Angler Fish: Day 5

So I finally thought the fish was all dry & started the needle-felting stage. To my surprise, when I cut into the mouth to push it in, it was still sopping wet!!! I know the foam is like a giant sponge, but I let it sit outside in the sun for like 4 days, I kept working anyways!!

I was talking to my dad last night & he was saying how much he enjoys seeing my process picts. It got me thinking about one aspect that I love about doing this project. I LOVE to show my mistakes & fixes & reworks. I know most artists don't want anyone to see their pieces until they are done, you know that awkward stage where the piece looks like poop, and you are embarrassed to show anyone until you fix it. Inevitably someone sees it and you say "I know it looks crappy now, but just wait... it'll look awesome once I do this and that to it". Well I want you to see that crappy phases. I think seeing how someone works through those stages helps you feel better about your own process. I know the fish will end up being awesome, so I'm not that worried.

ART IS NOT PRECIOUS!

That is one thing that I have learned being a Scenic Sculptor. Most of the time the sculpting I do at work is thrown in the trash once it's served its purpose. Art is also not a One-Shot activity. If something doesn't look like how you want it, don't scrap it, just fix it. Felting is such a forgiving medium that you can always undo & fix whatever mishap has "ruined" the piece. Even if the problem is SOOO beyond fixing, just go with it and turn it into something new! So the bunny you are trying to make ends up looking like an big fat turd, nothing's stopping you from just cutting off some of the extra wool & felting over it. CUT, CUT, CUT!

DON'T BE SCARED... IT'S ONLY WOOL, OR CLAY, OR PAINT, OR YARN....


So started needle-felting my beast. I tried for a while to needle it with a single needle, then graduated to my trusty 3-needle holder. After poking with that for a while, I went with the Big-Guns!! I put in 3 - 36 gauge needles in. 36 gauge needle are the big fatty needles that I hardly use. Only to do some real deep needling. But with the foam under the felt, I needed something a bit more ambitious.








I cut into the mouth cause the felt was too tight to felt tightly into the concave shape. So I JUST CUT IT!!! I'll fill the gaps in later. Whatever, it doesn't look pretty right now, but I'd rather have a awkward stage then not be happy with it in the end.










Again, the mouth was still bugging me. I thought, hmmm... I want it to go in more, so I cut more foam out of the mouth. When I was carving the foam base, I thought the mouth was concave enough, but now I don't like it.







So after several hours of needling, here is the process picts for the day. It's going to be going really slow from here on out, but this is the most important stage. Sculpting the form & shape is way more important that adding the details & accents. It's not the sexy part of sculpting, everybody like to do the details & texture the best cause that's when your piece really comes to life, but if you skimp on the form, then the details will look off & not quite right.







Slow going.... Going to work more today, I can start to see him now though, he's going to be awesome!!!