The plan is to break the process down into several posts....... so stay tuned.
The first step in the whole process is designing what I want to make, in this case a skull. I ended up making a variety of skulls but they all pretty much use the same process.
The drawing for the skulls is created either free-hand, with the computer or a combination of both. In this case I used them both. I drew half the skull, scanned it into my computer, copied and flipped it so that the finished skull would be symmetrical. (In the olden days I would have drawn half, folded the paper in half, held it up to a window and traced it. This would have also given me a whole skull.) Same idea....... different method.
This drawing is then scanned into the computer and duplicated multiple times so I have something to draw on without redrawing the skull every time. Several pages are printed out so I can try a variety of designs on the skulls.
The next step is to use a black magic marker and draw different designs for the skulls. Then, back to the scanner.
As you can see (these are scanned copies of my marker drawings.) I also play with size. The reason is that the clay shrinks between 10-12% (If I use a third generation clay.) And 30% if I use the original clay (which they don't make any more....... Damn. It's kind of nice sometimes to have that much shrinkage.) The first two designs were not used.
I do several pages of designs, shrinking them multiple times 10% at a time. This process helps me see the finished size of the skull. When done, I choose the size I want and then use the design one step bigger than the finished piece will be.
The first two designs were not used. The other two were used and I also made a plain skull like my original drawing. (There was a method to my madness for leaving one plain. Will explain in a later post.)
There it is. The design process. Takes several hours to complete and involves old and new art techniques.
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