Well, there’s been some progress on the Muskox theme sign! I spent the past couple days assembling the wood armature and making sure all the pieces are securely attached. Ive never been so into building things, let alone using a powerdrill, so it was a bit a of a tough learning curve. I had never done anything like this before, and use to think designs like these stay on the page. But when it comes to a themed design from a character from my picture-book i seem to give it

Lately as I've been finishing up the previous two projects, I've gotten to begin a new piece, it's the muskoka's conservatory sign. I had drawn up the design several days ago from a mere sketch in my drawing booklet. After some initial brainstorming and planning, I went out and got some pieces of wood that i would use to construct the armature. So far it is turning out really well. I do still at times stop to scratch my head and wonder how I am going to proceed with what

The past day I got to make last refinements to both the Superdog Jake sculpture and the Walrus sign. For the walrus sign, the gold leafing went really well. I applied a layer over the already sprayed metalic rim. I decided to paint the background a light green hue and gave it a bit of a gradient towards the bottom. I am really pleased with how it turned out and how the color scheme compliments the red tinge of the walrus. It seems to work out just right! I made some revision

In the workshop today, I spent the good portion of the morning and afternoon painting the Superdog Jake car Sculpture. It is turning out pretty well. So far I've applied the base coats on mostly every area with a few last coats to go over in some places. I got experimenting. Beforehand I planned to use my dog Jake's collar and name tag as part of the actual sculpture. So i hot glue gunned the dog tag on the rear of the car, sort of like a liscence plate that looks like a dog

Today I got to tackle a new phase of the project: painting! It took a little bit to get started but once i gathered my paints and materials, I was in the zone! It was a little challenging to paint it but very meditative as well. I spray painted the rim gold and feather and painted in the base coats for the walrus, including his hat and the background. I am still on the fence, deciding whether or not to keep the blue background, as this is a very warm tone piece. I may swap i

On one these past few days outside of the workshop, I got to check out the local snow castle here in Yellowknife, NT. As usual, I was blown away when I saw it. My favourite part was admittedly going down the slide and having such a blast crawling aroudn the little secrete tunnels hidden all around the castle. Wow! Even getting to see the relief carving that the carvers did on the interior walls is simply awe-inspiring. Even the lettering is so crisp and precise. I wonder how

This morning I entered the workshop and took a look at the Walrus sign. One look was more than enough to know that I would be swapping the older ''feather'' of Pearlman's hat for a new and better version. Yesterday I had ran to the dollar store and found myself some garden metal art and snagged two metal leaves off of it and attach it to the Walrus's hat. Having done that, I feel on the the right path now, as these metal feathers convey my vision so much better, and keeps the

I have a few exciting new updates, as I have been working on the Superdog Jake car sculpture. This past thursday I managed to cut some holes in the front wood to attach the LED lights. This project is really coming to life, and I seem to make cool little additions along the way. For the lights I ran to the Dollar store and picked up some basic string lights. I then tied two independent bunches of them together one bunch for each headlight. I then stuck them in and hot glued

Some exciting new updates . The past few days I've worked on both the Superdog Jake suclpture and the Walrus dimensional sign. Oh boy. Its turning out really good. For the Superdog Jake sculpture I spend the past day cutting wire and attaching it all around the wooden armature. Additionally I got to create the wheel armature and reinforced the armarture for Jake. For the exhaust pipe on the rear I used a firm cylindrical piece of cardboard and wrapped it with wire. That shoul

The past few days I've been working mostly on the Superdog Jake car sculpture. Its looking pretty good. So far I've got the armature in the works. I cut some smaller wood pieces and screwed it onto the side of the car. These will act as the base for the wheels. I decided to add wire to the wood so that the clay will have better chances of staying on. I went out and got some more wire and used a hot glue gun to attach strips of wire to the wood. Its going alright and steady.

Oh boy! Today was a really awesome day in the workshop. For the Superdog Jake sculpture I got to cut some more wood pieces to make up the armature for the sidecar. That took a little while. As for the Pearlman sign, I got to work applying a few layers of tinfoil around the metal wired snout area to bulken it up before getting to the more exciting part: applying the clay! I really enjoyed putting the clay onto the armature of the walrus. Oh man, I got so into the zone, I had

Today I got started with a few things to take my sculptures to the next phases. For the walrus sign I added a bit of another layer of wood for where his arm will overhang onto the sign. I also added the metal wire for where the feather will be on his hat. Next for the Walrus sign, I will begin to add tinfoil to bulken him up and start painting the background. After that I should be ready to apply clay and get to the more fun part: sculpting! In the menawhile, I got started c

Today was a pretty great day. I got to glue some more layers onto the walrus sign and it holds up better than i had expected! I scratched my head for a while, pondering how i would make the armature for the tusks of the walrus, but then finally settled on drilling two holes in the snout area and then inserting a pair of thick wires. These should hold up pretty well. Tomorrow, what's left to do is cleaning up the sign and then I will begin applying some tinfoil to bulken up t

The past day or two I've gotten to start on a new little project. This time its a sign, and its Captain Pearlman the Walrus from my Bear and Ivory Picture book! I'll include the design. I knew that this would be something i would work on in layers. I first started by drawing an outline, the entire shilloute of the sign onto a nice firm wood board. I then jig sawwed this piece out. And because the walrus will be coming out of the sign, as a relief sculpture, I needed to make

Today was a lot of fun when it came to attaching the Jake sculpture to the wooden base. I got to go out to Canadian Tire and pick up some small wood screws, tiny enough to attach the sculpture to base and be where Jake's feet would be. I painted it with a base coat, and then added the colors. I am really pleased with how it all turned out! I am quite impressed acutally. I really most espeiclaly love the dimensionality of the peice and that there are clear layers going on thr

Today i got do some pretty fun and exciting new work. I got back into the little jake sculpture and began applying the clay. I worked it all around and it turned out pretty well. My favourite part was adding Jakes beautiful mane, which is like that of a lion. I really focused on adding layers, as this would really help the sculpture ''read'' easier. I started considering what base i would use for this sculpture and decided to go for a round wooden one. I got my dad to help

Today was rather busy as I am still in the process of settling in to my old room here in Yellowknife. I did deliver some more copies of Superdog Jake to the local Book store, and managed to start a little armature of Jake the dog. Putting together the wire armature took some time, and then wrapping it with tinfoil was the quicker part. I pinched myself with the thin wire and bled. For a moment, i gasped 'ouch!' I was originally going to start on a bigger sculpture, but decide

I got some more work done on my little relief sculpting project. After waiting for a day, i got to do the painting. It was a little tricky to get around all the corners of the clay but i managed fairly well. As i applied another coat, it began to look better already. I am really pleased with how it all turned out. It is soo cool to feel the characters coming off of the front cover of the book. It gives it all a more immediate lively effect. Can you imagine if everybook cover

I just moved from Oakville, back to my hometown, Yellowknife, and its been so cold outside that I re-realize why I prefer living else where during the winter. To tell the truth, I miss my girlfriend, Roberta, my friends and the warmer weather. But I feel in my bones that i am on the right path, and even more good things are coming. Today i set up my room a bit and posted up onto the walls many inspiring photos of theme sculpture work that i've seen from Dan Sawatzkys worksho

During the past two weeks, i've begun doing more smaller clay sculpture projects and I'll include a few photos. I loved seeing that tower from Professor WEM's mini golf so much that i just had to make a mintiure clay replica of it. It was the first time in a long while i had done this so my fingers took quite the beating and took a little while to toughen up to the armature wire. As challenging as it was at first, the sculpture looks good. ~~~ Another project I star