Regarding music

Listening to the french kiss song, by still corners, Im curious why I said I could go without this song on the play list. Theres a certain riff or sound thats very 50's, 60's ish and its great.

Music

Artist--------------- Track
Active Child---------- Body Heat
---------------------Im in your church at night
---------------------She was a vision
---------------------Voice of an old friend
---------------------When your love is safe

Beach House-------- Zebra
Dont know if this one really counts. I have beach house on my computer already, I just never had this track. mmmmmI guess it does cause I like it in the playlist.

Geographer-------- Cant you wait
---------------------Kites

Glasser------------- Home

Golden ages-------- Everything will be alright

How to dress well-- Cant see my own face
---------------------Ready for the world
---------------------You wont need me where Im going
---------------------Decisions (featuringYuksel Arslan)

Still Corner--------- Dont fall in love
---------------------Endless summer
---------------------French kiss
Could actually maybe go without this french kiss one, but whatev
---------------------Hostory of love
---------------------Wish

Sufjan Stevens----- Heirloom

Strange talk-------- Climbing walls

Summer camp----- Round the moon
Maybe I only got this ^ one cause I really liked the music video......but no I liked the song too.

Sun Airway-------- Oh Naoko
--------------------Waiting on you (holy cow this is good)
--------------------Put the days away (wow! this ones good stuff)
--------------------Your moon (who am I kidding? Its all good stuff!)

Now this is stuff I feel like my mom and my sisters would like, the twin shadows stuff. Maybe not Rita as much, but maybe yeah. It just sounds like 80's new wave smiths depeche mode and it reminds me of duran duran and I feel like Camille and my mom might have more of an appreciation for it than Rita mmmmmmmm BUUUUUUUT, maybe not. ANYWAY....I really wanna show it to all 3 of em!

Twin Shadow------ Castles in the snow
--------------------I cant wait
--------------------Slow
--------------------When we're dancing
--------------------Yellow balloon

The wild mercury sound (shucks, this names too dang long)---------Chemistry

More

The latest sculpture was a little rushed, and I didnt like it as much as the other two. I had to work at 2:30 today and didnt start working on the sculpture till after 12. Dont remember quite what time I started but I finished uploading the pictures of the figure at around 2. Ive been thinking about seeing how long these little figures take me so this was good to get some sort of idea.

The other 2 figures were both based on some Rodin sculptures. I looked at some images in a book I have here for reference. This one was inspired from a Schiele drawing. I originally wondered what it would be like if I were to sculpt a Schiele figure, with a particular painting of himself in mind. I looked through my Schiele book and saw a painting that I like of a woman. Then I kept skimming through the book trying to find the self portrait picture, thinking that it probably wasnt in there. Well it was, but when I got to it I wanted to do the woman painting instead. I thought that maybe it was time I tried to sculpt the female figure now before I got stuck in a rut of sculpting male figures. I didnt feel like this one came out as well as the others, maybe its cause I dont have as well rounded a knowledge of the female figure as I do of the male. I guess I dont have that much experience with woman? :p But really I have taken some figure drawing classes with primarily female models, so I spose I do have some knowledge.

This little sculpture was much more of a sketch than the other ones. It didnt take me long to really make the torso. I worked on the face a bit because I knew that I wasnt going to be able to make a good female face as easily as I can make a male face. For some reason I can draw and sculpt a male face very easily. A female face is much harder for me, so I worked on it with the whole idea in my head that it wasnt going to turn out looking like a woman, and it didnt. I sort of knew that it was a lost cause because it was almost like I had given up before I started. I also knew that this was just a sketch and that I didnt have that much time to focus on the face. I thought that I might not be good enough to make the torso and body look enough like a body, and would therefor have to rely on a head and face to kind of ground the sculpture, to make it look more realistic. Well I think it ended up being the other way around. The torsoe seemed to come out pretty well and after looking at the photos of the sculpture, much like with the other 2 figures, I like it more so than when it was around.

I also had something on my mind today more so than with the other figures. I was aware with the first figure that it was somthing more of a reliefe sculpture, which is why I took some photos of it from an angle that showed the face and arm were sort of cut in half and not finished. Yesterdays figure was a bit more robust and complete, but still reliefe like. This figure today was much more like a reliefe. I had a feeling that it would be a lot harder to do this one since it was from a painting as aposed to the photos of sculptures. I had a feeling that it would turn out looking flat and it was beginning to look flat. At one point, the figure only looked realistic from on point of view, and when I turned it the figure just looked lopsided. So I fixed it and really enjoyed making the figure pop out and look like it had weight and mass.

