Hyper Realistic Reconstructed Sculpture#6 Part 6

I thought it would be good to have a short little post on #6.  This is a sneak view of "little one". It's starting to look more like a small child and less a anatomical model. The clay is being built up slowly and carefully to the sculpture in order to avoid distortion during the process.  While modelling,I do refer to tissue depth measurements for children as a guide but I find that information only moderately useful. Intuitiveness is still an important element in the modeling process. Modelling by charts and measurements strictly will often lead to incongruity. This sculpture series is about interpretation not a literal translation.
So far,sculpting a child's face has been a welcome change from the rather robust older adult male subjects that were done earlier in this series.  But doing depictions of children is by no means easier. Their soft rounded  contours,their topography is extremely subtle and not easy to read.
In the meantime, I'm working in the studio during the holidays. I find this is a good time to work because it's quiet, less stressful and it gives me extra time to experiment with some new materials.
I hope to be back before New Years with some new updates.  Talk to all of you soon. Cheers.

2011 in Review

Greetings to all,especially  to those who are celebrating holidays at this time of year. It's been almost ten months since I started this blog and I wanted to say thank you to all of you for stopping by.  I also want to thank friends and colleagues for their encouraging words both public and private.
I wanted this post to return to some of  the images that have appeared over the past year. Starting with the earliest to the current.  Here we go.

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art D iLella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

It's been an extremely busy year for me and I will be making changes to the blog for the new year. The pages section will be reorganized to better reflect various media I work in but as well to allow readers better access.

I 'll be back later this week with new images of #6. Take care and enjoy the Holidays!

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

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Hyper Realistic Reconstructed Sculpture #6 Part 5

The focus of this past week was to get the neck and shoulders of #6 "caught up" to the head.  When I begin a sculpture, the main strategy is to model all aspects of the sculpture simultaneously. The reason of course is make sure that the sculpture grows gradually and remains in balance. That's why I was a bit concerned last week that the head was too far advanced in its development while the rest of the sculpture remained neglected. This can lead to proportion problems with various parts of the model.

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright Art  Di Lella

The next stage is to return to the head and try to fill out the face and then return to the neck and shoulders for any further readjustments. In an earlier post, I had mentioned about doing two versions of this sculpture,one ecorche version and one complete. I'm still interested in this idea but I feel that its best to move on and complete this model and return to the other idea later. We'll see what happens.
In the meantime,I have a special post coming.  Watch for it later this week.
Take care.

Hyper Realistic Reconstructed Sculpture #6 Part4

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

 I'm a few days late with this post. It's been really hectic with projects taking a bit more time than I had originally anticipated.  But I had some time here and there to work on #6. I've been mainly focusing this week on the neck and shoulders. I feel the need to get those parts further along and to catch up to the face otherwise things can go a little out of whack. I like the direction of this sculpture so far but the personality of this particular subject will be better expressed once the skin is applied. We'll see.

I'll be back next week with some new updates of #6 and some images of the various happenings in the studio.

Cheers.

                                                                                                                                                         

Hyper Realistic Reconstructed Sculpture #6 Part 3

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

The studio has been very active this week so far with a number of moulding and casting projects to complete.

I had a bit of time here and there working on the newest bust.  I've been putting more effort in detailing the facial musculature on this sculpture which is different from the previous  individuals in this series.

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

I'm still early in the process and still undecided as to how far to go with this detailed anatomical approach.
As I had mentioned before in the previous post, I might go to a two stage route,first an Ecorche' version followed up by a complete one just like the others in this series.
Perhaps,it's a little unusual to do an anatomical bust of a seven year old person but having two versions opens up more possibilities for serialization instead of a one off sculpture. Lots to think about but now I have to focus my efforts on finishing this stage.
In the meantime, I'll will be back on Tuesday next week with some new images of #6 as well as some pics of other studio works.

Hyper Realistic Reconstructed Sculpture #6 Part 2

Back again with latest images of #6.

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

At the end of last week, I began to sketch out #6 and took a different approach this time.  Normally, I don't sketch out the facial muscles with that much detail because from my point of view this is usually redundant. Forensic reconstructions often use this as part of their methodology and as a way to avoid artistic subjectivity in their models. But in my case, the purpose was more about curiosity or maybe having an ecorche' version of the same subject, I'm not sure.
It's early on and having some fun exploring. We'll see what comes out.
I'll be back with a new post on Thursday.  Cheers.

