I hope you've enjoyed this sneak peak into the world of The Iron Phoenix as I finish off this series of 'Art in Progress'. This is something I'll be doing more of in the future, particularly with large projects.
Now... on with the tale!
As mentioned before, I thought that, at last, I had completed my work. Everything was in its place, head and wings and feet all where they should be.
But alas... upon arriving home with my completed work, I was horrified to discover that one of the welds on the face had broken. And since the ostrich's face was attached to the skull by only a few welds, this just wasn't something that could be overlooked.
Not only that... once I had a chance to step back and review my work and fully take it in, I realized that the sculpture was, indeed, not done. There were a few aspects of the design I just wasn't satisfied with.
The head was angled a little too far to the side. The eyes, with their faceted depths, looked odd and bug-like. With the way I had constructed the legs, the body bobbed just a little too much, which raised some stability concerns.
It seemed my work was not yet done. And as soon as I found the time, it was off to the studio I went!
The first thing on my agenda... Fix the Face.
The broken weld was repaired, and this time I made sure to solidly apply the weld across 3 pieces, as well as adding a couple additional welds to the top of the head. That way if one broke, the whole face would still be secure.
Next... I needed to fix those eyes.
I'd debated putting pupils on them. But after comparing various washers and discs, I decided that just wasn't going to work. I needed something that would narrow the view of the eyes, so they weren't so huge and round.
This is when I came up with the idea to put eye lids! Eye lids would soften the eyes and give them more personality, while also shadowing them and reducing the bug-like faceted quality of the gems.
Now, if you've ever made anything where you have to add eye lids... you'll know that doing so is not as easy as it seems. There's a bit of a fine art to adding eye lids and not making your subject look angry/dopey/worried/sleepy/something other then what you want/etc.... In this case, I wanted the eyes to look... kinda neutral. Or a little cheerful to match the big grin I had going with the beak.
What I managed to get... was something that looked a little... stoner-ish? From the side it looked cheerful and happy! From the front... a little odd. Like I said, creating eye lids is something of an art form all on its own, and one I have yet to master.
Buuut... it did do the job I wanted it to. The large, round eyes were softened, the gaze narrowed, so rather then looking bizarre and alien, the eyes now had a spark of personality and felt as if they belonged to the ostrich.
The eye lids also livened up the face and added some additional detail. While an actual ostrich head is basically just a pair of eye balls and a beak stuck on the top of a neck, I wasn't liking the way the face looked. It was too... simple. Too devoid of details. This is also why I went back and added some extra feathery 'tufts' around the head.
Another thing that had been bothering me for some time, was the beak. It was too flat and straight, and didn't quite feel right. So I gently bend the edges of the beak, softening the edge, which made it more organic feeling.
Once that was complete, it was time to fix that stability issue.
Unfortunately, with the way I'd crafted the legs, all the parts were welded onto the rebar frame, but because the pipe was in segments, rather then whole, solid pieces, the rebar was basically the only support. And seeing as it wasn't thick rebar, that made it flexible. I didn't want to add anything that was going to be really obvious, as that would defeat the whole purpose of having the segmented legs. So, I took a couple of 1/4in round bar, and ran them up the back of the legs, on the inside of the pipe, opposite the rebar (which was welded to the front half of the pipes) and welded the pipe segments to the round bar. While this wasn't a complete fix, it did prevent the lower legs from being able to flex so easily, which greatly improved the stability of the whole piece.
The neck was stabilized by adding scrap around the base, welding it securely, thus ensuring the neck couldn't easily move around.
With these repairs made, I was at last satisfied with my creation!
The finished product came out to be around shoulder height to me, which put it at around 5ft tall, give or take a bit. It probably weighed around... 40-50lbs maybe? I could carry it without assistance, though for ease of transport, I opted to be lazy and used a dolly.
The whole sculpture will rust in time, which should make it really pretty. The large green eyes, being glass, will not fade, so they should remain bright and green and really visible, which is what I was aiming for.
By the time I completed this, I think I put somewhere around 18-20hrs of work into it, plus another 6-10hrs travel time, just trying to find the various bits and pieces I would need!
And so ends this session of 'Art in Progress - The Creation of a Scraptrich'.
I hope you've all enjoyed reading about my adventure with this sculpture! This was a fun experience for me, and I learned a lot. Particularly the difficulty in acquiring materials. But large sculpture is something I would really like to continue doing in the future. I certainly have the scrap for it!
Next up on my Art in Progress.... The Whipple Shield
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