The picture is not that great but you can sense the overall feel of the sculpture now with the sword in the angel’s hands. I still need to finish off the right leg and lengthen the arms but after that it will be time to work on the wings (excluding the base). I’m looking forward to working on the wings and if everything goes as planned I should be able to start on them in the near future.
- Gerald
I have made some progress on the detail work for the upper legs. Most of my attention has been on the angel’s left leg so I still need to spend some time working on the right one. Once the upper legs are complete I will move onto the calves and feet and from there the only thing left is the base of the sculpture and the wings (excluding fixing the length of the arms and adding a sword).
Gerald
I’m starting to build out the angel’s legs now. There are no details added yet and I’m working on refining the shapes but the pose is starting to come together now. I haven’t fully decided if I want to lean the legs down more (make them smaller) and I’m also starting to play around with the loincloth.
On a side note it has been brought to my attention that the arms are too short for the sculpture (which they are). Once I complete the lower body I will need to go back and cut up the arms to fix them. Not looking forward to it but it is definitely fixable. Just one of those things that can happen from time to time.
I’ll post additional photos once I get started on the detail work.
- Gerald
Ok, I finally have the upper body at a stage where I’m ready to move on and start building out the legs. I still may need to revisit parts of the upper body down the road but for now the sculpture is baked and ready to move onto the next phase.
You are probably sick of this one shot but this is the last time I’ll post a pic of only the torso. The black and white pic below shows off the detail better but still doesn’t look as detailed as it does in person (I guess I need to learn more about the camera and how to photograph my art 
)
Probably doesn’t look like I’ve done much but I have spent quite a few hours on this since the last update. It is amazing how you can start sculpting something that would seem to be simple like the hair, look down a little later and just about have your eyeballs fall out of your head because several hours had just whizzed by.
I found a few issues with the sculpture so I had to make some corrections. I raised the head about a quarter of an inch to create a more natural looking neck (previous neck was too short), worked a lot on the face, hair and one of the hands. I have also done some detailing on the back but need to spend more time with it before I consider it complete.
It is kind of funny how when these projects start out it seems that I will be able to complete the sculpture in record time. However, as stated in a earlier post, the detailing stage is really the time killer. It is all good since I really do enjoy what I’m doing. I’m just now kind of getting to a point where I want to start working on the lower body. The key for me is to make sure I don’t rush the upper body work just because I’m itching to start on the legs. In the past I could take a break from the upper body and start on the legs but with this sculpture I’m experimenting with building it out in stages.
The sculpture looks 100 times better in person so once I bake the upper body I’ll take some better pictures using a light tent. Eventually I will also prime the sculpture, using grey primer, to see if I missed any imperfections. Once primed I should be able to get some better pictures.
- Gerald
I’m starting to work on the back now and have it pretty much blocked out. The next stage is to fine tune the anatomy and then start working on the detailing. While I’m working on the back I will move back and forth to the other body parts that I need to finish (i.e. the forearms, hands, face and the rest of the angel’s head).
The wires coming out of the angel’s back will be used to support the wings. Well, I hope they support the wings since I ended up having to use a smaller and softer wire then I am use to. Either way I’m not too worried since I figure I’ll come up with some type of creative engineering if the wire can’t support the weight.
- Gerald
Making progress slowly but surely. The face is starting to come along now but it looks like I need to bulk up the angel’s right arm a little to match the left. I still need to finish the left forearm, back of the left bicep and the angels back. And of course I have more tweeking to do to the face and the hands still need a lot of work.
As I said in a previous post the detailing stage is the most time consuming process. Also, this is a project that I only get to work on in my free time (which is very little Mon - Fri) so it is going to take awhile to complete.
Once the upper body is complete I will start working on the legs. The legs are going to create a completely new feel for this sculpture so I’m really looking forward to working on them. I have enjoyed working on this project and it is probably one of my favorite pieces so far. I think this sculpture has a lot of potential so the real trick is to make sure I don’t screw it up when I add the lower body and wings.
Below is a side view with the sword. Still have a lot of work to do on the sword so don’t judge it yet ;-).
Unfortunately I haven’t had as much time as I would like to work on my sculpture this week but it is still coming along.
I did get a chance to work a little on angels left forearm, back and face which you can see some of the changes in the attached photo. For the face I am playing around with the idea of adding a beard and so far I think I like it. However, I still have a lot of work to do to do to the face and the picture really help point out how the cheek bones and forehead are a little off.
I have also played around with sculpting the angels sword but so far I’m not sure if I like what I have come up with (Once I get the sword figured out I will post additional photos). I’m looking forward to adding the hands and the sword since I think it will really start bringing the sculpture to completion (at least for the upper body).
So far this has been a fun project and I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out with the legs and wings attached.
Until the next post
-Gerald
The front portion of the torso is now coming closer to completion. I still have to work more on the abdomen but I am close to finishing it now. The forearms will be next and I am constantly working on the face.
I will save the hands for last since they are my least favorite things to sculpt. Once I am done with the front (excluding the face and hands) I will move on to the back and start blocking it out.
In case you are wondering, the tool above the angels head is just a placement holder for a sword that I will add later. I needed to put something there for now so that I could position the arms correctly.
Until the next post.
- Gerald
I decided to bake the angels right arm and chest with my heat gun to eliminate the chance that I would mess up the detail work while working on the rest of the sculpture. You can view the tutorial on how I did this at my Polymer Clay Fan site. A picture of the sculpture wrapped in foil is below.
At this time only the angels right arm, chest and upper back were baked.
