Sculpture Work In Progress
More than the normal number of distractions have occurred in the past week to prevent from applying a full time effort to completing this eagle sculpture. Sill things are progressing, and I now find myself at that ultimate transition point where I move from shaping, forming, and balancing; into detail. In this picture I am beginning the tedious task of layering feathers. You can begin to see them taking up their positions down the back of the bird. I generally work out the positions of the larger more pronounced feathers, then progress to the smaller finer ones. Here erasing is an option, albeit a time loss proposition. If the feathers don’t look right I simply use the same carving tool to scrape the wood down to remove the evidential line, and then start over. I could instead pencil the feathers on the wood and then carve the line, but drawing takes time itself and once the lines exist you have a tendency to stay with them, rather than let your brain create them. Since the pattern is constantly changing as it presents itself, it becomes exceedingly difficult to keep up with staying with the lines, or going with what my brain is trying to do. In short the process is in constant flux, and the concentration must remain acute. This process is not a relaxing one, like sanding or scraping to smooth the wood surface, or even when creating the shape of the piece in the beginning. That’s what makes it so tedious. Imagine it like throwing six darts at a dartboard in any random pattern you want, helter skelter, but then taking the same six darts and throwing them each, as close as you can, to just one inch to the right of their previous position. Get the Idea?