Animal Dynamics final day!

Yesterday was the final day of David Cemmick’s tutorial in sculpting animals (and a bird) at the wonderful Barcelona Academy of Arts. The three women- Gabrielle Trom ( a young Minnesotan who is so talented that she is now teaching at the Academy), Sophie Cahu (a brilliant French scuptor also specialising in the human figure) and Rosa Guilera from Barcelona (a ceramicist who blew us all away with a photo of her latest stunning piece of work) had to finish their bunnies, Kevin Bott ( a retired engineer from Chester who’d never sculpted before) had to finish his macaw parrot and I had to finish my warthog. We had to be done by 3pm when we were to be photographed standing proudly (or sheepishly) beside our efforts for the Academy’s archives! We all done good and David let us all choose a page from his lovely skechbook of zoo studies as a souvenir! Despite the wide range of age and experience in our small group we all learned a lot and had a great time! This was David’s first go at teaching sculpture and he did a fine job! Fingers crossed for more!
As a little bonus, Kev’s son Chris turned up to see his Dad’s brilliant parrot and offered to make a 3D digital scan of it and my warthog. Chris is a special effects wizard for sci-fi films. He did all the creatures in John Carter of Mars and is about to start in robots for a new Netflix TV series.

Once I have the file I can get my nephew Lukas to make a 3D version of it with his new printer! It would have been a bit difficult to bring Warty home with me on the plane as his is screwed to a wooden base board. All in all it was a fun and informative week in gorgeous Barcelona!

Animals at the Academi day 4 of 5

yesterday was the penultimate day of David Cemmick’s Animal Dynamics course at the Barcelona Academy of Art and we are all making progress. Sophie and Ella are both superb sculptors of the human figure but neither had tackled animals before. Rosa, who is a native Barcelona lady, has worked in ceramics but I think animals are a new subject for her. My only sculpting experience is that of modelling cartoon rabbits for a figurine company years ago and retired engineer Kevan has never sculpted anything at all before so tackling a life size parrot is an ambitious challenge! My attempt at sculpting a warthog is getting less like Pumba from the Lion King and more like the real thing, I think. After our coffee break David treated us to a speed sculpture demonstration of Carmelle’s ( our bunny model) head. Which was very helpful especially for the three women. Today is our last day so fingers crossed and good luck all!

Animal Sculpture Day 3 of 5

Today the group were back at the Barcelona Academy of Arts to start sculpting our desired animal. After a busy day’s drawing at the zoo yesterday the three ladies had decided to sculpt Carmelle our bunny model and the two chaps- me and Kevan, have decided to try to sculpt inhabitants of the zoo. Kevin has plumped for a parrot which is very ambitious as it requires a large armature and an exaggerated pose and after much rumination i’ve decided to attempt a warthog. They are odd looking creatures with faces like something out of the Star Wars cantina but I’m

having a go. By 3.30 we had all made a good start and headed home through the muggy heat of Barcelona to showers and siestas. More progress (we hope) tomorrow!