My next project was crows. Birds seemed to be a very popular subject for carvings in the group that summer and I like the look of crows. Unfortunately I couldn't get near enough to take a good photo. The nearest I got was a pic of one on our garage roof through a window (rather blurry and not very useful), so had to rely on lots of photos downloaded from the internet.
The alabaster piece intended for the crow was a smallish offcut from the abalone shell carving, sort of triangular, but not symmetrical. My main focus was on the head with its long beak and strong 'brow' line, so I attempted to make a maquette in clay. It didn't start too badly, but by the time I'd trimmed bits off it, it ended up looking rather strange with big beak and tiny body. So I decided to mostly forget the body, or rather stylise the whole thing to fit my rather small bit of alabaster.
The alabaster piece intended for the crow was a smallish offcut from the abalone shell carving, sort of triangular, but not symmetrical. My main focus was on the head with its long beak and strong 'brow' line, so I attempted to make a maquette in clay. It didn't start too badly, but by the time I'd trimmed bits off it, it ended up looking rather strange with big beak and tiny body. So I decided to mostly forget the body, or rather stylise the whole thing to fit my rather small bit of alabaster.
 Clay head early stage |  Wing sketches |  Wing sketch |
Fired clay maquette and alabaster piece with design drawn on for carving (pic from Paul's blog)
 Finished alabaster carving |  Finished alabaster crow |  Wax moulding to send for casting |
When the carving was finished I made a latex mould with plaster jacket and in class we cast a wax version to send off for casting in bronze to Castle Fine Arts Foundry in Wales, who have a special introductory offer - they send a free block of casting wax and will cast the returned sculpture in bronze for a substantially reduced price. (See link in Useful Sites). As I've found previously, alabaster carvings are really difficult to photograph successfully, but the detail is clearer on the plaster of Paris cast. Initially I asked for the bronze to be finished in black, but when it came back the detail was really hard to see, so I sent it back and they removed the black patina and refinished it in verdigris which looks better.
 Bronze crow with Verdigris patina |  Bronze crow |  Plaster of Paris casting |
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