Long day in the studio today. Started with the panel I goofed around with last week -- the one with the modeling paste and pumice powder. Thought I'd fire up the wax again for the next step. I so love the smell of that beeswax! Here it is, just starting to heat up -

While the wax was melting I did some more playing with the paste/pumice panel. Got out the propane torch (woohoo!) and worked it over the panel, darkening and browning areas here and there. Then I got out some chalk pastels in a couple of earthy colors and dabbed them on here and there. I have a natural attraction to weathered patina'd surfaces, so that's the direction I found myself moving in --

Didn't get any pictures of the panel with the wax on it (except in the last picture below). But soon I set aside that project and picked up a small (about 2 inches high) face sculpture I did a few months ago. It was sculpted from water clay and simply left to dry. It's not fired. As an experiment I tried dipping the face into the hot wax. I like the result! An interesting surface texture, almost stone-like. The wax filled in the rough areas some and left the high points exposed --

Next I started a new water clay piece. I was going to go for a full face/head scupt, but doing the lips was such a good learning exercise. My knowledge of the structure of the eye is so weak, I figured it'd be a good exercise to just sculpt an eye. Wow -- eyes is TOUGH! Lots going on with planes going this way and that. I really struggled with this and didn't end up with a very good model. Much I need to correct on the next go-around, but here's my first try at an eye sculpt --

This last picture is just me goofing around with various objects in the studio -- the waxed panel from this morning, a couple of lengths from an old folding ruler I took apart last month, an old hand-carved wooden bowl, and the little waxed face in the middle. This isn't a final piece at all. But it speaks to my aesthetic. Maybe the bones for a future work --