Vincent

A loose based sculpture of Vincent Van Gogh

Posted by Darcy UK

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I began by making a wire armature, a very basic ball attached to a larger shape which will become the shoulders and chest. I began to fill the shape with aluminium foil
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I continued to add foil, scrunching it in tightly, to make a dense shape.
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I then tightly wrapped the whole shape with masking tape. This must all be done really tight and firm to provide a solid base for the clay.
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Next I made a batch of air drying clay. I use the recipe from Jonni Good's website.

http://www.ultimatepapermache.com/new-air-dry-clay-recipe
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I keep a bowl of water next to me, and smooth the clay all over the head and body. This was left to dry for several days, while I worked on other projects.
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I then began to add the face and clothing details. These were only thin layers of clay so they did not take as long to dry.
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Finally I added a little more clay, refining the features. When you add wet clay on top of dry clay you must first add a little white glue to help it stick.
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I left him to thoroughly dry out and then sanded the clay a little.
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As there are no clear photographs of Vincent Van Gogh, I was using a self portrait of him as reference. Not at all easy , but the painting did help me with colour choices.

i painted the face and hat first.
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Then I painted the clothing, using lots of definite brush marks to closely resemble the marks that Vincent used in his paintings.
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Finally I added a layer of satin glaze, to seal everything and also to give the piece a nice sheen.