This last spring, I sculpted my former employer’s golden retriever, Raina, as a memorial gift. I use traditional figurative relief sculpting techniques. Sculpting an animal for the first time brought several surprising challenges.
For starters, after years of sculpting people, I was thrown by the shape of an animal’s skull! This last year has been the ‘year of animals’, and Raina was the first one. I quickly discovered that I had to learn the basics of anatomy all over again — animal anatomy! I have plenty of models for human anatomy, but nothing for this project. I spent a lot of time finding reference photos of dog skulls from various angles and dog skeletons too..
I also had to work from a blurry photo, so I didn’t have a model to work from–definitely not my favorite way to work! That sent me on another search online for golden retriever reference photos. I also found several other photos of my friend’s dog on FB, but they were all from different stages of Raina’s life.
The last big challenge was simply that the perspective was seriously foreshortened! One of the fun aspects of relief sculpting is the fact that you have to pull from your drawing background. I didn’t have a lot, just a year of still life drawing from real life, but it was enough. I draw everything I sculpt, so that helped! My drawing was just a quick sketch, but that always helps me get an initial ‘feel’ for what I’m sculpting, even if I don’t use it for the relief.
I also used a little ‘cheat’ technique that my teacher, Mike K., taught me to help speed up the process. After sketching free hand, I made a transparency of the photo and projected it on heavy drawing paper on the wall to make a pattern. Then you can screw the heavy paper over the top of the relief, mark the main guidelines with a stylus or nail and then flip that paper down when needed to check that you haven’t traveled too much. So helpful!
I had to make the relief 12″ x 12″, because the first cast would be donated to my local art gallery for a student fund raiser. That made the projected image a bit blurry, but it was enough to work with.
The last challenge, the one I struggled with most, was how to paint the relief so that it had a nice color without overpowering the sculpture. I tried to keep it as subdued as possible with a cream background and a slightly golden color for the dog’s body. I also used the cream background to tinge the nose and tongue slightly pink.
In spite of the challenges, I just fell in love with this sculpting project! What I never expected was that I would end up with such a beautiful sculpture in such a short time. Most of my projects generally take months to complete, and I finished this in only a month!
For the first time in my sculpting journey, I realized that I have developed ‘skills’ and they have really improved! I don’t know when exactly.. but there is no question that I can sculpt what I want to create more accurately and quickly than I have done in the past. What a joy! š
Raina, won 2nd place in the Conroe Art League’s Fall art show and is now entered in the Lone Star Art Guild’s annual state level competition. I have also submitted it to the 2023 International Art Show. This is a juried show, so I have no idea if it will be accepted. That show is extremely competitive and, really, it just depends on the tastes of the judge.
More importantly, my Raina sculpture made my boss cry! He loved Raina deeply and missed her. That’s the most rewarding part of sculpting– making a sculpture for someone who will treasure it!
Donna C. Rodgers, Sculptor 