#672 Africa Portfolio 1 . . . "Recumbent Giraffe", con't

Please seen the previous 2 posts for more information about this blog.

A Giraffe has only two gaits:  Walking and galloping.  Walking is done by moving the legs on one side of the body at the same time, the doing the same on the other side.  A galloping giraffe is a wonderful sight to see . . .  

the hind legs move up past the front legs BEFORE the front legs move forward while the long neck and head rock 

forward and backward to maintain balance!  The obvious pose for me to choose for my first Giraffe sculpture

 would have been a standing, walking, or galloping Giraffe as I had plenty of reference material

 from my trip to Africa but I chose a recumbent pose with more Giraffe sculptures planned in the future.


Below, Note both legs going forward on the same side while going back
on the opposite side . . . similar to a pacing horse.

Below, are photos of "Recumbent Giraffe" in progress in clay, cast in bronze, and making the mold.

  

It's important for the artists to understand how and in what direction an animal's limbs are folded when they are in a recumbent position.  Typically, the limbs are arranged in such a way as to enable the species to rise with the greatest facility.  By observing wild animals in the field and photographing and sketching them, invaluable information can obviously be obtained.  However, much can be learned by studying domestic animals which are much more readily available to study and scrutinize.  For instance, a house cat has the structural arrangements - supple spine, etc - as a lion.

 Dogs resemble wolves, fox, etc;  cattle resemble bison, etc;  and goats resemble deer, Giraffe, and more.

The artist must know how the skeleton is arranged,
 how the bones articulate and identify bony landmarks and waypoints.
All quadruped skeletons are fundamentally the same but some species have limited mobility
in the reclining position.

Below, is an early work depicting a recumbent cow. . . useful observation and information for modeling wild species.

For anatomy reference, see posts #616 and #655

Go to the BLOG INDEX and Reference Page for more information.  

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

#619 In the studio . . . horse anatomy and bony landmarks

Please start this series of posts about horse anatomy with blog #616.

The artist must understand the location of bony landmarks when drawing, painting, and sculpting a figure such as the horse.   A painter creates the illusion of form by showing shadow, middle-tone, and highlights while the sculptor models a form in space that creates its own.  It may sound simplistic, but when asked what my main concern is in sculpture . . .
my reply is to make sure all of the shadows fall in the right place!


But how does a sculptor make sure all of the shadows fall in the right place?
The answer:  Bony landmarks.

The best way to analyze bony landmarks involve the following considerations:

1.  How does the skeleton influence the surface appearance?

2.  The artist must understand the animal's skeleton and the location of bony landmarks in the figure.

3.  Where does the skeletal structure rise to the surface?    

4.  Bony landmarks are typically hard edges while muscle structure is not.  Their relationship to each   

     other, where muscles attach to the main bones, must be understood.

5.  Observe the horse:  Where there are dips, curves, bumps, and knobs, projection and indentations -
     there is an anatomical explanation that the sculptor must understand.

6.  A bony landmark is a "waypoint" for the sculptor and is any identifiable point on the figure that     

     can be referred to such as where the femur joins the pelvis, where the humerus joins the scapula,
     or the tibia joins the metatarsus [cannonbone], etc.

                 Shown below is a clay model of a horse with body landmarks identified with dots.

7.  Bony landmarks occur at places where different parts of a form meet or come together.  This is  
     also called  "points of articulation".
8.  Understanding anatomy takes the mystery out of drawing, painting, and sculpting.   Start with the
      largest bones and compare them with your own.  All mammals have the same basic design.
9.  Bony landmarks can assist the artist in establishing proportion and a point of reference which is      
     discussed and illustrated in the next blog post.
10. Beyond bony landmarks and waypoints, the sculptor must keep the large masses simple. clarified,          
      and unified . . . more is said with large shapes, planes, and masses.
11. Indicate the simple, underlying masses of the skeletal system:  Skull, rib cage, pelvis, lumbar,
      abdomen, neck, shoulder, upper and lower leg, etc.
12. Bony landmarks are generally the joining of limbs and the points of articulation . . . be aware of

      your own body and movement when modeling the horse.   See drawing below.

13. Don't give premature attention to detail . . . there will typically be problems with proportion.

14. It's really true:  Sculptors sculpt what they know and painters paint what they see.

Three-dimintional form creates shadows . . .  when the sculptor understands anatomy,  

the shadows fall in the right place.

