A different kettle of fish

For the last twenty years I've been saying that if sculptors of the past, from Michelangelo to Rodin, visited my studio they would recognized every process, from clay, to plaster, to wax to bronze: in 500 years nothing has changed. 

But what I am working on now is a different kettle of fish. My experiments of taking an impressing from the initial clay sketch in handmade paper have now progressed from high-relief to a torso in the round. The first photograph shows the life-size torso in clay and the second the thin film of polythene to which the paper will be applied. The tie from the sash clamp is to prevent the torso from leaning to far. The body weight in clay is far more than the body weight in life and the metal supporting armature has its work cut out to prevent it from toppling over. 

I have based this experimental torso on the full figure of Geneen that you can see in the background but simplified to prevent deep undercuts. 

Incidentally, this isn't the first time that my life-size clay figures, regardless of supporting metal armatures, have taken on more than the intended lean. Perhaps Rodin's controversial leaning figure of Balzac initially came about by accident rather than intent.

Rodin's monument to Balzac (1893)