I know like I know like I know that this **SHOULD** be my motto but often (unfortunately) it’s not when a wild hare gets me..! SO, when I redid this pony to sculpt him in clay I measured very quickly and the first version (in brown Apoxie Sculpt) was already suffering from too short of a back length... and I just had to cross my eyes while I worked on the rest of him knowing that when he was cast I'd have access to that area to fix it finally …
Today I cast him & was FINALLY able to do something about that!
There are two castings there because the first was really icky, even had some uncured resin spots because I mixed very very badly. I'm pleased to say though that the 2nd casting had almost no bubbles AND almost no seams despite that I cut out 2 sections, making a 3 part mold (and those are tricky enough to lock up tight when doing production molds... nevermind a hand cut one! (And my hand cutting is rough - I've had a lot of anatomy classes where this whole scalpel technique for clearing off fascia is an artform.. you would think, since I master that over the years, that I would be more careful... ! Really it's actually upsetting to my engineer fiance for him to watch me work & eyeball & wing this stuff. You can train precision all you like but.. it's art in the end! Sooooo yeah, I'm REALLY tickled that it worked like magic!). :D
I wanted to do a diagram showing how tricky it is to lengthen from the point of origin of an armature but well.. I just can’t sit still here at the computer long enough.. ;) Suffice it to say? It just wasn't worth the time/ruination of the extremeties to tackle it before casting the prototype.
The body lengthening issue is one I repeatedly have, I know & use many proportion charts and tables in addition to real measurement conversions but somehow so many of my horses have literally grown larger than their starting size. You can look back on this blog & see that just from past works being chopped in half. It's a common issue in horse sculpture in general, interestingly (well ok, maybe only to me but I really do find it interesting that we all tend to exaggerate similar features/points of reference). :)
Off I go! Real pics soon - some spots to smooth & areas to detail out more precisely & WOOT!!! (I am bouncing off hte walls SOOO excited about this guy!).
5 comments:
He looks way better with the longer back. It takes away the slightly over-exaggerated cartooney little pony proportion. Can't wait to see what he looks like once you finish detailing him.
Any chance you could share some of these proportion charts with us? I think it would be an interesting study...
To answer Laura, my internet is wicked slow or I’d see if these are on google books.. but I like ones that are tables -> giving proportions for various breeds specifically.
I think it’s more than interesting, it’s kinda fundamental for doing realistic horses. It’s also really tricky. Most charts give the big length #s but you’re not going to find #s out there typically saying an eyeball is roughly the size of a non-dilated nostril.. or that a hoove is generally the same width as a muzzle is high. BUT the arm/shoulder/head etc lengths are ALL over the place… Like Dr. Deb Benett has some summaries online you could look up that are nice (not sure if they’re articles or part of her book). Good overviews of the concepts – what makes horses good at different types of work. What kind of build/proportions are going to help a horse have knee action .. be a smooth ride… a fast ride… verses a strong puller… what makes a miler verses a sprinter. That kinda thing.
Without too much time spent here I can suggest tables like the ones in Ellenberger et al’s Atlas of Animal Anatomy? Comparing a few drafts to riding and race horses. There are other books I have around that give tables of TBs and STBs. And IceRyder.net used to have some great #s in tables up for gaited nuances – where they’ve worked out angles a lot because not all horses can gait and defining what makes for efficient and sound movement there is really a whole ‘nother field of study! :)
Then of course there are the standard guides you see. Pretty sure if you google up “proportion chart” you’ll get some. Most animal art books are pretty good about giving some of these (like a head is roughly equal to the length of the tibia, or such so that you can sit there with calipers and compare quickly when you’re roughing out a work). Sometimes though, like here, you rough something out (it only took me a day to rough out the pony again in clay), but hten find you want to change something major. And the real decision comes – and frankly some artistic license too! I really REALLY like some works that are not proportional it all – but they have great and fun feeling to them and are not trying to be the end all be all technical work. So please do not think I’m saying that all horse shaped objects that exaggerate proportions are no good – hardly! At some point “style” is very valid imo. Be it large eyes and other exaggerated expressive features is the style or overall the use of many very straight lines in varied sizes is the style. It’s all valid – exaggerations included in my opinion! :)
To Anonymous – thanks! Yes, I do like to start out with the expression in place or it’s hard for me to get motivated to work on something. Slowly I pick away at things that are cartoony or lack the reality I’m shooting for… but I don’t think I totally do away with some of that initial zeal I put into the feeling and movement. Obviously in that case I am much happier now – that exaggeration was really driving me nuts but as I said, it would’ve been something I’d have to start completely over to fix before casting the prototype... I seriously can’t wait to share pics of him now of course!! But might as well wait a few more days first. Much progress in the last 24hrs. Now it’s just like a rough casting prep job with a few features being added.
Hope that all made sense. I’ll be shocked if this post goes through – I tried to post to my FB status today that I won’t have much internet for another 12hrs but that wouldn’t even go through after an hour of trying… satellite internet.. It’s all we have & it blows! :-P
Btw the hoof to muzzle thing - just an example that should not be taken literally please. :)
OH! And Deb Bennett has many books. I'm typing fast here & half distracted (all the time anyhow) by dog play at my feet. Point being I just don't want folks to be reading into what I'm saying TOO literally! lol! :D It's so easy to say "so and so said xyz" and in this case there are many books, many many more resoruces & I just don't have the time/& inclination (if I was to be honest!) :D to research and present all that really should go into it. The subject is VAST and can be infinitely learned about imo! :D
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