Went to the studio twice this week. Wax on, wax off — the figure was looking too bulky, so I did some scraping; then he looked too thin. His legs are now pretty much as they were, but the torso is a little leaner. I also bit the bullet and lifted the right leg up to show the tilt of the pelvis, which means armature is now exposed. That will be cast in the hard wax and I’ll have to remove it.

I made three heads. The one with the face I like best is too small (it started out the same size as the others but got whittled); although it looks an ok size in most of the shots here, that’s just the camera lying. Rather than try to increase that head’s size and keep its appearance I think I’ll use it as a reference to make a bigger one. I also might try to make a slightly older but still pretty face as another option.

I need to finish off the arms, hands and pipes. For the pipes I think I’ll try wax around toothpicks. I also need to think of how to support the hands/pipes. At the moment there’s heavy wire underneath, and leaving it there and cutting it off the hard wax might be as good a solution as any.

<3 this picture by City Eyes (via Husson Bookstore):

Found these and more gems of old SF zine covers at Ptak Science Books, in a feature on The Savage Distress of Women in Science (Fiction); Pulp Covers, 1930-1960. I couldn’t resist captioning a few.

It was the last time Margaret bought anything from Alessi’s Knob Head range.

“And Barbara said Dan’s sleeping with Rosie,” the alien confided.

“I’m David Bowie. I’m here to rescue you!”

When I found the image below on Queerest of them all, I had a feeling it would lead somewhere good. It did! Fyodor Pavlov’s art (check out the archive at the link) inhabits a palace of old-school aestheticism with a cock-shaped summerhouse.

Shortened the torso and arms, made the arse less feminine, started refining muscles and trying out leg hair texture. Still haven’t decided on an angle for the head. I brought some wax-clay home to make a couple of different heads. I think we’re getting a male model in next week to help those who are making male figures.

I’m thinking about the metal to cast him in. I don’t think dark bronze will be right this time. I had visions of stainless steel, with a combination of rough and smooth-shiny textures, but because of the pouring temperature of steel and the thinness of the ankle the metal will have to run through, he’d have to be done in two parts and welded together, which leaves the door open a bit wider for Mr Cockup, and I’m starting to get the impression that in metal casting that door is open wide enough already! So maybe green bronze — similar colour to the wax — or aluminium, which is light and cheap and pours easily and can still look pretty shiny. I want him to be an outdoor piece, so I think it’d be cool if he glittered a bit in the sun and reflected his surroundings.

ETA: Arse still too female. Looking at Robert Mapplethorpe pics for reference. No, no that one. I may also need to change the tilt of the pelvis. Though I should be writing, I’ve got a yen to go back in today and work on it some more.

I’ve made my word count already, so I get to blog.

Maybe writers aren’t meant to express a lot of frustration with or doubt in what they’re writing — I mean, all this blogging business is to create positive vibes around your work, right? — but I need to let it out. This story is kicking my arse so hard I need to wear a rubber tire for underwear. Parts of it are pleasing, I like them, they feel right — but damn near everything I’ve written for the purpose of shoving plot into what were, er, some elusively plotted scenes is bugging me. I feel like it’s not gripping the road. Maybe the plot is all wrong for the… the what? …the thingy? Maybe the plot is wrong for the thingy. Maybe the plot is wrong for the characters. Maybe I’ve tried to jam too much material (not so much plot as ideas, possibly) into a short(ish) work. I don’t know. This story has brought me to tears of frustration more than once. It’s hard to write when it feels as though no matter what words I put down, it’s all somehow going in the wrong direction.

I can’t change the plot or the ideas around it now. I’ve got to bite the pillow, persevere with the story I worked out, just do the best I can with it, then look for feedback. Maybe it’s fine, maybe the good will outweigh or at least balance the bad, if I can’t get rid of the bad. Maybe I’ll have to completely strip and rebuild it. But I really mustn’t think about that.

I’m going to cook some of those quail eggs. I always thought those little eggs were quail eggs, and they are, despite being labelled partridge. Apparently a partridge is the same bird as a quail. (ETA: Ok, they’re not the same. Partridge, quail, I don’t know, they’re little eggs!)

ETA 2: I bit the pillow. I moved a long plotty/expository conversation to what I think is a less awkward place and will look for ways to break it up a bit across other scenes, but honestly I’m not sure that I can; I don’t think it breaks naturally, so it might have to stay as it is. I’m now past 8000 words. Tomorrow’s my art class, so I’ll be at the studio, probably all day, since once I start I tend to want to keep going. Big Pan’s torso and legs are coming along. Tomorrow I want to get the arms right and do whatever else I can.

“There once was a girl named Nicole Pennsylvania Snow
who, when she was ten months old,
slept in an abstract bed
designed and decorated for her by a famous artist.”

1954 book by Vance Bourjaily and Tobias Schneebaum, about the baby daughter of hipster parents, with a Reactionary Grandmother. It’s awesome. Illustrator Stephen Kroninger has scans on his Drawger blog. (via 50 Watts)

I took a day off today. As well as making a quickie rough-draft model for another sculpture, I played with the dragon pic, scribbled a lady gunfighter with a random shape in place of her left hand, and attacked an old pic of Gwynn with lurid colour.

ETA: Ok, now she has something to do with her left hand while I finish her:

Kooky is a film by Jan Sverak about a boy who is forced to throw away his teddy bear, and the adventures he imagines the discarded bear having in a forest inhabited by strange creatures. The film combines live action, puppets and stop motion, with puppets and props designed by Jakub Dvorsky, the founder of Amanita Design, creators of the wonderful game Machinarium.

By the looks of the trailer, the film’s going to be a delight (or rather, is a delight in the Czech Republic, where it has already been released, and will be a delight for English speakers when the English-dubbed version gets distribution). There’s also an illustrated e-book of Kooky, sample pages at Amanita.

Kooky at imdb, Wikipedia

This is the big Pan I’ve started working on. These photos show the brown wax clay being replaced with green wax. I’ve put on a more detailed temporary head, and realised that the arms are too long and I’ll need to cut and re-bend the armature, as well as add bulk to the legs and do a zillion other things. I’m trying to get the pose to look good from every angle and thinking his head might need to be flung back and/or twisted more.

WIP shots:

In the dusk with the light behind him!