Monthly Archives: June 2016

More Work in Progress

Perhaps a few days late, but as promised, here is a completed image of the Lacing III art doll that I showed in progress last week.

Lacing 3 art doll

Lacing III

I’m not sure that the title will stay exactly the same. This art doll will most likely remain in the studio as part of inventory build up for my gallery show in September.  Available sculpture in the gallery will have a part to play in that decision making process.  The piece I shared two weeks ago, Cello, will definitely wait until that show, as I chose her image as my early publicity piece for that show.

Lacing III is similar to Cello in scale as well. I have been increasing the size of my art dolls slightly.  I find that it is easier to focus more on details of the figure’s features with a bit more room to work with.  Taking a step back however, I notice that I have increased the head and face much more than the proportions of the rest of the body.  This does give an interesting stylistic look, but I’m not sure I’m quite where I want to be.  I spent quite a bit of time soft sculpting Lacing III’s body, but she still looks thinner than I want her to be, and her hands and feet need to be increased as well.  I’m obviously not going for any form of hyper realistic rendering with these figures, but I want to avoid them falling into the realm of caricature.

I guess the next art doll sculpture will offer ample opportunity to address those design challenges.  Each work teaches me something new for its successor.  It is interesting to go back and look at the evolution.  This not only illustrates change, but highlights some interesting past design choices that I may have forgotten.  I just had such an opportunity prior to starting to write this post.  I was adding images to the gallery available for insertion into my posts, and updating the Art Dolls page of this site.  If you have not visited that page. I have most of the art doll figures I have made in the gallery there with prices listed for those that are still available for purchase.  I try my best to keep all those available toward the beginning so that you do not have to scroll through them all unless you want to.

I’m off to put in an order for the Professional Doll Makers Art Guild coffee table book.  It is only available to members at this time, but I will share a link in the future if you are interested.  In the mean time, the link above will take you to my page on their web site.

Another Art Doll in Progress

Art Doll Work in Progress

Had a busy couple of weeks outside of the studio, and I don’t quite have a finished art doll to share with you today.  So, I thought that instead I’d show you my current work in progress.  Like the piece from my last post, Chello, this one is with inspired by earlier art doll sculptures, and is on the slightly larger scale that I I want to shift my figures to.

Lacing III

This current art doll figure sculpture is a third seated dancer figure who will be lacing up her toe shoes.  I like to pour over internet images when in the thinking phase for a new piece.  Degas’s dancers offer up a wealth of visual inspiration.  I find myself drawn most to his behind the scenes pieces. Images of dancers stretching at the bar, engaged in conversation, and of course putting on their shoes, catch my eye.  Those images make me imagine more of a story to go along with them, than a grand leap captured during the performance of someone else’s storytelling.

Paperclay elements and wire armature of art doll work in progress

Paperclay elements and wire armature of Lacing III

Lacing III will be seated pulling across the ribbons of one of her shoes.  Her eyes will be slightly down cast focusing on her task, and will draw the viewer down closer to see her fully. In the photo above you see her paperclay head and hands on her body’d wire armature.  Her final position will be set after I have her all together to balance the gesture I want to achieve with the stability of her seated posture.

Refine and Reshape

detail of paperclay hands. 2nd clay layer drying for sanding and shaping

detail of 2nd layer of paperclay hands drying

I chose paperclay for this art doll’s hands.  This choice will allow me to have greater control and detail since the eye will be drawn to what the figure sculpture happens to be doing. This image was snapped after my second layer of clay was added to the wire and floral tape hand armature.  Additional shaping and sanding will refine their shape a bit more.

One of the advantages of creating my art doll figures the way that I do, is that I can tweak and change things as I work.  The sculptor that carves or chisels is confined by earlier choices and decisions.  My figures are even more forgiving than those sculpted fully in clay, because I leave so much of the sculpture able to be repositioned.

close up of art doll with face plate to guage eye placement

need to shift eyes a bit

Even though my Lacing III art doll will have her eyes looking down at her shoe, I see from a quick test fitting with her copper face plate, that I will have to reposition her eyes just a bit.  she looks just a bit suspicious of her doll artist sculptor at the moment.

With any luck, Lacing II will be complete and ready to meet you in my next post.