Ben McCarl
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Working Alone

11/18/2012

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Picture
After a week of vacation at the cottage I decided to spend some time working alone on the sculpture to make adjustments that improve her character.  The bag was too thin at the top, giving the Princess too tailored of a look.  I could either add Winterstone to the back of the top which would make her lean slightly backwards or add clay to the front and make her lean slightly forward.  I decided to opt for the leaning forward pose to make the princess look more eager when greeting people at the library.

Her head was tipped too far upwards.  It was positioned great for watching a dragon fly around the world but too high to "look at" people entering and exiting the library.  My challenge was to tip the head more straight ahead without making it unnaturally deep.  Here's something that you readers can try to help visualize the challenge.  Tip your head back and notice where the indents for your eyes are compared to where your protruding cheek bones are.  Now tip your head straight ahead and notice how the indents for your eyes have shifted down into the space where your protruding cheek bones used to be.  I had to add Winterstone to create new cheeks and eye indents while also bringing the forehead forwards and extending the chin downward to maintain the overall shape of the face.

Her hair needed to be more substantial and rounder, rather than hanging straight down the back so I added clay to the middle of the back.  I also brought the hair forward to cover her ears (or rather where the ears would be) and extended the lower front hair tips to hook more to the front.  

Then it was ready for the wire crown to be installed.  While cutting and bending the wire mesh into shape I smiled, recalling my seven year old helper Evan Lew telling me that the prongs in the scale model were not crooked enough.  Well Evan, I made the ones on the life size sculpture especially crooked and look forward to hearing your thoughts about them.

Her stance was too symmetrical so I tipped her right foot inward by adding clay to the inside of the toe area while tipping the left foot outward by adding clay to the outside of the toe area.  This created a more casual pose for the princess.  

Finally I extended the fingers on her hands and added thumbs.  I have not carved detailed fingers and toes on the princess yet but now have sufficient material to work with. 


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    Ben McCarl

    Thousands of potential sculptures lie within each and every uncut stone.  Sometimes the destiny is obvious when I see a stone and sometimes releasing the sculpture within is a long journey following countless hints and inspirations.

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