I woulda posted yesterday like I was supposed to, but I was at the foundry.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Red Wax Bust of a Yogi
I finally got that wax finished for that yogi bust. Here's a couple shots.
This will be the second bronze of this sculpture--you can see the original in the background. Strange thing about this one: after a week or so of staring at it,all of my energies focused on fine tuning the features, he began to look like Michael Caine. Oy!
I woulda posted yesterday like I was supposed to, but I was at the foundry.
I woulda posted yesterday like I was supposed to, but I was at the foundry.
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p.s. he looks like he has a black eye because the wax I used to build up his orbicularis oris was a darker color. OOF!
Awesome sculpture, Marty!
Yeah, incredible Marty. What is the yogi's name and who is commissioning it?
And I didn't even notice his black eye, what with the terrible sunburn problem he has.
Thanks dudes!
The subject of this bust is the founder of the Self Realization Fellowship ("Swami's" in Encinitas). His name is Paramahansa Yogananda (checked spelling...and corrected it). He died back in the 50's, so I sculpted this from photos.
He went through a lot of physical changes over the years, so I tried to come up with a "meta" appearance that tied together the doe-eyed youth, the chubby middle age, and the leaner, later years (you can do a Goog image search and see what I mean). The people who commissioned it are really happy--and so are the brothers who run the retreat where this bust is being sent (or so I am told).
I'll be sure to post the finished bronze when it's done, but for some reason the bronze never lives up to the promise of the wax (at least not in my experience). I ust be doing something wrong....
So you did the original also? And you have to do a new wax sculpture for every new bronze? You can get a mold off the original somehow?
They just recast the bronze and make a new mold from a new wax impression. Saw this. Very nice and very HEAVY. Marty did a great job.
@ Jim & Tom: Yes, I did the original piece, too (back in 2005--how time flies).
The original mold, however, got destroyed at the foundry, so we made another mold (cost: about $2,000), and from this new mold we pulled a new wax. The new wax will be used to make a second bronze...but, alas! We made the second mold, pulled a new wax, but I was not completely happy with it...besides, I wanted to improve some aspects of the original bust, (which looked great when it was in wax form, but lost some of that "life spark" in the bronze), so I spent the last couple weeks futzing with this second wax. All in order to make this second bronze...As. Good. As. Possible.
And now it looks like Michael Caine.
You could do worse than look like Michael Caine. Your eye for features wouldn't let you drift into anything too off the mark. That means the guy had some resemblance to Caine.
It looks great and I'm glad you still have these sort of commissions. Art that will outlive us a thousand years.
He does not look like Michael Caine. Maybe the vague-est of resemblances in the third shot, but nothing I would have ever noticed on my own.
It's bloody well transcendent!
Ha!!
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