Wooden Hands - Sculpture (WHITE CLAY MAQUETTE)

I produced this maquette in response to the work of Christopher David – White, focusing on the subject matter of cupped hands to metaphorically reference the hands of one who creates a wooden piece.

Thank you for the support, hope you enjoy and find inspiration from my piece.

-Arthur

I used white clay to ensure that the natural texture of the piece was smooth, so that I could control the texture myself, intentionally, as opposed to how the natural appearance of the clay looked. 

It is also useful to have a good pair of modelling tools of different sizes at your disposal.

The first step was to photocopy hands. This provided me with the outline of a proportional pair of hands.

The next step was to roll out clay, at the depth of one inch to ensure that I could add solidity to the form of the hand, whilst still having the freedom to add or remove any clay if necessary.

In addition to this, I manipulated the clay to create a rough form of older, cupper hands.

Using a photo which I took of a cupped pair of hands, I ensured that I went back to observation and frequently checked my reference to ensure the features were proportional and in balance to one another.

I then began to delineate the joints of the hands, in particular the fingers.

To guarantee that there was contrast between the creases in the hand and the padding of the palms, I added and removed clay in areas.

To continue to add shape, depth, form, and structure, I formed the creases of the hands and fingers with more clarity, whilst bending the fingers.

Once comfortable with how the elements worked in combination and balance, I proceeded to focus on incorporating the lines of wood and bark to experiment with how to achieve a similar look of Christopher David White’s sculptures whilst still making it convenient and applicable to my theme, making use of wooden and hooked modelling tools to score and carve the unique elements of the wood texture.

I decided to not use paints, oxides, glazes, etc. Settling on the natural colour of the clay to express the simplicity of nature, this also allowed for the contrast between the highlights and lowlights to be more distinguishable.