Plaster!

So here I have a little preview of my fist foray into casting:

These are all I'm going to share for now, unfortunately the rest of the pictures didn't come out so hot, so I'm going to have to re-shoot.  Either way the process was interesting.  Put in shim lines (like fault lines) so the mold can come apart, then coat the clay in plaster, break apart the mold, destroy the clay, put the mold back together, fill it with plaster, then chip off the mold.  I wish I had photographed the process a little, it's really beautiful to watch all the plaster chip away.  When you build the mold up off of your sculpture it sort of becomes this hideous blob of plaster, burlap and metal bars (to help give it structure).  You then chip all of that away, and it just sort of falls off, slowly revealing your sculpture underneath.  Next time I'll take more pictures.

Oh, and while I'm at it, here's some more sketchbook to keep things even.

And to leave off, a comment on a hand I sculpted from Leonid Brener when I studied with him over the summer:

"Everybody knows she has five fingers, find something more interesting to say."

Figure Sculpture!

So I've wanted to try figure sculpting for some time now but have never had both the time and the opportunity at the same time. Recently however things have come together and I'm sculpting from a real live human at the Art Students League of New York, and it's fantastic! These here are shots of my second attempt, which could use some more work, but the pose is over - on to better things.

And I was wondering if I could get some opinions on this: I like the academic work I do, and I like to share it, but it feels pretty mismatched with the general content that I have here... how do the humans that look at my business feel about it? Do you guys like the more academic "Look! I'm painting!" "Look! I'm sculpting!" is it preferable that it go by the wayside, or maybe somewhere else. Thoughts? Opinions? Irrelevant statements?

Depending on the consensus, there will be more paintings and sculptures shortly.

Oh, and just for kicks here's a couple shots of attempt No. 01 at this whole figure sculpting bit:

That's all for now.