Sculpture work - Fisherman:

 

For this project I used one of the images from my "Moments in Time" photography work. The subject has been captured in the process of cleaning and preparing food for a meal for his family on the docks of a waterlily filled waterway.  I was inspired by Robert Jones' stylized human wire sculptures which capture momentary poses as in my photograph.

After selecting my chosen image, I started by rough sketching how I would create a continuously flowing wire skeleton and how the sculpture should look at the end. 

Once this was completed, I started with the wired skeleton.

Later, I used clay to fill in the skeleton to represent the skin and body shape of the man. I originally, wanted this to be more like the body features in Robert Jones’ – Next Generation however, as I was working in 1:10 scale, this was not doable as the clay would fall off once dried. To create the clay body parts, I used images and 3D models of people to have a better understanding of how these pieces were shaped up-close. 

To develop this concept further, I would scale up the model in order to increase the level of detail.

To complete this project, I used fabric to recreate the shirt in the photograph. Using five separate sheets I used glue to directly attach them onto the clay. The glue was also used to mould the fabric in order to represent creases and folds of the shirt in the image. 

After I had completed the clay body and the fabric shirt dried, I decided to experiment with altering the body position and see what effects could be created by doing this.

The pose of the man in the picture is very similar to the foetal position. Therefore, I photographed my sculpture lying down in this position. 

I then reused some wood from our old decking to be the supporting base of the sculpture as well as represent the dock in the image. When converting the photograph to a miniature sculpture, I decided to place the man in the corner of the wood base as the photograph shows him sitting at the far side of the dock.

I am very happy with the outcome of this sculpture as the stylization of the skeleton and features are pleasing. Furthermore, it has helped me better understand how to work with clay and wire as a sculpture medium. However, what didn’t go so well was the cracking of the clay as it dried out. This caused the leg to shatter and fall off as the clay dried and moved. Apart from this, this project has allowed me to further explore how the shattering of clay could be used in other wire sculpture pieces.