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Chris Wooten · Joined: 30 Aug 2009 Posts: 10 Location: NC

Well, I figured it was about time to post some work around here. A really big thank you goes to Heidi for being so generous with her knowledge, I would not have made it this far in portraiture without your tutorials.

The first two are life and a quarter portraits (about two feet tall). One is chavant nsp and the other is j-mac classic clay. The next step is to make some bronze copies. Sorry for the crappy lighting too, it really washed out the depth in these.

And a little something I did for our local downtown. I'm in graduate school right now earning my MFA and our school's mascot is a pirate. They approached the sculpture department and asked if we would be interested in designing benches to go downtown. So, I decided to make a pirate coming out of the deck of his ship. The deck is the bench where you sit, and the pirate is a little larger than 1/2 life scale. I everything on this too btw (woodworking, welding, modeling, mold making, casting, chasing, and patina)

Here is an album as well documenting the process.
http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/576030335iUVAZP
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Chris Wooten

www.wootensart.com

Mandi Tucker · Joined: 17 Jan 2010 Posts: 8 Location: Athens, Ohio

Great work! I especially like the treatment you gave the clothing on the portraits. Having just the collars was an interesting twist. The pirate is exceptional. Over all quite inspiring. Thanks for sharing.

Stuart · Joined: 29 Nov 2006 Posts: 527

You've been busy Chris
Some really good understanding of expression there.
I'm a little uncertain about the hollowing out of the eyes. It might be something to do with your lighting?
It could be that you've left the pupil and carved away the iris. It usually works better as a device if you cut the pupil deeper than the iris, if at all.

Not too keen on oil-based clays myself, is the j-mac a water based clay?
If not I would definitely get your hands on some of the traditional material. It will give you much more freedom to model expressively.
Good luck with it all
Stuart

Toby Mendez · Joined: 29 Mar 2010 Posts: 55

Chris, I see what Stuart means about the eyes. I think what you may have done is to put a highlight form directly in the middle of the eyes, which reflects light out of the middle of the eye. By making the pupil the deepest part of the eye, the shadow will be at it's darkest. Study Houdon's manner of sculpting eyes. He off-sets the highlight so that it is not directly in front of the pupil. He also does not make the highlight very big (a common mistake by allot of sculptors that makes my eyes roll) they should be subtle and the juxtaposition of a highlight with a value of white or grey next to the dark shadow of the pupil can be very effective. The highlight can also be angled slightly into the eye so that it doesn't completely reflect a white but is more of a gray. Think of the highlight as a mirror reflecting light. Take a look.

Also one more comment about the hair. If you look at your portraits most everything is defined by volume and form. You are using shape like a sculptor, however when you do the hair you are using drawing techniques (i.e. allot of line). Some use of line is important, too much can be distracting. Try to define some of your hair by use of form and volume. Again this Houdon portrait is a great example, he defines the hair by form and uses line as a subtle texture.
Thanks for posting the portraits and I hope this was somewhat helpful.

Chris Wooten · Joined: 30 Aug 2009 Posts: 10 Location: NC

Thanks guys. So far I've only done maybe 4 or 5 life size busts, so this is pretty new for me. I see what you guys mean about they eyes and to be honest, I'm not really sure how I came up with this style. I'll have to experiment more on the next ones I do. In person they look ok, but after I took these photos I realized just how much the depth of the eyes throws off the spatial depth throughout the entire piece. Fortunately, the end result will be bronze with a classic brown, but if I were to cast them in Forton or something lighter it is going to look off.

As for the hair, I always have this problem no matter what scale. I sculpt the major forms and then just take it too far. Now that I switched to J-mac clay I'm hoping the hair will become more fluid in newer works. I was really fortunate three summers ago and was able to go to the Hermitage in Russia and see a ton of Houdon's portraits. Absolutely breath taking, I can't even put into words how wonderful those three days spent at the Hermitage were (I still don't think I saw everything even in that amount of time). Speaking of which, here is an album from that trip http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/559754871wosRSG

Like I said, I'm pretty new to the larger work and mostly self taught (the internet is my main source of learning). I still haven't quite found my rhythm with working bigger, but so far I like it way more than the miniature portraits. I'm going to try and go for a more modeled look next time instead of my usual rake surface. Thanks again for the feedback, it was helpful and confirmed some issues I was on the fence about.
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Chris Wooten

www.wootensart.com

Toby Mendez · Joined: 29 Mar 2010 Posts: 55

Chris, I am glad that I may have said something helpful. If you look at your avatar (because these things are so small it tends to simplify the work) you see the hair as a form first and then all you need is a little bit of line in the very front of the hair form where it transitions to the forehead. Thank you for your kind comments regarding the Shula enlargement.

Tamara · Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 9:24 am Post subject:

Hi Chris,

Wonderful portraits you have there. I love the smile with the teeth showing. We've talked about smiling portraits before and how difficult it is to do and not have it look creepy. But your guy looks really good smiling. Your forms and anatomy have good fleshiness to them along with underlying structure showing. I think they are very good and have an alive spirit to them too.

Something that does pop out to me but it could be accurate according to your model is the first portrait's nose. It looks crooked or offset at the base of the nose. So if we were to draw a line straight down the middle of the face, it looks like it might not be centered right. But that could just be the lighting or maybe you intended it that way. It's just a small thing that caught my eye. Love your good work!
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Happy Sculpting!

Heidi Maiers · Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 4:26 pm Post subject:

Very nice Chris. I really like the feel and expression of these pieces. I would have to agree with all the advice offered so far. Larger scale is definitely different than small and surface treatment can be fun to experiment with. The cross hatching may be a little distracting. I know I used to "put" that on the surface of my portraits, but have realized that it looks a little too contrived and added at the end rather than being part of the process. At this point, I would maybe knock it back some with a light touch of a rubber kidney or something so it is not quite so harsh.
Also, noticed a few sharp edges - in particular, the bottom eye lid. No area of a face is sharp, so softening that edge with a brush would make it look more natural.
Overall, beautiful work Chris! Looking forward to seeing what you do with water based clay if you give it a try.
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