There are many like it

... but this one's mine.


Um... the arrow's missing 'cause Starbuck took it.

So I like figure sculpting and all, but it was getting frustrating because I really didn't know WTF I was doing. Earlier in the fall I finally signed on for an instructional course that a friend of mine from work was teaching. Approaches vary, as always. He tended to be pretty technical and went in-depth into muscle groups and how they layer on top of each other. Free sculpting classes will be starting back up at work and we'll have a guy from the model shop running those. He's much less technical, but by all accounts is terrific.

My friend's class was open to the public, which produced an odd mix. You'd have your art students on the one hand. On the other you'd have your retirees and desperate housewives. Watching my friend deal with this latter group was damned entertaining. Oh God, the WHINING. "Well I DID what you SAID!!!" usually barked with a nasal shrill, was often heard.

Anyway, I got a lot out of it. I didn't really produce anything worth mentioning from that class because we were building up and tearing down a lot. But I finally finished off another studio session with all that knowledge fresh in mind, and I think my product isn't entirely disgraceful.

People are often curious how these studio sessions run. Well, typically you meet 3 hours once a week for 6-8 weeks. The first one we all agree on a pose, and that's what the model does for the whole session. Once that's settled, you just do your thing. Some people do what's there. Some stylize it. Usually you exaggerate the pose a lot for drama. I ended up bulking the guy up a lot and giving a higher angle to his aim. I actually did some archery back in high school, so I made a lot of adjustments to form and hand positions.

Yes, the model is stark nekkid the whole time. And no, it isn't awkward. After a while you're cracking jokes like you would with a co-worker. Quite often we end up having dinner with them after the session.

It was a great pose in general, but I think I had more affinity for it since it is more martial than the typical poses we pick. I actually had to do this particular one across 4 sessions. Work was too busy to make the earlier parts of this session.