Cardinal Richelieu

The lighting here isn't so hot, I might try to take some more photos later tonight after the sun has gone down. I think this guy is finished. It would be nice to get a plaster cast of him, but the clay is so soft that I wonder if it is even possible. I might use the backside of this piece as a base to start another, just to save time preparing.

New growth

Ok, so... I got the eyes pretty well blocked in, and decided that the nose was just too good to pass up... as well as the mouth, chin, and, if you look closely, the left earlobe as well. (the mustache isn't scheduled to appear until tomorrow morning)


And, just cause I thought they were both pretty...

Here's a 9-eyed-green-monster
feasting on my tomatoes...

And some flowers that I grew...

Progress...

I still have some superficial smoothing out/texturing to do, but as far as the anatomy goes, I feel it is pretty well done. All of the major wrinkles and folds are in there, and although I may build the brow up a bit further, the bone structure is complete. Do the eyes seem to be looking at the same point? I'll probably dream about a friendly cyclops tonight.

A quick note about the clay I'm using:

Chavant, Davinci Italian Plastilina, "...wax-free, sulfur-based sculpting clay which has the non-sticky, smooth feel of water-based clay."

This stuff is super soft and is extremely pliable, making it easy to rapidly cover a lot of ground. It gets sticky when the weather is hot and humid, and I've noticed that it has a tendency to sag and lose detail after it has been sitting out for any extended amount of time. I'm looking forward to using this clay in cooler weather.

Work in Progress

Are there too many pictures here? I had trouble making up my mind.

#1

#2

#3

#4
#5
#6Photos #4 and #6 look very similar, which is frustrating to me because there was about an hour's worth of work in between the two. Must be time to stop and look at something else for awhile. I think it is typical for me to get hung up about this point, so when I go back to it I'm really going to make an effort to identify any major anatomical errors before moving onto the details (I caught myself adding some wrinkles under the eyes just before taking the last photo, which is waaay too much detail for this stage).

I think it might be a good idea to:

1. cover up the non-eye parts of my reference pic
2. focus on the arch of the brow
3. double check proportions by measuring

4. put on some music, cause that always helps

And here is my reference:

Philippe de Champaigne
Triple Portrait of Cardinal Richelieu, 1642