Hyper Realistic Reconstructed Sculpture #6 in Silicone

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Today, I wanted to introduce #6 in my series of hyper realistic busts in silicone. This one is a real departure since it will be the only depiction of a juvenile. This child's skull has definitely different proportions from the adult subjects in this series. It has a shorter face both literally and relatively to the size of the cranium when it's compared to an adult skull.  It will be a challenge to come up with a distinctive face on this skull. From my own research, I find young children's skulls to be very much alike. They seem to acquire more "character" or distinctiveness once they hit puberty.
 I really like the rather angular forms of this particular specimen with it's rather bulbous forehead which is typical of juvenile crania. The face, as I mentioned before, is short  which will give the eyes more emphasis and the nose which will likely be short and broad. The other features as well should be typical for a child of this age.

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Over the next couple of days, I'll begin roughing out the musculature and map out the facial features as well.  This sculpture project will take several weeks  to complete with  many revisions but I'm looking forward to it.
Like the others, I will publish the latest images with descriptions and show as much of the process as possible including the silicone cast.
Next week, I should have some new pics of #6 plus some other studio news.

Positive Destruction and Renewal

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella    BB and his skull

Part of the process of sculpture is the taking down the model.  Although it appears as a purely destructive act,it's for me a signal that It's time to move on and use the armature for the next bust in this series.

The images below show the breakdown of this model, while it maybe a bit grotesque,it clearly illustrates how close the skull actually is to the surface of the face.

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella  

BB, like all the others in this series, is for me, a confirmation on the important relationship between the skull and the surface features. Although this isn't a portrait in a traditional sense, it's nonetheless an interpretation of a specific individual based upon the information from the skull.
Later this week, I hope to introduce the sixth bust in this series and catch up on other studio news.
Have a great week, cheers.

Hyper Realistic Reconstructed Sculpture #2 Final

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Hopefully, this is the last post about sculpting this particular clay model.  YW as I had mentioned in a previous posting was supposedly completed back in 2010.  But my usual practice is to set aside models for a time so that I can have a period to reflect and perhaps be a little more objective about what has been done.
This year, I decided to make some adjustments,making parts of the face fuller, widening the shoulders and making numerous adjustments to the skin texture.

Image copyright  Art Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

The last two images, I tried to bring out the skin texture more fully by increasing the contrast in the photo.
I found it more difficult to photograph this sculpture because of the subtlety of the skin texture which on young individuals tends to be soft and not easy to read. Another aspect of this entire project that isn't mentioned is that each sculpture in this series has a unique skin texture which isn't too surprising when depicting human beings of different ages and gender.
Meanwhile, the end of the month is fast approaching and the push is on to complete a number of projects by month's end.
I'll be back again next week.  Till then have a great weekend.

What was all that Concrete about?

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

On October 20th, I published a post regarding the use of concrete in fine art applications. I deliberately avoided revealing the artist's name or what the project was all about . The reason was that I didn't want to potentially upstage the debut of a new sculpture installation by blabbing all over the internet. So I kept silent about the show and the artist till now.

Back in the summer, I was approached by the artist Chris Curreri  who was exploring the idea about making a large cube with a red glass vase imbedded in the cube itself. We discussed different possibilities and Chris told me at the time that he needed to do more research before making a decision.
Around mid September, Chris came back to my studio and commissioned me to make five cubes in concrete with a red glass vase imbedded in each one.

About a two weeks later,I began constructing the mould or form to produce the concrete casts and here are the images.

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

The red vase is placed upside down in the mould  prior to the concrete pour.

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Image copyright  Art  Di Lella

Styrofoam is placed inside the cast to reduce the weight. Believe or not these casts even with the foam inserts still weigh about 80 to 90 kilograms each!

The concrete is very carefully poured in as to avoid breaking the vase which I did twice. This was a very challenging casting project, indeed!   After the vase is covered, then the rest of the concrete is poured into the mould till it's filled and leveled off. That completes the casting process.


Here are the final images of the finished sculpture in the Daniel Faria Gallery  This sculpture installation is part of Chris Curreri's one person exhibit called "Beside Myself"

Photo credit  Art  Di Lella  by permission of the artist and Daniel Faria Gallery

Photo credit  Art  Di Lella  by permission of the artist and Daniel Faria Gallery

photo credit  Art  Di Lella  by permission of the artist and Daniel Faria Gallery

I would like to thank Chris Curreri ,who was a pleasure to work with during the entire process and his dealer Daniel Faria of Daniel Faria gallery for allowing me to take and publish these photos.
The show is called "Beside Myself" at Daniel Faria Gallery,  188 St. Helens ave. Toronto . It's on from November 17, 2011 to January 7, 2012.
Later this week ,I'll have news on hyper realistic bust #2.  Cheers.