2D and 3D References

I had a photography and modeling session with Marianna today, to accomplish two different kinds of reference materials: 1)  photographs and 2)  a traditional portrait bust, to serve as a “3D photo reference”. I built the traditional portrait bust  on an armature in plastilene and it will be a reference and guide for the paper mache pieces that I will be making later. What I’m most interested in is the large forms and the planes they create; detail is unimportant with this reference.  I’m trying to get myself into a more three-dimensional mind set, and sculpting on this traditional portrait bust will be part of that process. Its been years since I’ve done a straightforward portrait bust study, so it was fun to get back into the technique.

The other challenge that I’m discovering is that I have to change my sculpting approach to be entirely additive with the paper mache process. The wonderful thing about plastilene is that you can work both additively and reductively, which is the process that I’m more accustomed to. With the paper mache, I can only add the material so I have to adjust the way I think about creating form.  I ordered some “paper clay” the other day and will be receiving that soon, (recommended by Tony Janello) so I’m hoping that the paper clay will perhaps introduce the opportunity to work reductively, even if it’s on a small scale.