Hyper Realistic Reconstructed Bust Post #3

This week I've been making more changes with this current model.  I felt they were needed because the bony anatomy especially around the eyes and temporal region was too prominent.

Image Copyright  Art  Di Lella

In the above image,you can see where I've been remodeling.  Pronounced epicanthic  folds are being added to the eyes as well as a general softening of the orbital region.

Image Copyright  Art  Di Lella

The lips and the area immediately around the mouth are being given greater emphasis. I just feel that some of the modeling lacked sufficient force.

Image Copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image Copyright  Art  Di Lella

I'm hoping to complete all the revisions over next week or so. We'll see.

Mould Making and Casting

Since the blog started back on March 1, 2011, I've been almost exclusively talking about my own work.  I just wanted to show some images of recently completed moulding and casting projects for other artists.

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

The above pictures show the mould and original. The 'Bull' sculpture was created by Donald Liardi .
You can find more of Don's  work at triasgallery.com  

Image copyright  Art Di Lella

The above art work is by the artist Siggy Puchta.  Siggy is one of the most versatile sculptors I've ever seen.
Check out his work at www.jordashinc.com 

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

This is another example of Siggy's work. The first Heron image is of the original clay model after moulding and the second is of the wax cast produced from a silicone mould that I constructed for it. The third picture is a detail shot showing model and wax cast. All of the wax casts are finished by the artist then given to a foundry to cast into bronze.
Next time, I  should have some progress shots of the "Young Woman " later this week.
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Hyper Realistic Reconstructed Bust Post #2

I've been very busy this week moulding and casting other sculptors' work so I haven't had a lot of time to spend on my own sculpture. But, I still want to show the progress so far on this recent reconstructed bust.

Image shown Copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image shown  Copyright  Art  Di Lella

On this second image,you will notice some needle holes above and below the left eye of the model.
The purpose is to measure the thickness of the clay so the depth of the clay is not too thick or thin on the bone.  Mind you, I'm using  forensic tissue depth data only as a guideline because strict adherence to this data assumes all humans within a specific gender,age and ethnicity possess the same tissue measurements. This is where artistic interpretation needs to come into play to prevent parts of the sculpture from arriving at an unreasonable conclusion. It just looks wrong.

Image shown  Copyright  Art  Di Lella

My objective is not identification of this specific individual but more about exploring issues surrounding anonymity and identity.
Again,as I mentioned in the previous post there are still a lot of changes on this piece still to do. I will post more pictures of it's progress soon.

Hyper Realistic Reconstructed Bust

Here's a little peek at what I'm working on right now. It's a continuation of the reconstructed bust series but this time the subject is a young woman.

Image shown is Copyright  Art  Di Lella

There still a fair bit of work still to do, especially on the shoulders.  I'll be posting more pictures of her later this week.

Porcelain Child Post #3

Yesterday, I finished the sculpting on my second attempt at porcelain. The modeling seemed to come together fairly quickly which I was a bit surprised because sculpting children can be challenging, especially when one hasn't done many.

Image is Copyright Art  Di Lella

While working, I realized how much this sculpture reminded me of the work of the eighteenth century Austrian sculptor Xavier Messerschmidt . Messerschmidt is well known for his physiognomic head studies which were private works that were created late in life.

Image is Copyright Art  Di Lella

Despite it's obvious classical look, I will still need to incorporate another element in this piece to make it a more contemporary statement.

Image is Copyright Art Di Lella

In the above photo, the sculpture as well as a skull of a small child which I used as a reference during the sculpting process.

Now onto the drying and then firing . We'll see if it survives.

Sculpture Parody and the Neandertals

I want to show a wax maquette that I made in 2008 - 2009. Some of the the work I was doing during the past decade often delved into parody.  I enjoy taking things out of context and of course subverting their original intent. I have over many years had an interest in human paleontology  especially the Neandertals .

This is a museum cast of a Neandertal fossil human from Israel called Wadi Amud #1.  The original fossil was found near lake Tiberius 50 years ago by a Japanese archeological team and it's regarded as one most significant finds in the near east from the middle paleolithic era.

What impresses me about them  as human beings is their enormous projecting faces and extremely robust bodies.
Getting back to sculpture, I was never interested in straight up scientific illustration as seen in museum dioramas for my own personal work but I'd rather use science as a jumping off point in my humourous explorations.

All images shown are Copyright  Art  Di Lella

  

Any ways, I plan on enlarging this model later this year only until the other projects are complete or nearly complete.

We'll see.

Hyper-realistic Reconstructed Busts in Silicone.

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I've been working on a series of reconstructed busts since January 2010.
The piece shown below was started in the fall of 2010 and was worked on and off until it was finally completed by February 2011.

During the process of making each model, I was surprised by how distinctive each bust has been so far. As I mentioned in a earlier post, I was bit concerned that these busts could end up looking generic or worse that they all look alike. Thank goodness that hasn't  happened yet.  I'm  very impressed by how much influence the skull actually has in regard to the morphological character of an individual human face. Although, I could never claim these sculptures are in any sense portraits, it's better for me to think of them as just an informed piece of speculation.

All images shown are Copyright Art Di Lella

Moving on, moulding and casting in silicone is next on the agenda.  I'll post pictures of the process soon.

Porcelain Child Post #2

Here are some new images of my second  attempt at porcelain. These pictures show  more refinement and greater definition of the facial details than what was shown in the previous post.  While  I was working on the sculpture, the face seemed to suggest a rather sad or agitated expression.

I hadn't intended to do this but in the back of my mind, I definitely wanted to avoid making
 a saccharine depiction of a child.
But it's still early days and it will still need further revision.

All  images shown are Copyright Art Di Lella

I'll post photos of the completed model soon.

Porcelain Child

All images shown are Copyright Art Di Lella

 It's a new month and it's time to move onto a new project. This is my second attempt at porcelain. These images were taken after an hour of modeling.

I find it's extremely important to move quickly when starting a new sculpture because the modeling will have a greater freshness and has a better chance of developing an interesting character.

I don't know what this"Porcelain Child" will be about other than to say that it's  likely to go through a lot of revisions. I have a long way to go .