Eclipse
26"H 25"W 9"D

                 

Go to the BLOG INDEX and Reference Page for more information.  See posts #616 and 655

Blog, text, photos, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

     

#617 Reference for the horse artist . . . Sam Savitt

When I left art school in Kansas City in the early 1960s, I entered the realm of commercial art and animation.
My heroes then remain my heroes now . . . one of them was the outstanding illustrator of horses:  Sam Savitt.
 Born in 1917, he passed away in the year 2000.  He illustrated for outdoor magazines but horse stories
was always his specialty . . . be it racing, polo, western, rodeo, dressage, or fox hunting and I remember him
as a youngster when my Father would give me his magazines to tear the pictures for my scrapbooks.

He authored numerous books, illustrated over 150 books, and among many other publications,  illustrated a line of comics for Gene Autry's horse, Champion for Dell Comics in 1951 which I eagerly collected. . . and wish I had saved. 

 Not only was he a great illustrator, he was a horseman with a great knowledge of horses.  

Below, is the cover of one of his best know books, "Draw Horses With Sam Savitt", originally published in 1981
by Half Halt Press, Middletown, Maryland.  Also shown are images of pages from the book.
This is a very informative book and he shows you how to draw and understand the horse in motion, 

conformation and markings, anatomy, and breeds of horses, and much more.

In 1995, while teaching a bird sculpture workshop at Scottsdale Artists' School,  Mr. Savitt was also an instructor there. 

 I had the great pleasure of meeting him and was truly star-struck!  Trish and I had just picked up our new West Highland Terrier puppy and he was totally charmed by the little dog and would play with it every day when we took our breaks. 

 A few years later, after he had died I found the book, published 1969, shown below in a flea market and rescued it.  

To my delight, when I opened the book, it had been signed to someone and had a sketch of a horse 

which is also shown below.  His elegant style and presentation of the horse is my ideal.

www.samsavitt

www.samsavitt.com/books

Go to the BLOG INDEX and Reference Page for more information.  See posts # 616 and 655

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

#612 In the studio: Cat reference

The role of reference is to inspire thoughts and give anatomical data and proportions.  I recently completed the sculpture of a Cougar shown at right which I posted on the previous blog.

Each individual animal has different shapes and characteristics that are unique to that species.  My goal is to recognize and capture that individuality and this post compares
the anatomy and proportions of large cats.  

While I've only seen a Cougar in the wild twice and both times in Wyoming from a distance, I recently
spent many hours researching the animal in my library and reference room which is attached to the studio.
Research puts me in the "zone" artistically and when I'm there I accumulate everything I can such as
drawings, photos, notes. books, video, clip file,  taxidermy, skulls . . . anything that that makes me
live, think, see, feel, dream, and understand the animal I'm working on. 

While cats such as Cheetah, Leopard, and Lion have similar anatomy, their proportions, skeleton, and behavior are very different.  For more info and anatomical and skeletal data and comparison . . . see blog #479 posted Nov. 17, 2013 thru #483.  Also refer to blog #496 posted Jan. 15, 2014.  Comparative anatomy is an important research consideration.

www.Blog#479     www.Blog # 496

I am fascinated by the motion, movement, and stealth-like behavior of North America's Cougar.

Cougars are slender, agile, secretive, solitary and considered nocturnal predators . . .
They typically hunt by stalking and ambushing and must feed exclusively on meat to survive.

They are very athletic and can jump, climb, and swim. The Cougar (Felix concolor) holds the Guinness record
for the animal with the highest number of names. It has over 40 names in English alone!  Among them:
Cougar, Mountain Lion, Puma, Panther, Jaguar, Catamount, and the list goes on!

The beautiful Cougar can weigh as much as 300 pounds and can be nine feet long including
the tail which like most cats, is used for balance.  Like all cats, the Cougar's bones are joined together very loosely
which allows extreme flexibility of the spine and scapula.  The scapula is so loosely bound to the ribs that they can push up above the spine when the animal crouches.  Cats, in general, are so supple and flexible that their
front limbs (arms) are capable of almost as many motions as our own.  There are five fingers on either hand though the thumb is smaller and higher up than the others, but on the foot, there is no dewclaw and only four toes.

Below, is the Cougar's skeletal silhouette compared to a house cat.

Much can be learned about large cats by observing your house cat.  Below, is a sculpture entitled "Preening Cat".
 Note the flexible vertebrae of the cat's back . . .  most quadrupeds, including dogs, are more
rigidly constructed and do not have the extreme flexibility of the spine.

Cats have supple and flexible bodies and move with stealth and agility.  Below, are extraordinary examples of cat sculptures by famous artists of the past.  Note the flexible spring-like spine in all works.  The first example is
"Tiger Devouring an Antelope" by Antoine Louis Barye (1796 - 1875).

Below, is "Crouching Tiger"  by Rembrandt Bugatti (1884 -1916).

