The Sculptor's Stand - Page 2

**ArtsyLynda** · #16 12-29-2010, 10:49 AM

I hope we can get together sometime! We'd have a blast!

I have done video capture, but only to capture the exact pose of the body. It would take a VERY fast camera (like those on the cables above the action they use at the Olympics and the WEG) to capture a horse in action from all sides. For your work, where you have a model holding a pose (wish I could do that!), such techniques would probably be wonderful!

I love my cameras, both digital and film - Canon EOS Rebels, both of them. I love my 300mm zoom lens. And I truly love the "multiple shot" function where you can hold down the button and it will take 4 to 6 photos in quick succession. I know what point in the stride I want as a pose but capturing it perfectly with a horse you're not familiar with can be hard. With horses I know, I know their rhythm and can usually capture the shot the first time, with the film camera anyway. The digital camera just isn't as quick as the film one - it takes too much time thinking about things. So that multiple frame function is a Godsend - usually one of those frames is exactly what I need. I still take a LOT of shots - I've been known to take up to 1000 shots during one 45 minute ride (by my daughter on one of her horses or on mine) with the digital camera. Gotta love those big gig cards!!

I guess my dr's office was right (I called to ask about my illness) - it seems I've had a 3 day virus - today's day 3.75 or something and I'm nearly well, thank goodness! I've spent entirely too much time rambling on because that's all I've had the energy to do. Hopefully I'll get some good writing done this afternoon now that I feel a bit more energetic!

**sculpturedolls** · #17 12-29-2010, 12:04 PM

Hi Linda,

I don't know whether it was an action pose or what but one of the horse sculpting gals uses the video capture with frame by frame shots. Guess it works for what she's sculpting. Yes, I must try it for my poses.

Your Canon Rebel is great with that successive frame taking abiblity. I have the Canon 20D with that same feature but haven't used it much but with your advice can see for animals it's excellent! It sure does pay to have a fine camera so we don't have to pay for photography of our finished works. (Can get used ones on ebay too if funds are tight).

So glad you are feeling better. What is the theme of your story if I may ask?

**ArtsyLynda** · #18 12-29-2010, 12:33 PM

Video capture is for catching action poses, yup. Each moment of an animal's stride is interesting in itself, but you need to make sure the various parts of the body are doing what they should at that point in the stride - so everything goes together properly. Video capture is brilliant at this. So is really good still photography.

Our digital Canon may be the 20D, I don't remember. The best part is that it uses the same lenses as my old Rebel EOS. We have a 2x thingie that doubles the whatchacallit for the length of the lens, so using that with a 500mm lens my hubby got to take pictures of the red-tailed hawks in our woods, he actually has a 1000mm lens. That's waaaaay too much lens for what I do, he's welcome to it! LOL. Gotta love a good zoom lens, though!

I got my 300mm lens at Walmart of all places, and it was a lot less expensive than it was in a camera store. You never know where you'll find a bargain!

I had taken a 20 year hiatus from writing fiction when Harry Potter captured my imagination. I got back to fiction writing and improved my novel-writing skills by writing HP fanfiction (it's all over the web - I can give you a link if you want). The neat thing is, I have over 10,000 readers of my HP fanfics around the world, so when I have a new original novel published, I try to have a new HP novel to upload to advertise the novel. I'm in the midst of a post-war HP fic that's angsty and romantic and shows Harry as an adult coping with the changes in his life and circumstances. It's fun for me and my readers but this one's taking a while. I was so deeply into the original novel that I had trouble getting back in HP mode, and I had created an alternate universe series of novels (I started writing them after "Order of the Phoenix" was released, so they're compliant with canon to year 5). Now I'm trying to write a novel that's Deathly Hallows compliant for the most part, and that's HARD! LOL! It's a fun mental exercise, and keeps me occupied when I can't sculpt or when I'm tired from sculpting.

I'm glad I'm better too! I'm not 100% yet, but I feel a lot better than I did! Now if I could just stop sneezing and get my energy back!! Argh . . .

I hope UHN is feeling better - she was ill too and we haven't heard from her for a few days.

Use Her Name · #19 12-31-2010, 10:33 AM

I've been moping around. Still under the weather. Yesterday was warm enough to bring the dogs to the dog park.

