Getting closer and closer every day. 

I finished relighting the dragon, the jellyfish and a seahorse just in time to clean up my loft and squeeze in a few hours of sleep before I opened my doors for our fall art walk.  Ever since our spring art walk, I had really been hoping to have this piece done in time for this one, as it's sort of the one year mark that I've been working on this piece, but alas, as close as I am, I'm not that close.  Had a great weekend anyway though, and as soon as it ended I got back to work on the face.  First I gave her a hairline, closing off her forehead, and added a few more swirls.  Ears were next.  My first attempt used one line that swirled its way through the entire ear.  I made one and wasn't that excited by it, so I scrapped it and tried again, this time with a design using a few lines.  Laid in the first line and an accent line, and loved it.

The second line that finishes the ear actually works its way into the ear from the jawline.  This time the design was dead on and the ears look great. 

Instead of creating a wire scalp for her and building her hair off that, her hair is going to start off her hairline and then continue building off itself.  I still needed to figure out the shape of the rest of her head though so I found a few images of bald female profiles to help with that shape.  I temped in a wire starting at her slight widows peak, working its way over her head and down her neck. Once  I locked the shape in, I added the hairline at the back of her head.  Then I continued working on her jaw and chin. 

 

I've pretty much finished the head now, and am ready to start on her neck.  The first few lines I lay in will be starting at her spine.  I'm not expecting this to be too hard once I get started, but these first few lines are going to be tricky.  They'll be the lines that define the angle and position of her head, and it's a pretty important aspect of the sculpture.  The way she holds her head will determine the emotion of the piece.  I've been holding the head up and moving it around trying to find the right position for the last few days.  I had been envisioning her head tilted and turned to her left with her chin slightly down.  Tonight I decided to keep it tilted and turned to the left, but to also let it roll back a bit instead.  It definitely gives a more sultry, and more importantly, a more languid feel to her pose.  This exposes more of the underside of her chin though, and I realized that needed a little more work.  I ended up cutting a few welds on the chin and reworking the wires.  I'll finish that up tomorrow and hopefully by the end of the night, her head will be attached to the body.

I also spent some time this past weekend playing with patinas again.  I picked up more of the green that I'll be using for her body to do some more tests.  It's looking good.  I had been thinking of a burgundy patina for her hair, but was swayed at the last minute and ended up picking up a rust patina instead.  It's still working the metal, but so far, I don't really like this color for the hair.  I think I'll probably end up picking up some burgundy and see how that looks in comparison.  I also started putting a little focus on the base.  I wrinkled up some strips of the copper foil and laid them out around her feet.  My current plan is to use that blueish green patina I tested a few months back, but after seeing the large strips of the copper on the base, I'm considering not using a patina on it at all.  The wrinkled copper looked so beautiful in the light.  It looked like she was walking on the surface of the sun.  I'm not committing to either idea just yet, as I really do love the blue green as well.  Probably won't decide on that until the rest of the sculpture has been finished with the patinas.

So that's where I'm at.  The rest of this week is going to be all about attaching the head and building up the neck.

This has been a pretty excellent year in music.  There have been a lot of great new releases by Grizzly Bear, Tame Impala, Solid Gold, Kaki King, Alberta Cross, The Album Leaf, The Raveonettes, Polica, Chromatics, Sinead O'connor, Cookie Duster, Silversun Pickups, Miike Snow, Patrick Watson, and even an amazing new release from The Smashing Pumpkins, who I gave up on in the late 90s.  I think my favorite album of the year though, is the third release from an awesome little Canadian band called The Luyas.  I love their first two albums and I had high hopes for the new disc, but I wasn't really expecting to love it as much as I do. Needless to say, I've been listening to them a lot these last few weeks as I've been working on the face.  This track isn't from the new album, but it's one of my favorite tracks from their last album.  So quirky and beautiful.