A Blazing Montana Sunset

On the way back from Bozeman tonight I witnessed an amazing sunset....

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Studio Closed Till Monday the 2nd of Nov.

Taking the next few days off for my birthday... see you all Monday.

The Mountain Man Starts to Flesh Out

I started out the day working on the head of the male figure. Once I had that fleshed in, I reattached the head to the body and started to flesh in the upper part of the torso.
Then finally attached the figure back with the horse to see how it looked.
Just before leaving I made a major change... watch the video to see.

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(In Germany this video is blocked. Watch it here VIDEO)

Final Photos

Adding the First Clay to the Untitled Piece

After taking care of a few more things to do with the armature of the woman, I start to add clay to the mountain man.
I use the mandrill for the first time with the male figure, and the head. Found that I need to rethink the set up.

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Indian Woman's Armature, and Anchoring the Mountain Man

Title pretty much explains what I did today. I decided to do the Indian woman's armature before adding clay to the Mountain man, is that to have the two people interact, I need to anchor the scene and the woman is the anchor.
I'm not saying woman are anchors, just that in this case the figure on the horse is.

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Hunter's Feed 2009

Today was the annual Hunter's Feed here in the small town I live in. We live in the mountains of Montana, and each year, the day before hunting season starts here, the town of Ennis Montana holds a hunters feed.
People in the town and in the valley come together and set up tables full of stews, meatballs, chili, and pies, made using the meat from wild game. Everything from Buffalo Pies to Mountain Lion Chili Verde, which was very good.

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Last Day on the Mountain Man's Armature

Well my fingers are crossed that this armature method will work. I'm taking a long time to create it because I'm learning as I go along. I'm adapting what I've seen on John Browns DVD's (Refer to Monday, the 19th of October's blog entry)
Today I re-did the arms in twisted bailing wire, and then made the main support for the figure. Finally I made the left leg removable and re-did both leg armatures in twisted wire as well.

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Morning On The Madison

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I had a casserole for lunch from the deli at the local grocery store. The woman working there didn't know what was in it. She thought it was chicken. It wasn't, it was fish, and I had an allergic reaction to it. So no time in the studio.

It was cold, 20 degrees, this morning. The steam from the Madison River and Alder Creek filled the valley. The warm sun shining through the mist and the tall grass spoke of Winter to come. Enjoy the video slide show of Morning On The Madison.

Starting my New Clay - A New Approach To Making An Armature

I tried a new approach to making the armature for my mountain man that will be standing next to the horse with the Indian girl, his mate, on it.
These set of videos will show you how I make an armature for a clay. This is not a, do it my way or no way, you have to go by how you've done armatures or if you've never made one, make the process your own. If something works better for you, then do it.

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A set of 5 DVDs gave me the idea for this approach to making an armature. His videos are a must. Videos by John Brown can be purchased from his website.

Final photographs of armature today.

New Clay of a Mountain Man and His Indian Wife - Day 1

I took the horse I was going to use for Kit Carson and augmented it to work for this new piece. Originally this horse was to be part of an Indian piece that eventually turned into the piece "Somewhere A Cowboy's Walkin" which is still in clay.
This is the third time I've cut and repositioned parts on this horse. The video for today shows a brief revisit of the creation and the first augmentation.

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Final Photographs of the clay today.

Starting my New Clay - Untitled at the Moment

Tonight at home I started this new piece by working out the human proportions. Click on the link below for the video.

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Proportional Drawings using Head Measurements

Spending the Day Researching

Trying to decide what I'll be creating next today. So I'll be out of the studio for today. Have to come up with inspiration and an idea.. Examples of possible ideas below, from model shoots.

Finishing up Bronc Stompin Today

Remember you can click of photos to open them larger, and click on the link to video to see it

Today I worked on the cowboys hands and cuffs. Then I did a little work on the shirt and suspenders.
I've finished up this piece as far as I can go for now. I've got another days work in cleaning the clay up but I'll hold off on that till I get ready to take it to the foundry. I don't want to have to rework it later because it gets dinged sitting in my studio.

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Final Photographs today.

Snowy Day

Traveled to Bozeman to try out for a TV commercial.

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Bronc Stompin - Not Quit There Yet

Today was a very short day. Birthday lunch for a friend went way to long. I did put a mustache on the cowboy though and reworked his hat, as well as his upper shirt. Then finally added a scarf.

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Bronc Stompin - Headless, Well Kinda

Headless? Well yes for a couple of hours today, he was. I cut off the head on this piece because it was to blocky and I wanted to give him a bit more personality.

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Final Photographs.