The Late Emerging Artist

Well, here it is three-quarters of the way through May and detailing has slowed to a crawl. I have abandoned the Dremel grinder and moved to the Riffler Files. (You can see a little pile of them in the lower right corner of the picture).

Below is a closer look at them, but basically, they are just a group of small, shaped, files that die makers use for detail work. I use these to enhance and smooth the details of the sculpture.

Meanwhile – – – – I’ been thinking again!!! This of course means nothing but trouble.

The sculpture is turning out pretty well, and I have been considering making rubber molds of the individual characters (There are 5) of the sculpture and casting them in “Cold Cast” bronze.

I have never tried this before, but I’ve been reading up on the process, (which is unbelievably complex) and I think I will take a shot at it.

What could go wrong other than totally destroying the entire sculpture.

If any of you know anything about this process, and want to advise me along the way, or just want to try to talk me out of it, let me know.

Now comes the hard/fun part. The horse that the rider is on has been anchored to the plywood base, but everything else is loose so I can work on them individually.

Most of my efforts this week went into the rider. He now has a full headdress, the spear is defined a bit more, he has a shield, and an arrow quiver on his back. I have been filling and sanding on the horses, but as usual much more work is required.

Having said that; if you look in the background of the pictures you will see that the gardens are starting to green up, I’ll be spending more time on those, and less on the sculpture for awhile.

Hi Folks,

This is how the final sculpture will look. I added rulers at the top of the image to give you some idea of the final size.

The overall sculpture will be approximately 10X26X12 inches. The horses will overhang the 10X16 inch oval base by several inches along the longest side, and the spear will rise above the Indian’s head by about 4 inches.

The detail still has a ways to go in that the Indian will be seated on some sort of saddle, will be carrying a shield on his left arm, and will have some sort of headdress.

I have made some progress on the horses, but there needs to be some sort of minimal cross ties between them to strengthen the overall sculpture, and I haven’t even begun to sculpt the base.

Having said all of that I am still optimistic about completing the sculpture by the end of June.

Those of you that have “Subscribed” to this Blog can add your “Comments” directly to it. Several of you have been cheering me on with Facebook, but it would be great to hear your thoughts and advice directly on the Blog pages as a permanent record. I can also respond to your questions better if they are directly on the Blog.

Hi Folks,

Here is where the sculpture is as of today. Three of the four horses are roughed in and waiting detailing. The fourth, which is the lead horse, has a bit further to go.

I believe that the action on this sculpture has a lot of promise, but we will see how it looks when the manes are in place.

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The last two or three days have been productive. I have added the second horse and have started on the third (See Below). These two are in their final shape but need a bunch of fine tuning and personality added. I’ll get to that a little bit later. I should tell you that at this point (and for quite some time to come) the horses are removeable from the base. It would be almost impossible to detail and paint them unless I can work on them separately.

I have also begun work on the third horse. The picture below will show you the armature system and what is on the inside.

You can see that the third horse’s right front leg, and its left rear leg are inserted into drilled holes in the plywood base. If I don’t screw-up and glue the two-part epoxy to the base when I begin to form the legs, sculpture will remain separate until the painting process is complete. (Incidentally, I believe this sculpture will be finished as a Faux Bronze.)

Hi Folks,

I’ve refined horse number 1 a bit and began to lay Two-Part Epoxy on the second horse. The styrofoam blocks are what will be inside the finished horses. It is a bit hard to see in the picture, but the wires (#8 copper) have been pre-formed to the shape of the running legs and will be covered and shaped with epoxy.

I was debating on whether to have four or five horses, but it appears that the final number will be four. There will also be a fifth element included in the sculpture, but I’ll save that for a future Blog.