I Love NYC

NYC Pics

I was archiving some of my old pics, and happened upon a few good ones from NYC. Thought of posting them.

Enjoy!

Lessons in sculpting

Did you know that you could get a lesson in sculpting on the streets of New York?

That is exactly what happened last week in New York. After dinner, I was strolling around Times Square and what do I see: a guy sculpting people's likeness out of clay right on the street. As I was always interested in sculpting, I stood by and started watching him. As you see in the pics above, he went from pic #1 to pic #2 in less than 15 mins! He was quick and accurate.

His technique was what interested me. He started off with a lump of clay, and slammed it into a mold (the type of clay he used was very important). What came out of the mold was the shape of a generic face, very close to what you see in pic #1. Onto this, he started adding/removing clay to add features. All he used was a few wooden tools to supplement his fingers. I took a series of pics of him working on a model. That gave me a very good record of the process he followed. I even tried to buy one of his molds, but he wouldn't part with it (he had spares). I have tried looking for such a mold ever since in vain.

All in all, it was an interesting demonstration of his clay modeling technique, and I learnt a great deal in less than a half hour! As soon as I came back home, I went and bought some of the same clay he was using, and started experimenting on my own. Will post some of the results once they are worthy of sharing.

2008 Green Ganesha

On the heels of last year's green Ganesha, here is this year's edition, in process. Again, I have used all recyclable materials: clay and toothpicks. The main difference this year is the size of the idol. This one is about 20% bigger, and hence has a lot more detail. The bigger it gets, the more detail I can put into it. Also, I sculpted the model while it was standing, unlike the earlier ones which were lying down.

All in all, this was a great satisfying project.

Eiffel tower details

Here is another mixed media drawing of the details on the Eiffel tower. I did this the year we visited Paris.

More to come as I dig them out...

Portrait

Thought of kicking off the new year with a mixed media sketch. This one is done with color pencils and charcoal.