From: =?utf-8?Q?Mathieu_Ren=C3=A9?= <creaturiste-AT-primus.ca>
To: <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org>
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:55:23 -0400
Subject: [Puptcrit] New Clay Caricature



http://creaturistelab.blogspot.com/2009/04/caricature-andresauve.html




Details:
I finished the clay caricature I was working on part-time this week.
I'm really happy with it, even considering the tech problems I had from the 
start.
I was even able to come up with a way to protect it while it's being carried 
to a potential customer.

It is the first time I allow one of my clay sculpts to be shown (and carried 
as is) without me.
But it's a necessary risk, as my contact's contact needs something tangible 
to show to her superior. I can trust my contact, thankfully.
No time to make a mold and cast a plaster copy (which I would have tinted), 
which would have been my first choice.
Gotta jump on that special train, even when it comes suddenly, without 
advance warning!

I did it both as a personal challenge and a way to impress a wider audience 
when viewing my portfolio.
It is said that for an artwork to be popular, people must "recognize 
themselves" in it.
One obvious way to do that is to have recognizable subject matter, such as a 
beloved or hated celebrity.

The people of Madame Tusseaud and Waxworks have understood this, with their 
huge international business of reproducing celebrities faitfully in "wax". 
They work with actual measurements and photos they take themselves. Some 
will argue that they are more like technicians than artists. I disagree. It 
takes an artist to bring the skills and make the decisions to make the 
person's personality shine though.
Even an actual lifecast of a person can't be as accurate (visually and 
emotionaly) as what the best of them create.

I'll probably never master anatomy and sculpting enough to even come close 
to what they do. I'm ok with that, considering all the techniques I must do, 
and all the others I will gladly learn, to create countless puppets and 
masks.

Theatre, just like litterature, is so liberating! Part of the magic is that 
we don't need to "say it all", we just suggest it, and let the audience's 
imagination fill in the blanks.  So, a crudely sculpted Punch glove puppet 
can become even more real than an anatomically perfect character with skin 
pores and clothing to scale.
 

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