Model citizen

I was pretty excited to learn that they were starting up sculpting lessons here at the new digs with Richard, the lead maquette builder for our (now former & lovin' it) model shop. Many others shared the excitement as well, apparently, and I couldn't get into a session until the start of June. Just finished up last Monday and I had a terrific time and got a lot out of the class. Rich is a terrific teacher too, not afraid to poke fun at your work if you're doing something really off, and had lots of great little tricks and little pearls of wisdom to offer on the subject. It's great how people here are down to earth about things that are easy to become such an insufferable snob about.

We did two subjects with a four 3-hour sessions each. That's plenty for an experienced sculptor with the basic poses like the ones we used, but it's still fairly challenging. Most other workshops I've been to do at least six sessions. Lacking formal instruction, these have always been a real battle for me, and I finally started getting it together with my co-worker's class last year, but it was his first time teaching and we ran out of time to cover everything.

So getting a real class with an experienced instructor for free was a real godsend. We'd have a catered dinner too on top of it all, which was awesome. I kept forgetting to bring tupperware -- the food was good and there was always tons of leftovers that'd just sit there overnight and get tossed in the AM.

I guess generally I've got a good grasp of proportion, facial expressions, and attitude. I notice I tend to stick to heroic or athletic body types, though, regardless of what's in front of me (though the models were both very athletic -- not always the case). This is fine, but can get a tad monotonous. I liked how some of the more experienced people layered on flesh to to give muscles and fat a sense of sag. The flesh on my models tends to look taut and a bit tensed up.

Faces were one area I really developed a lot this time around, even throwing in this pissed off expression on the guy with the staff. Because there was a very Wushu-like feel to the pose, I embellished a bit by taking the stance wider and lower and giving it a bit of a lean. I guess this sort of gives us something that looks kind of like southern staff.

Given the level I see my colleagues are at, I know I've got a long way to go, but at least I feel like I'm progressing. I'm in a maquette class due to start in two weeks, where we're supposed to make up something to build. What, o what to build...