Friday, November 21, 2008

Cooper is almost done!



Cooper is incredibly close to being done. I think I just have to finish one side of one leg (I've been battling this leg for a while!) and give him some sort of base(s).I'm really very pleased by how he has come together--I think he's by far my best sculpture yet, and I hope others will agree!

I have discovered (OK, I really already knew this, but it has been reaffirmed) that I very much enjoy doing portraits. There's something about making the model look not just like a horse, but like a particular horse that appeals to me. And there's nothing like having a great big pile (file!) of photos of said horse to make things go well--Carra (Cooper's owner) had sent me over 800 photos, and I used so many of them! It was and is wonderful to need a photo of, say, the wrinkles on that leg in this position and just flip through the photos until I come to the photo,. While this can be done to a certain degree with generic photos, different horses do have different ways of moving, skin elasticity, fitness, etc., so having all the references be of the same horse is a big help.

I've been working on Cooper in between working on painting commissions. I find that if I do either thing for too long I have a hard time concentrating, so switching back and forth works well. Speaking of which...back to work for me!

Also, GAH! I don't know why Blogger has taken to just cutting off half the image instead of resizing it. The image here should include Cooper's head and part of his shoulders--not just his neck like it did last night!