Review of Clay Models and Skulls

Now that I'm working on #7 of the Hyper Realistic Reconstructed Sculpture series, I thought it was a good opportunity to show the original skulls  beside their clay counterparts for a comparison. I'll later show the rest of the sculptures and their skulls in upcoming posts.

Copyright          Art  Di Lella 2012

 

The very first one in this series is an old woman.
The story behind her and this series was actually an experiment. I had known since the late 1970's about forensic facial reconstruction.At that time, I came across a book by Wilton Krogman describing a process whereby clay  faces were built on skulls in order to identify deceased persons. Fascinating but pretty dry stuff.
So fast forward to January 2010, I started to pursue this idea of reconstruction but instead of a dry scientific approach,the thinking was to experiment to see if I could come up with a distinctive face using a more sculptural method without the use of photos or any reference materials as a guide.
So far it appears to have worked. Now I'm not claiming that this is the actual appearance of the individuals shown but I just wanted to make the point  that according to my observations the skull definitely has a strong influence on the human face.
By putting the skulls and faces side by side,I'm hoping you will notice the similarity or the relationship between the face and it's bony structure.

Copyright        Art  Di Lella 2012

The above image is the third model attempted and it's of an elderly male. I have found this process so far very exciting in the sense that each new subject that I undertake always turns out to be a surprise and not an expected result. Predictability in this case would be a definite bore.
Anyway, I'm continuing to work in the studio on a number of different fronts and that will be the subject of my next post.
In the meantime, I want to wish my fellow Canadians,Happy Labour Day Weekend and to the rest I hope you have an enjoyable weekend as well. Take Care.