Final pictures (well, kinda)

Marble

I mixed marble powder with resin (again, not gel coat) as my texts have given a nice range of marble outcomes. I gives its own 'imperfections', whereas mixing in pigments just makes it look a bit false. I've done the same for the base. They've both come out alright, but the head is a bit bubbly. After working some ink into them, it gave quite a nice chaotic look, but I think I might have to do another for the show. I'll give it some time.

Flavoured base

I played around with applying bits of resin in irratic, random flicks, and mixed up resin with bronze powder, marble powder and blue and red pigment. It feels a bit like alchemy.. which is fun. A technique worth remembering if I need to make a massive belgian chocolate chunk.......

Mark Prent Technique

Opened up the cast I made using the layered Mark Prentish technique, but it hasn't worked. There is no good translucency. Next time use less slate powder filler.

Colouration & Rusting

I've got a book out the library called 'The colouring, bronzing and patination of metals' by Hughes and Rowe. Much of the content isn't relevent to me now, but one idea stands out as perhaps worth trying. They call it Particle/Sawdust Technique. Basically it means using sawdust or wood shavings or something similar to keep the surface of the metal moist and allow oxyidisation. You can also pigment the surface with this technique. Maybe I could get sawdust from the technicians and immerse a cast using this..

Iron

Today I mixed iron powder with resin, not gel coat, so I could use more iron powder to get a similar consistency for working with, but more surface iron. It came out pretty well, so i'll put it in salty water tomorrow to corrode it. Here it is after a bit of wire-wooling:

Mark Prent

This artist seems to be of acclaim in the dark surrealist art underworld. Here's a quote from his website http://www.markprent.com/ :

"Mark Prent is still making sculptures, but his materials-of-choice have changed from polyester resin and fiberglass to pigmented silicone "skins" over gypsum-polymer "skeletons." The technique involved is similar to the signature method that he developed in the early 1970's with polyester resin, that of builiding-up multiple reverse layers of translucent pigmented material to achieve a believable vitality in the cast positive."

Link on the right to see some of his work.

The idea of building up layers of translucency may be a nice idea with different ratios of resin and slate powder....

22nd Nov

Yesterday and the last couple of days have been spent:

• Making a pentagonal base out of mdf, using a jig and angling the circular saw at 45 degrees, then tidying it up with sand-sealer and primer and sanding and sanding and sanding.
• Making a silicon mould of the pentagon.
  
• Last thing on friday I coated the inside of the 'Abandoned' mould with fibreglass resin mixed with lots of iron powder, so I've got time to corrode it this week. On monday i'll have to lay-up the inside with fibreglass matting for strength.
  
• I also mixed up resin with slate powder for the pentagonal base. On monday i'll have to lay-up more fibreglass with some steel in to give it weight. From my tests I found that slate powder gives nice chaotic lines and imperfections, which hopefully shall happen with this cast.
  

Onyx

I found that onyx powder mixed with resin gives a degree of shrinkage which is quite substantial when applying it to my base. it resulted in the base warping, although the warping is quite even, so it could be used specifically for that..

Artist Assistants

Not that I particularly want to become an Igor-like sidekick figure to an artist, but in some cases help is needed for artists to realise their visions. Also, I want to touch on potential industry context for this kind of project.

Here's a few examples of art that has used technicians in its creation:

Here's a link to a Guardian article on artist assistants:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2003/oct/12/art

17th Nov

Today I removed the fibreglass form the clay, tidied it up (with an oscillating saw - an excellent piece of kit) and poured some of the silicone into the mould. The workshop shut at a very inconvenient time, so I have to pour the rest of the silicone tomorrow, which is only a time issue.

Learnings:

• Vaseline is a far superior release agent in comparison to lacquer and mac-wax when used between fibreglass and clay.
• On cavity moulds keep the in-between clay to gauge the amount of silicon you'll need, as apparently they weigh a similar amount.
• Never start a pour when the workshop is about to close.

Update

When mixing the silicone with thixotropic I managed to use a ridiculous amount resulting in numerous frowns from other students who needed some thixo and my silicon mould being useless..

But ah well! So I learnt how much thixo not to use by primary bad experience, which is always a good teacher. Also, I went about changing the mould type on Paul's recommendation to a matrix/cavity mould, where you encase the sculpt in a cling-film and then 8mm or so clay jacket, fibrglass over the jacket (in this case two-parts), remove the clay and fill the gap with silicone. So far I have layed-up one side of this mould, but its moving forward and I didn't lose much time overall from the thixo fuck up. And now I know two different moulding techniques..... splendid.

Finished shape

Just need to add the texture now...

Today I av mostly bin..

Aside from my EMP research and presentation, today I took samples of rock surfaces to try to find a decent texture map. I made the initial impression with clay, then fastcast that texture, then used a little silicon to give a flexible map to work with. I should've released the clay before I fastcast it.. took some time to scrub it off. ah well.

Other Chet Zar Pictures..

As I am adding some of my own ideas to the sculpt, i.e. the other parts you cant see in Abandoned, I think it is worth looking at some of Chet's other paintings for inspiration, especially for around the back of the neck and shoulder areas. A theme seems to be wrinkled/folded/liney skin. He plays with the perception of anatomy a lot, which gives me a bit of a margin to work with..

Getting there...

Am at the stage where I can start smoothing out the surface and then adding texture to the clay. Still a few bits to sculpt back into but the majority is good. Not long now..