technical problems with this idea, first many of the details such as shingles, gingerbread elements, windows and doors have severe undercutting plus the artist had requested that the individual rooms be cast as well. The other problem is cement is not ideal for casting thin walls with delicate details,so we needed a different approach.
I suggested to Susan that perhaps instead of moulding a real doll house,the more practical method was to make a mould form out of plywood in the shape of a doll house. Then the issues regarding undercutting would be eliminated and the details such as windows could be moulded and cast separately.
So, Susan went back to her studio and constructed the mould and delivered it to my studio at the end of February.  Afterwards, I quickly moulded the details for the doll house and worked out how to make the cast rooms.  I started the cement casting of the basic doll house form around March 13th and completed it on March 16th. By the way, the method used to make the cast rooms is hinted at in the first image.Take a guess.
Anyways,it all worked out and Susan picked up her cement doll house sculpture Friday evening and delivered to her gallery in Montreal QC.

This work by  Susan Kordalewski is being exhibited right now at Sporobole Centre on Art, Sherbrooke Q.C
I'll have another post tomorrow on  my Hyper Realistic Figure, Homo Erectus. Talk to you then. Cheers.

Hyper Realistic Figure Sculpture#1 Homo Erectus Rising

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

Hello again, over this past weekend I've been spending some time on building up the masses and establishing  anatomical landmarks on my new figure sculpture. It has been exciting experience for me to work on a larger project for a change and to have the added challenge of trying to make a body that compliments that head. The head as I mentioned in an earlier post is based on a replica of a fossil human from Kenya referred to as KNM-WT 15000 or Lake Turkana Boy. The original fossil  skeleton is amazing in it's completeness but also it's close similarity to modern human skeletons. It should be lots of fun trying sort it all out.

In the meantime I'm currently working on a cement casting sculpture project for an artist in Hamilton as well as moulding a few other sculptures for some local Toronto artists. So in next post I hoping to have some images of what else is happening in the studio.We'll see how things go.
I'll be back later this week . Cheers.

Hyper Realistic Figure Sculpture #1 Part 3 Armature Final

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

I'm back again with the most recent images of my new sculpture, Hyper Realistic Sculpture #1.The first and second pictures are essentially the same image, the only difference being the camera was shaken in the first and not the second as I took the photo. The head was quickly modeled and it looks typically prehistoric because the skull cast used on the armature is of a 1.5 million year old juvenile from Kenya. This youngster has a larger face and a much smaller brain than any living child but is typical when compared to other fossil humans from that era. It will be a definite challenge to make this individual look and be perceived as a juvenile.

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

It's been a few years since I've worked on a figure of this scale. The sculpture at present measures approximately 160 cm or 5' 4" high. Once the armature is completely covered with a layer of clay then the masses will be built up gradually with lots of adjustments. I'm using a wax maquette that was created in 2003 as my model plus I'll have other reference materials as well to help with this project.
The modeling will take several months to complete mainly because I work on several jobs at a once. In the meantime, work is continuing on #2, #5 and #6 Hyper Realistic Reconstructed Sculpture Series. I'm still doing skin texture on #5 and #6 while#2 is waiting to be cast in silicone.
I'm also working on some moulding and casting orders for other artists at the same time,whew!
Work is good, I'm very fortunate.
I'll be back next week, have a great weekend. Cheers.

Hyper Realistic Figure Sculpture#1 Part 2

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Hello again, I'm back with the latest images of my newest sculpture, known for now as Hyper Realistic Figure Sculpture #1. The pictures shown are the early stages of  constructing this sculpture's armature. The purpose of an armature is very much like a skeleton, essentially a structure which provides support. There are various methods of building them but all that really matters is stability. This stick figure will be bulked out later with rigid foam and mesh plus the figure's pose will be finalized.
Once the armature is completed  then the clay is applied and the modelling begins. The skull being used for this project is a replica cast of a fossil human skull,circa 1.5 million years.
Although,I have an interest in human paleontology, this work will be a contemporary art piece and not an example of scientific illustration.
On my next post,later this week, there will images of the completed armature as well as other studio news.
Take care,have great week. Cheers.

First Anniversary and Hyper Realistic Figure Sculpture #1 Part 1

It's officially one year ago today that I started the Sculpturemoulds blog. I can't believe how fast the year has gone by.  Prior to launching my online art journal, I made a commitment to post at least twice a week because I thought it was important to show that my studio practice is active which it is and there is an interest in providing the visitor with a predictable posting pattern and frequency. With that said,I try to make the photos the main focus of any post and not the text. It's not that words are not important but the strategy I always tried to employ is to be as concise as possible and let the pictures tell the story.

Now, here is the next part of my post.
Over the past year the vast majority of posts have dealt with the human head or in some sense portraits. I don't want give the impression that's the limit of my artistic repertoire and so in today's post is the introduction of Hyper Realistic Figure Sculpture#1. This figure will be based on a wax model of a figure I executed back in 2003. The image below is a composition of some of the materials that will be used in creating this new clay model.

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

The figure will be natural in size and cast in silicone eventually just like the other models from my
Hyper Realism Sculpture Gallery. This particular project will take several months to complete but there will be frequent updates and news on my other works as well. And as usual,I will be presenting other artists' works on occasion and will be adding new galleries to the blog itself.

This by the way is the first image ever shown on my blog and I hope to improve not only the images but the content as well. I welcome suggestions from readers and you can leave a comment or send me an email sculpturemoulds@gmail.com that would be most appreciated.

I want to take this time to thank two very special people,first of all Barbara, my partner who has been a tremendous support and has been my mentor on this new online journey.  Barbara has helped in so many different ways from helping to design the website to creating the banner, providing advice on composition,images and tags.  She's been very generous and patient through the entire process. I'm very fortunate.
And finally to my friend Arounna, thank you as well for your encouragement and support on this new online presence.

Next week, I'll be back with news on a few different fronts. Thanks to all of you who come to visit. Have a great weekend. Cheers.