Woke at 6am, and decided to work on a new painting which features a character named 'Kratos God Of Emotions'. After transferring the idea, I realised that I needed more of a sculptural guide to the lighting and structure, so decided to make a permanent sculpture for a change, using DAS air-dried clay. I typically use transient (but pleasurable to use) plasticine. I don't like using air-dried clay, it's like working with acrylic paint. It dries too quickly, and in the wrong way. It can remain slimy on the outside and still hard to use in the middle, it slumps and shrinks, and doesn't stick to itself very well. I'd ideally want a drying oil based clay, like oil paint which dries over a few days, but I expect that nobody makes that stuff. Oil clays are non-drying, like plasticine. Perhaps linseed oil clays are not stable enough in the long term, based on my knowledge of picture frame restoration.
Anyway, limitations aside, the clay is usable.
I decided on a cardboard core. I love making sculptures with card and a glue gun. It's super fast and super expressive. All of my 'Four Lamps of the Apocalypse' were made in this way. It would be a waste of clay to use it to fill the bulk, so the first step was to model a throne.
Then start some basic forms, again, to fill space and save clay.
Then the clay. No intermediate photos, my hands were FAR too caked in clay to go near my camera. This didn't take too long, 45 mins:
One hard part is drying, as the clay sags. I used some wire to hold the neck up, but it's still not easy to stop slump. My solution was to dry it on its back; he is now sleeping in that pose. This model is primarily a functional lighting guide, but it will be a sculpture in its own right, too. I'll not work on the back much. It is worth buying more clay for that? I've never sold a scuplture.
I had to finish by 12:30, as John Lindley was due to visit to record the vocals for Beatle City. All went well there. We've increased the tempo to 150 beats-per-minute and made a few benefitical structural changes.
