2015 | Day 5 (part three)

Day Five (part three)

I decided I might be able to "see" the plaster cloth rabbit guy's eyes better if I took a photo.  I guess he isn't too bad, considering.  But I am absolutely done with re-setting the eyes.  It will change slightly as it dries -- building his face up a bit and trying to even it out might be the answer.

2015 | Day 5 (part two)

Day Five (part two)

Geez.  I need to walk away from this guy for tonight.  Another three hours straight of digging, setting, digging, repeat, repeat, repeat...I really don't think it is going to get any better.  It isn't bad -- but I just noticed it looks like he has a lazy eye...gah!  Okay.  He might need a corrective monocle in the end -- at least a distracting one.

Where I started from -- looking back I probably should have just left it alone but it really bothered me.

Wetting...digging...etc.

Pop!

Wetting, digging...repeat, etc.

The first try.

What I was worried about...plaster cloth soaking up too much water...and yet, the opening still wasn't right.

Second try.

Third try -- getting closer.  At least the two eyes are at about the same level now.

Okay...this is the last try. 

In place and drying.  I will worry about it later or tomorrow.

DONE for now!

2015 | Day 5 (part one)

Day Five (part one)

Man.  I can tell this is going to be at least a two-part blog post for today...at least.

I have been working on adjusting the plaster cloth rabbit guy's wonky eye ALL DAY and it is still not right.  It is better than it was, but it is nowhere near right yet.  There are several main problems and most of them go back to where I was when I built his head to the point it is at now.  This guy has been so many different guys/shapes...and that comes from him being a really really early plaster cloth project that I have been trying to improve on as I become more used to working with plaster cloth.  This guy was really creepy scary at one point and with that in mind I am quite pleased with where he is now.  I have no sculptural training and plaster cloth has its quirks and works better in some applications than others...but I really love it. So -- onwards and upwards.

I started out late this morning by realizing that the very main problem is that his right (looking at him-wise) eye is too far forward on the right edge.  First I tried taking off some of the rounded part of the plaster cloth that was left behind when I popped his eye off the other day.

I sat the eye back on the spot and worked with it and then decided the rounded part needed even more flattening.

Then I put the eye back to check...and yes, at first glance it is much better...but looking at it at several angles you can still see that it isn't right.

I dug out more of the plaster cloth and I hit what felt like glass. I dug a little further and yep, it was the original flat glass disc eye that I painted and had totally forgotten about.  I figured the other eye had to be sitting on the same sort of thing so I tried setting the eye in and positioning it again...hoping they'd be closer to the same spot now.

Again...better, but not really.  I pulled off the new plaster cloth and tried again...digging in all the way to the old original flat eye.  I did this two more times, making the area bigger each time but I think I need to stop for now because it is getting really frustrating.  I patched up the right (to me) eye and later on this evening I will come back and try to match the other eye to the newly worked on one.

I am not sure this guy will be salvageable for what I had in mind but I am still going to try for the rest of the night.  The flat glass discs are too far underneath the plaster cloth head to dig them out completely.  Those discs are really large.

Another thing is that the entire head (heck, the entire body) is not at all symmetrical.  I am not strong with mirror images and repeating something closely after I make one (or one side).  I know the sculpt will never be "perfect" and really, I wouldn't want it to be.  The head/face makes me laugh when I am working on it because it is like someone came along and put their hand over his face and gave it a slight turn...it is sort of swirly.  I think I can even out his nose and mouth but -- for me -- part of his charm is his imperfection.  Having said that, I still need to try to make him even enough to feel good about.