It's funny that you say you write fiction. I quit art for a while to get a degree in writing, and started about 13 novels (in 10 years) -- never liked them well enough to finish. About 3 years ago, one novel I was writing featured a lot of horse racing and that one really got me to decide to get back to painting and then sculpting horses.

I am much happier sculpting though. Writing was hard for me, and incredibly slow going. I think the thing that benefits me most is that I learned how to organize my thoughts, and do deep research.

saje · #20 12-31-2010, 10:49 AM

a grand new year to you all! may your tools stay strong, your materials confident and your dreams realized!

**ArtsyLynda** · #21 12-31-2010, 10:59 AM

UHN - Sorry you've been moping around! My virus has hung on for way more than the 3 days they told me it would, but today I seem to be on the mend - at last! Whew! Just in time for a 56 degree day here in Ohio! That's bizarre, actually, but I won't argue about it!

I love writing. I've been writing "the Great American Novel" since I was in the 7th grade. My sculpting book is an outgrowth of my love of teaching and my love of writing. The novels are fun but hard work too. They're a different kind of "hard work" than sculpting, and sometimes I feel a need to write more than to sculpt, other times I need to sculpt more than write, but most of the time, like now, I want to do both fairly equally.

Saje - that's a lovely New Year's wish! I wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year with lots of creative joys and happy customers!

King Melungeon · #22 12-31-2010, 08:02 PM

Howdy,

I am a "Newbie"

I posted on the western art page, er....channel? Until they got a bit tired o' me

Now it is your turn!

I do everything. Not because I want to, but because I must!

I paint in acrylics on paper and canvas. I also sculpt a bit. All my art is "self-taught" as If you have to be told that!

From just lookin' you should be able to classify me

I paint in the genre' of a "primative" showing movement and action. Or so I am told.

Here is a new thing I done I call "smart eleck". It started out as wax, then I got involved in some re-constituted Miamax? clay (water soluable, paintable?) and soon I probably will study the huge undercut problem, and then get some latex and go to work. Maybe work a bit with the old standby "plaster of paris" because I seen some in my studio. So I have it at hand.

I am much too poor to afford anything approaching bronze! Wish I could. That is why most of my paintings don't get to see the light o' day! No money for frames much. I did find some cheap frames online............just maybe....

I have a "mother in laws" apartment for a studio. That is best cause you have a shower/bath/kitchen/desk, tv and chairs, and room for a hubby or wife to join you out in the "great forever"

later,
dan
TX
PS: Yeah, I got a profile somewhere's.....

Use Her Name · #23 12-31-2010, 11:37 PM

Hi Dan, I'll admit that bronze is an expensive and "advanced" material. I do not think an artist would make a bronze of a sculpture that was not considered "high value." I think to get to that place, you keep on practicing, and studying art. I know that I have been studying art for 40 years and went from novice to what I think of as a very good beginner. Expense in art is a given (I have learned). Paints cost money, canvas costs money, of course sculpture supplies cost money. Sculpture-- the "bronze" side of it, is one of the most expensive art forms to practice. It is an gamble to sink 100' s or 1000's of dollars into a piece and not know if anyone will buy it. Many artists won't do that.

I don't see what your under-cut problem is. Your photo is slightly out of focus. As I was telling AL there, take it apart. On pinkhouse (a sculpture site) there is a great article about dismembering a large and exquisite sculpture in order to make more manageable molds.

I personally think that when the artist plans and designs the piece, the complexity of the molding should be a top consideration. I have a rule that everything I do needs to be done as though it were going to be cast in bronze, even if it will only be acrylic. So it has to be top rate professional work, no matter what.

Anyway, I blabber on. Hi everyone. I feel much better tonight. I have started taking some vitamin D and lots of other vitamins. Feel lots better tonight.

**ArtsyLynda** · #24 01-01-2011, 09:47 AM

Hi Dan! Welcome! UHN and Sculpture Dolls are good at molds, so I'll let them advise you. I only do open-face molds for reliefs although I've done 3-D molds - I'm just not as good at them as I need to be for my work and the annoyance factor just isn't worth it for me. I build the cost of the mold into the cost of the piece or the commission so I can pay to have it done at the foundry. Your studio sounds great! Wish I had running water in my studio - and a bathroom would be heaven! I do have lots of space and cabinets, so that's good anyway.

