The Bust

The key reason making heads is so hard is that the perception (the way we use our knowledge) that we have built up over our lifetime of what shape the head is, is based around communication and assessing each other. Making a head requires going against what ‘feels’ right and using information we are unlikely to have bothered with before. Portraiture has a system to organise the huge quantity of subtle details. Learning this system will broaden your knowledge, and your access to more knowledge, enormously. That’s why the study of Portraiture and Figurative Sculpture is traditionally the bed-rock of Art.

It is not rocket science and you can do it. The challenge will be fascinating and very rewarding.

The Technique

Because clay shrinks as it dries and is floppy when very wet a Clay Armature is invaluable.

Most techniques for building  hollow have a strong ‘voice’ of their own and will influence the final look of the piece. They can demand that you harden lower sections and are then unable to change them when you later realise they are wrong. This is a real disadvantage irregardless of your skill level. It is better to work solid over a clay armature especially if you are not using a scale-model and hollow out just before finishing touches. It’s not difficult.

Or you can use this technique of building out from a Clay Armature to make your sculpture hollow.

Clay armature for a bust, aug 2014

3rd Bust armature in progress, Aug 2014.

in progress, Aug 2014.

Here I chose to leave gaps that show the Armature but of course you don’t have to. The step by step manner of this method and the fact that you work all over the head  in layers from the start  makes it ideally suited to learning to make Portraits and other Sculpture.

Frame-works for The Wyvern IV and, in the back ground, The Leviathan.

These Armatures or ‘frameworks’ were planned to be very much part of the fractured image. But the ‘corrugation’ and circular holes you can see are strengthening the Armature and would be very suitable to an armature that would ultimately be hidden. Playing around with these Armatures lead the Sculptures in un-anticipated directions (I frequently have no idea what I’m doing, just why!)

The Wyvern and The Leviathan. in progress, Sept 2014.

In this Workshop we will build a strong Armature, work on the Skull loosely for the benefit of looking at that and then build on the external features of the head; the face, ears, hair etc.

The Skull. 2014

The Weekend

We’ll cover Hollowing out too.  You will get my invaluable tirade on joins. We’ll look at some different clays and talk about choosing clays. And we’ll sit down to a relaxing bring and share lunch in true South Wales Potter’s Tradition and talk shop. There will be drinks available all day.

Everyone, from any level of experience, is welcome and will get a lot out of this challenging week-end.

The Fee is £130 which includes 25kg of Scarva Crank (an out-standing sculpture clay), a set of sculpture’s callipers and set of Skull and Skeleton images. The Workshop is to give you the Techniques so that you can develop your own way of using them. Just like learning to play an instrument, practice and adding your own style will give you the results. You are unlikely to complete your head on the week-end and I will encourage you to take it home to work on or break it down and have the clay to use on your next head where you can work more slowly. I can fire your sculpture if you like and we’ll sort that out separately.

It is easy to get here  and there is plenty of Parking and the Studio is not bad for accessibility.