Here’s a quick video which documents the creative process I went through sculpting the red tailed hawk named Sundance.
Sculpting Sundance
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Sculpting Live in the Gallery
Wow! What an evening. The Living Desert brought a red tailed hawk along with several other animals such as a burrowing owl, chuckwalla, hedgehog and Madagascar hissing cockroaches into the J. Willott Gallery. With expert animal handler Ben Klopf holding Sundance, the red-tailed hawk, I sculpted live at the gallery for three hours. More impressive was that Ben was able to hold the hawk the entire time without a single break. This was a rare and unique opportunity to work in a gallery from a live animal. The entire event was organized by the gallery to raise money for the Living Desert. The sculpture will be in a limited edition of about 15 and 25% of every sculpture will be donated to the zoo. The event was a huge success, we were able to move sculptures, educate and raise money for the living desert. More videos and pictures to come.
Meeting the Hawk
Since I’ll only have three to four hours to sculpt a hawk live at the J. Willott Gallery I felt that it’s necessary to begin sculpting before the event. Today I did just that by sculpting the red tail hawk live. This is the same hawk that will be at the gallery tomorrow. There’s no substitute for working from life. After sculpting and observing the bird for a few hours I felt that I was better prepared to finish the sculpture tomorrow night at the gallery.
Wing Armature
Feathers are crazy each one is uniquely designed with a specific shape and purpose. In preparation for the live sculpting I’ll be doing at the J. Willott Gallery I’ve created each wing out of individual card board feathers. Tedious, though it may be cutting out each feather, It has been a great learning experience. I can say for the first time that I have a grasp on flight feathers of a red tailed hawk. Once these are covered in wax and clay I’ll attach them to the armature of the main sculpture. more to come.
Talons
Here are some of the sketches I did of actual raptor specimens in anticipation to the live sculpting of a red-tailed hawk a week from this Saturday at the J. Willott Gallery in Palm Desert. Most of the drawings are talons of a red tailed hawk the other two are great horned owl and red shouldered hawk.
Platypus Vigilante
Who doesn’t like platypuses they’re cute, odd and they have venomous spurs on their heels (true story.) A while back I was playing with an idea about a platypus mad max style who put a lawn mower engine on a a big wheel and became a kind of vigilante hero of the highway.
New Book this Fall!
I’m excited to announce that I’m in the middle of a book which will come out this fall. The story and paintings are coming along nicely. Here is an image I just finished for one of the pages. More to come.