UHN - can you share the Pinkhouse URL? I haven't heard of it. I'd love to find more sculpture sites that have educational articles! I'm really bummed that RESS closed down - I was planning to join so I could get access to their articles, but they closed before I could do that. Argh. I didn't want to pay a full year's membership in August, y'know? *sigh* Oh well.

Glad you're better, UHN! I'm finally better too, both from my virus and my shoulder! My range of motion with my shoulder is still limited (I'm still in therapy and exercising, hoping for more), but I haven't taken pain meds in over a week, so this morning, I PUT THEM AWAY! HUZZAH!! Hope you get back to feeling 100% ASAP!

**sculpturedolls** · #25 01-01-2011, 12:53 PM

Welcome Dan! Looks like a you do a little bit of a lot of types of art. Nice work on your wales. If you want critiques though, we'll need clear pics to see more of course

. Thanks for sharing it and hope you continue to grow in your knowledge of molds. I have a mold tutorial listed about in the links to sculpting resources.

Lynda- I read what you wrote about the HP fanfics to my husband and he hadn't heard of it but is interested. Sounds like you are equally creative in writing and sculpture. Do you have a link to your stories so we can take a look. A grown up Potter story is a great idea. Is their copyright issue with that? Just curious how that all works.

Well, I've been busy with working on the boring ole' enlargement. Working out all of the detail of the lady on the chaise lounge is a lot to do!

Glad you are feeling better UHN! Vitamins can really help. Let's all eat well today and feel better. Being an artist is hard work and we need to do all we can to stay balanced in our bodies and healthy as possible.

**ArtsyLynda** · #26 01-01-2011, 05:21 PM

Fanfiction can't be published for pay - it can be uploaded to the Internet where people can read it for free. It's a hobby of MILLIONS of people of all ages and for all kinds of fandoms.

My stories are on several sites: www.fanfiction.net which has stories of all kinds, thousands and thousands of them; SIYE.co.uk, which is an archive for Harry Potter stories where Ginny is Harry's girlfriend - no other "ships" (relationships) allowed (no Harry/Hermione, for instance); FanFicAuthors.net which has a variety of things, but I think it's still mostly Harry Potter; and my own Yahoo group, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPRefinersFire. My stories are written for adults, so they have romantic scenes, some mild bad language (but it's British cursing, so it sounds funny more than rude, IMO), some nudity, some serious violence. I rate them "M" for "mature" - the Motion Picture rating folks got after fanfiction sites for using their ratings (G, PG, PG-13, R, etc.), so the sites use something similar to the video game ratings. If you go to my Yahoo group, you need to join, but once you're there, all the stories are in the "files" section. Start with "Refiner's Fire" then "Time of Destiny" - those two are both LONG novels that total more words than JKR wrote in all 7 of her books, LOL! Hey, with fanfiction, there's no limit to what you can write and no word count limitations due to the expense of printing them.

As for the copyright thing, yeah, technically it's illegal to do stuff like this, but it's been going on so long, nearly all authors are okay with it because they've found it increases and supports their fan base in many ways. Also, it's SO widespread, it's nearly impossible to control. The few that do object are known by the sites so they don't allow those stories to be posted. Paramount used to object STRENUOUSLY to Star Trek fanfiction, but they changed their tune when they realized it was their most dedicated fans who were reading and writing the fanfiction - the same fans who buy the most Trek stuff. The last I heard, there was no more problem about posting Trek fanfics. JK Rowling wasn't thrilled at the idea of fanfiction when she started out, but as time went on, she started reading it herself (she admitted it in interviews). Some of the ideas she had in her last two books are exactly what I'd written in my stories. I tend to think I predicted where she was going well, but many of my readers think she lifted the ideas. :shrug: I just love my readers - they're very protective of me and my work.