Below, is an image of  "Reaching Jaguar"  by Anna Hyatt Huntington (1876 -1973) which is in our collection.

Go to the BLOG INDEX on the right for more information.  See posts #616 and 655

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

#503 In the studio: Birds . . . evolution and anatomy

BIRD EVOLUTION AND ANATOMY

Birds appeared more than 150 million years ago, during the Jurassic or possibly the Triassic period.
The recent discovery of vast beds of fossil birds and "feathered dinosaurs"  in deposits in northeast China
and central Asia has opened argument about whether birds descended from dinosaurs or earlier
 archosaurs but also clarified an ongoing question:  Birds and two-legged creatures such as
the carnivore, Tyannosaurus rex, are on the same branch of the evolutionary tree.

The earliest known bird was the Archaeopteryz - pronounced arky-OP-tuh-ricks - the word means "ancient wing" in Greek.  A fossil discovered in Bavaria in 1861 shows that the creature who grew to the size of a crow, had feathers, claws, and other features that scientists think is the link to modern birds.   Six specimens of "arky" have been found . . .
all in limestones in southern Germany and all dated between 200 and 140 million years ago.

Below, is a photo of Archaeopteryz . . . "arky" for short.

Although "arky" had many unmistakable bird features, much of its skeleton is akin to those of reptiles.
Scientists think a bird's scaly legs are the last reminders of a reptilian ancestor and that feathers originated as
reptilian scales . . . feathers are made from the same horny substance of which fingernails are made.   

Feathers - not flight - set birds apart from other animals. . . many species, such as ostrich, have evolved with an inability to fly.  The evolution of powered flight required major skeletal modifications to change its early gliding wing movement to flapping flight.  The small,  two-legged, carnivorous dinosaur designed for a life of gliding from tree to tree in a gloomy Jurassic jungle evolved into today's modern bird and Archaeopteryz is the missing link.

Most, but not all birds fly.  The bones are light but remarkably strong, and some contain air sacs connected to the lungs.  Below, is a drawing of a bird skeleton and illustrates a number of modifications that make flight possible.
(1): Heavy teeth have been replaced by a light bill

(2): The bones of the skull are thin.

(3) and (4): The bones of the wings and legs are composed of thin-walled, honey-combed  tubes.
Nature has sluffed off weight to enable flight.

Although the information presented in this post is current . . .  as new discoveries are made,

both in the field and with DNA, scientists will continue to fine-tune,
fill in the details, provide a more complete picture, and debate the evolution of birds.

The fact remains that "arky" was unique for it possessed feathers.
The development of feathers was one of the crucial steps in the evolution of birds.


Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish Smith

   

#200 In the studio: Equestrian maquette, con't . . .

Typically, I don't use measuring devices such as calipers, to tell me if my sculpture is "right". I am not blindly dependent on them because the results in clay can come across as a specimen of the figure.

After attending the Kansas City Art Institute years ago, I worked as a background artist in the animation department of Calvin Motion Pictures. While creating a recent sculpture depicting running horses, I referred to an animator's trick which is to "draw the verb".  For instance, while horses are the noun . . . running is the verb.

The sculptor must understand locomotive anatomy; how the muscles bunch and stretch.  The sculptor must know when and how to exaggerate a figure's form and anatomy.  Below, is the initial block-in and work in progress.  By narrowing the waist and lengthening the largest shape - the torso - a sensation of athleticism and speed is felt by the viewer.

#180 In the studio: Creatures in motion con't . . .

The sculptor must understand locomotive anatomy:

How the animal's body works, how the muscles stretch and bunch

and how and if the creature bends.

The animal artist should know how and when to exaggerate.

Coyote Clipper
9"H 17"W 6"D

#177 In the studio: Creatures in motion . . .

All animals have their own variation of anatomy in motion.

The sculptor must be in search of what makes each creature special unto itself.

Motivated

16"H 19"L 8"D

#95 Throw on another log: "loose" con't . . .

There is no technical trick for modeling in a "loose" manner.  The sculptor
must simply feel or sense that he or she has created a meaningful shape
and surface passage.  This cannot be accomplished without understanding
the subject's anatomy.

Take any man and develop his mind and soul and heart 

to the fullest by the right work and the right study 

and then let him find through this training 

the utmost freedom of expression.  

For a man ceases to imitate when he has achieved 

the power to express fully and freely his own ideas.

                                                           - Robert Henri

Roosting Rooster Fragment I

19"H 26"W 6"D

with detail below 

"Loose" is how it looks, not how it's done.

Go to the BLOG INDEX on the right for more information.

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish