Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Judy Mooney Workshop

On Saturday I attended a workshop given by Judy Mooney called "Portraits in Clay", held at Savannah's Clay Spot. 
This is Judy during the workshop:
 She is a very good teacher!  Very well prepared, knowledgeable, calm and articulate.  At a comfortable pace, she guided us throughhow to develop a small relief sculpture of a head. 
 Mostly it was about the sequence of adding elements, and setting proportions.  We used a low fire raku clay body with lots of grog, I think so that it would dry well, since there would be a lot of uneven depths of clay.  The head is made from a solid lump, and then hollowed out later.
 She had prepared for each of us a gypsum board with proportions marked along the bottom edge. 
Above is my little 4 inch tall head placed on a backing slab of clay.

I wasn't sure whether to try hair or a scarf, and I think it looks like a cross between the two.  I was hoping it would look more like a scarf blowing in a breeze,

Looking at it from the bottom, you can see that it is pretty realistic in terms of how far the nose and chin and lips protrude,
 I am definitely going to try another one, but perhaps a bit larger, like 6 inches,
Judy recommended the books by Phillippe Faraut,
He is a gifted portrait sculpture in New York, whose website is found here
(Phillippe Faraut, photo from his web site)
(Phillippe Faraut, photo from his web site)


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