Unfortunately, just like the other sculptures, this one no longer exists.





This isnt a particularly good shot of the figure. I just liked the picture for some reason.







Some of these shots show a bit of the weight and mass of the torsoe that I really like. When I was sculpting I really wanted to do more of the figure. I like the pose of the painting I was sculpting from and a big reason I liked the pose was because of the position of the legs and how it forced the woman to sit, with her stomach sort of elongated and with her diaphram sticking up and out. I didnt have that much time to do legs, but I think I probably should have. Another problem was the clay getting a little dryer. Im putting some water on it before I put it back in the bag but I might have to take some more precautions. Im sure that Im probably not going to be able to use this clay after awhile because the constant use might just ruin it. I dont really know though, dont know that much about clay.





After looking at some of these Im really pleased with this one that I thought was the weakest of the figures Ive done. It might actually be the best one so far. Not that its really saying much, my other 2 werent exactly masterpieces, but I feel like this one might actually be the most realistic looking. Which is funny in a way, because my reference for the other 2 was from Rodin, which is far more realistic than a Schiele painting. Maybe this piece was me filling in the missing pieces with my mind because I didnt have as much information. I dont know. Anyway, Im not sure if I think "realistic looking" is quite something that will define if I like the sculpture or not. If the figure looks and feels like it makes sense, that it is a figure with a working underlying structure of skeletons and musculature, then that will make me happy. I think Im much happier with this figure than I was with the other 2.



I really like the subtle creases and bends and dips in the stomach area. My favorite part on a woman? Get real. Thats probably too hard a thing to pinpoint.




Holy cow, I got abunch of music today and I totally love it. I think I need to post a list of just about all the music I got. Im not totally enamored with every single one of the tracks I got, but I do enjoy most of them, and together, I guess as a play list, I think its just great! Insidently, this is what I was listening to WHILST I was sculpting and typing this post...BETWIXT the walls of my brick house......... FROM WHENCE MY SCULPTING CAREER WAS BORN!!!

Ima post it in a new post, cause this one is just too long!

Mas

Been wanting to sculpt more stuff since i dismantled my little sculpture yesterday. This one is also, of course, based on a Rodin. Similar pose. Dont think I like this one as much as yesterdays but there are things I noticed which I like when I looked at the photos, things that I hadent noticed when just looking at the actual object. One thing I noticed was in a picture I sent to a friend. The side of the neck looked very realistic and there were features there that I thougth looked very good, but I dont remember doing it. Its sorta like the thing I was talking about yesterday, with just doing something absentmindedly in a way.

So I again took 100 pictures. Actually I took 103 pictures then uploaded them. I was looking at the little sculpture for a bit more and took 34 more photos from some more angles that I hadent. I liked these a lot and figured that its alright if I take way too many photos, because these little sculptures dont exist anywhere other than the photos. This one was also destroyed.







From some of these angles I also noticed something that I hadent noticed when I was looking at the object itself. The leg looks very realistic and I didnt even really think that much about the muscular structure of the figure, at least not for the leg. Maybe this is because Ive been drawing the human figure for, mmmm, long time now, and these things are just subconsiously there. I really like the hip flexor, lower obliques, sartorius gluteus medius, rectus femorus and vastus lateralus area. it seems rather accurate and relaxed. Like the way the stomach is meant to look, sort of a relaxed musculature. Like the way Michelangelo used to draw most of his massive figures.
I used my spoon to support the head by shoving the handle down the torso and using the head for the head, like I did yesterday. I also used a paperclip for his right arm. You can see part of the head of the spoon and the paperclip in a few of the photos.


The figure I did yesterday was done only with my fingers and hands, but this one was a little smaller so I used the nail clippers, the file part, or rather that tip thats used to clean dirty fingernails or something. I used that to smooth some stuff out and get at some of the harder to reach places. I dont like this face as much as yesterdays, but thats alright. This is just a little sketch in clay basically and I dont totally dislike the face either. Im pretty happy with the overall outcome considering I dont really sculpt at all, this is basically the second thing I ever done on my own, yesterday being my first, and that it didnt take too long to make AND that it seems to be coming easy to me.



