On many sculptures this stage is more complicated than what I'm doing here. If I'm doing a figure or a portrait, I would be using plasticine, which is an oil based clay that does not dry out. On this form, I'll be using wax to smooth the form and add features like the eyes and wing texture.
The
green color on the form is a very soft patching wax. This is used to fill in
imperfections and smooth the texture. The brown is foundry wax. The eyes were
made by casting hot wax into a hemispherical mold and then sticking them on. The
wing forms are made by pulling a hoop tool through warmed wax. These strips are then
applied to the form. This is a texture I use quite a bit in my work. It really
looks good in bronze.
This is a
shot of the final model from the side.
From the
back
A
perspective shot. The modeling took about 16 hours. The next step is to make a
mold.