I started writing fiction as an adult when I fell in love with the "Starman" TV series in 1986. It starred Robert Hays (the pilot in "Airplane!") and was the only good example of a father-son relationship on TV in that era. Starman had come back to earth 15 years after he left, called unwittingly by his 14 year old son. The Feds were on their trail from the beginning, so it was a "Fugitive" type show with them on the run, but also told lovely human stories about Starman and his son, Scott, and the people they met in their travels. It was a sweet, gentle show and ABC killed it off in one season by moving it six times, often without notice. There's still a strong Starman fandom today, although I'm not active in it. But writing Starman stories helped me learn how to write long-form fiction. I'd only written magazine articles to that point, never serious fiction. I stopped writing for about 20 years, then got back into it with Harry Potter stuff and now my own books.

If you like what you read in my stories, leave reviews! It's the only pay fanfic writers get! On any of those sites, look for an author named "Abraxan" - that's me. You don't need to look for "Abraxan" on my Yahoo group - the only stories there that aren't by me are fan-written stories where they wrote additional scenes for my stories or something like that. (An Abraxan is the kind of flying horse that pulls the Beauxbatons carriage in "Goblet of Fire" - they're supposed to be giant palominos. I'm blond and a horseperson, so I figured that was a good pen name for me.)

If you read them, I hope you like them! I sure had fun writing them. Your hubby will probably find them to be quite rambly in places, but that's me working out how to tell a story. I tend to want to go into too much detail (as I do in forum posts sometimes!), but my readers always wanted "MORE MORE MORE" - they even begged for a 50 page chapter one time, so I said, "Okay" and actually managed to have one that long, LOL. I don't write that way for publication, and my newer HP stories are much tighter and better organized. Still, I'm one of the more popular HP fanfic authors (you can tell by the number of reviews on each site).

What does your husband write? Is that his lifelong career, or something he's taken up as a hobby or what? Just curious. If he has questions about fanfiction, he can email me directly at Abraxan@yahoo.com. I'm always happy to discuss writing with other writers!

King Melungeon · #27 01-01-2011, 07:36 PM

Howdy,

When I go into my "mother in law" studio I never know what I will do. I pick up some clay and work, then something comes out of me!

I might paint in acrylics. I might sculpt, paint, write a book on my computer (yeah, I got some, but nothing publilshed other than magazine articles) tear something apart at my workbench (built a tumbler today to clean really small metal art objects/jewlery). Who knows? Quien Sabe ?

Here is some left over from forays by family

Later,
dan
TX

**ArtsyLynda** · #28 01-02-2011, 09:56 AM

Another one of us who writes as well as doing art! Cool. I especially like the last piece you showed, the Indian piece. Beautifully drawn deer there, and an interesting structure to support it. I like the granite (?) deer too - you have a knack for deer! Thanks for sharing!

**sculpturedolls** · #29 01-02-2011, 11:54 AM

@ Lynda

Thanks for all the info about your writing and also fan fiction. I read your post to my husband and he's interested in finding out more about all that stuff. So I copied the post and sent it to him so that he'll have all the links you gave and he can do what he wants with it as he has time. He may end up emailing you who knows! Thanks again for all your time writing.

Ron loves to write about Mayan culture as he traveled there and explored the ruins of Xunantunich in Belize. He's written a novel called, The Legend of Toucan Moon about a young girl who becomes a princess and helps stop the war and killings as well as human sacrificing. Then the sequel he's just finished called Curse of the Black Jaquar. I'm reading it now and it is really good! It could be a movie I think. The girl in it is in modern times and is the descendant of Toucan Moon. She has to uncurse the black jaguar. It's very exciting and fast paced to read.

My hubby writes for his own pleasure and in his off time. He's been writing on and off for his adult life but just now in the past 5 years has actually got things published.

It comes in handy to have him as such a good writer when I need a write up to send to galleries etc....

~SD

Use Her Name · #30 01-02-2011, 12:01 PM

Pinkhouse is a life casting studio, mainly here: http://www.pinkhouse.com/ He has quite a bit of interesting materials there& cross over techniques.

I also made a mistake: This is the sequence I was thinking of, on the smooth-on site http://www.smooth-on.com/gallery.php...039&cPath=1239 As you can see the artist has made a piece with some acrobats (Similar to Mark Pren't "Trust me, I trust you" which is how I made the mistake) which he and an assistant actually saw apart in order to mold.

Once the mold is cast in the end-result material, the joints can be filled and chased like a bronze would be (fiberglas would be chased with resin followed by dremeling/sanding, and then polishing.

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