I liked this pose and this angle shot because the figure is really kind of distorting his torsoe, twisting and bending at the same time. Usually my figures arent as manipulated as this one and its something thats been on my mind for a long time. I like this pose.

sculptya

The whole time I wrote this I was listening to this and the original
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdr9_ZZWxWI

I moved some stuff around and rearranged my room a little bit. I went to the book barn yesterday and got some books. when I got back I decided that I might wanna put a book shelf in my room since they were getting a little out of control on my night stand and by my bed. So I moved some stuff around, and decided to bring my drawing table up in my room as well. Now all I have to do is turn my swivel chair around and Im at my drawing table, and the book shelf is just on the other side of the table. ANYWHOOO, I brought the table up cause I was suddenly inspired to sculpt. I found something interesting in doing this which I told Keith.

Sometimes when I make art stuff, like drawings or paintings, I dont really know quite that Im doing it. Hmmm, that doesnt make much sense. Well let me try again. Often when I look back at gesture drawings that Ive done, I actually look at it as though I wasnt the artist, and what I see I usually like a lot. And this has nothing to do with being self obsorbed in my own skills or thinking that Im a great artist. The only reason I like it is usually beacuse I feel a connection with the artist and the lines or forms that were obviously observed in observing and creating the work. And sometimes I get that from my own work, where I look at it and think "hey I really like that!" And this is where I recall something that Michelangelo said about sculpting. He basically said that there is already a figure within a stone, and that its the job of the sculptor to just chip away the stuff thats not the figure so that the statue can be. Now I always thought that maybe this was him bragging, sorta like this is not necessarily the mindset of all sculptors, but that he was such a great artist, it was his opinion that this is the way he worked. Kinda like saying he cant help but be great and that maybe it wasnt hard for him to sculpt.

Well anyway, the whole reason I think about this thing that he said is because I actually understand what he means now. I knew what he meant the first time I heard that, but now I understand it because I actually feel the same way. Some of the stuff that Ive made, usually the stuff I really like, I dont actually assosiate with being my work. It just seems so detatched from me because its, I dont know, maybe it doesnt look like it needs that much work to it. It looks somewhat complete and also accurate and I dont know. It just happens. Maybe its like driving back from work. Something you do everyday. After awhile of going to the same job, youre bound to drive home and get out of the car just to realize that you dont actually remember the ride home because it was such a natural and habitual act, and quite possibly there was nothing but thought going on the ride home. The ride home seems detached from you cause you just sort of did it, you made all the right moves and took all the right turns without knowing you were and got home. That is what its like when I make something that I like. I think I realized that it doesnt quite come from me telling myself that I need to create something, it just happens without me knowing. For example, I went and got the drawing table today and set it up and rearranged my room so that I could do work in here, but that was all done just like the ride home from work. I didnt have any feelings of "darnit this is a hassel" or " I wish this would all just come together a lot easier" or " this is going to be great, I can do work in here now". I wasnt thinking about it at all. And then for some reason I started sculpting and I dont really know where it came from. It just happened. It seems like the entire act of arranging my room and sculpting was a ride home that you dont remember.

Anyway I guess the whole reason Im saying this is cause I like the thing that I sculpted. Of course its based on Rodin's sculpture. While I was sculpting I thought that it would be neat to have a portfolio of these little sketch sculptures, cause thats sorta what I think of this as. The only downfall (maybe a downfall? I dont really mind) is that I dont have that much clay, so I have to destroy the sculpture after I make it, so that I can make more. So I took a bunch of pictures, over 100, of this one, and proceeded to smash the sculpture. Now it no longer exists the way you see it in the photos.




While I was sculpting I realized that I needed some support for the figure, so I went to my tool box and grabbed a spoon and a fork that I bent, both of which from freshman year college. I used the spoon for his head and jabbed the handle down his neck into his torso. When I started to make his arm I needed more support, so I grabbed the large nail clippers and opened them, with the thicker part of the clippers in his bicep and the thinner part of the clippers in his forarm. Then I propped him up against another hunk of clay and used the fork to support his arm so that it wouldnt flop back. You can see the nail clippers in this one.



I decided to put a bunch of pictures of cause I got a different look from the flash settings. Sometimes it looked metalic, like the one above and below. But then other time it wasnt as monochromatic.