This past weekend I had the absolute pleasure of being joined in the studio by Sarah Oswald for a Wire to Whinny tutoring session.A very fine horsewoman who specializes in training Paso Finos (click to see some of the beautiful horses she works with at Westwind Ranch in northern Idaho) Sarah naturally gravitated towards depicting that dynamic breed. I sure learned a lot about Paso Finos through the course of the session -- thanks Sarah!!
During a workshop I generally start a sculpture from scratch to demonstrate different techniques. In fact that's how "Tuesday" was started way back in 2000. I'm never quite sure what I'm going to start during a workshop.
The wonderful mules I saw at the Northwest Draft and Mule Classic were fresh in my mind Saturday morning, as well as some of my sketches from Hells Canyon Mule Days back in 1999 (like the one to the left) that I had recently run across.So perhaps it was inevitable that this long-eared character started to materialize in clay:
O.k., you'll need to click on the image for an enlargement to see the progress of the new mule as he developed.
Every once in a while it's really fun to totally geek out with an anatomy study! Both Sarah and I delved into the nitty gritty of sculpting bones over wire, then adding muscles and tendons in different colors of clay.
Getting a sculpture started actually only takes me a couple of days. It's all the exacting detail that I get bogged down in. It's also hard to dedicate hours upon hours at a stretch for sculpting. When I do, time flies. I forget to eat, I forget to stretch, I practically forget to breathe. Then the laundry needs to be folded and the spell is broken. ~ Lynn
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