New Beginning

I'm going to be blogging a few times over the next few days, I'm so far behind with reporting all the things I've been up to, and a couple of non-arty things just HAVE to be reported! . First up, this is "Little One", although after putting the title "New Beginning" on this posting I'm fancying that for a name too - what do you think? . This is a regular traditional scale (ie not large trad, not small trad either but will suit most mares Lg Classic to Trad size) foal, in my mind she is a couple of days old - still sleepy and vulnerable, but dry, fluffy, well-fed and comfortable. She's of no specific breed. I got to this point (image below) using a softer grade of clay, I knew I wouldn't be able to complete the model in that clay, but it made it so much easier to push it around and try out all the poses possible, before I set my heart on this one. I wanted to show her all tangled up with her back legs crossed, but my first design had her legs crossed above the knee, and after failing to find any good reference images I did find a couple of foals with their ankles crossed like this. She's curled up tightly and I really like how this pose shows off all that I was aiming for in the above paragraph. . I knew when I made this model that I'd have to re-make it in a harder grade of clay in order to complete it. The soft stuff just doesn't hold the detail well enough for me, and is easily damaged or accidentally "squished". The photo bloew shows the original model (from above) on the left and the new, harder grade one on the right. The head was originally made separately out of hard-grade clay, so will just transfer across. This does make for quite a disturbing sight though!

The new copy has a way to go before it portrays my original design satisfactorily. Until then I'll have both in front of me each time I sculpt. The hard clay makes for much slower progress, so will take a while before I can make it accurate to the original. Then I'll need to make it accurate to a real foal! After that the fun will begin with details, but I must must MUST resist that urge until all the bits are in the right place.

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I'm really enjoying this new project, I have several in-progress models on the go or on hold, but I really felt the need to begin something fresh and new, it's been a long time since I completed a fresh sculpture!