Verlinden 200mm W T Sherman Bust

[Guest]

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I'm getting a bit embarrassed by my high failure rate at the moment, so please bear with me on this attempt.

This is Verlinden's depiction of the great Union general William Tecumseh Sherman. I recently read E L Doctorow's novel The March which is about Sherman's famous rampage through the Carolinas:

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A great cover photo.

The campaign was designed to disrupt the southern heartland, and the novel emphasises one of the biggest problems that arose; namely the freeing of slaves that had nowhere to go and had no choice but to follow the army. The train of camp followers became so unwieldy that most had to be abandoned, often miles from home and with no choice but to return to their plantations.

The famously red-haired general had a remarkably craggy face, which the sculptor has captured well:

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This is going to be difficult, but here goes.......

[Neil Merryweather]

fingers crossed.........

[Guest]

Everything's crossed.

[SteveH]

Morning Peter

Looks promising, I am sure you will step through your supply issues and have fun too.

Cold and frosty here, watching You Tube modelling and painting!

I'd rather be doing it myself, but not yet it seems.

Enjoy the paint and have a fun day

Regards

Steve H

[Steve Jones]

That's such a shame Peter. It was going so well. Better luck with the next one.

Oops! Too soon. Soz LOL

I'm sure it will be a complete success Mr Day. Due to my heckling I have been sent to the back of the room. JR will send me regular updates. Good luck sir!

[Guest]

Steve H - Watching someone else modelling and painting may be preferable some times! Appalling light here today, though a daylight bulb has helped.

Stevie J - Oh, don't joke about it, you rotter! Back of the room is the right place for you.

So, as of lunchtime:



A funny session so far. The light was pretty bad earlier this morning, but I seemed to be cracking on quite well with it. As it got brighter, I began to see that it had felt easier because all the detail hadn't shown up. It was therefore a question of going back over the thing and doing a lot of remedial work. Not quite finished, but I think this one will survive.

[Guest]

Looking good Peter :smiling3:.

[Guest]

Thanks Ralph.

I've done a bit more work, mainly sorting out the eyebrows. I'm calling the head done now:

[Steve Jones]

A very nice sculpt Peter. I was drawn to the forhead which seemed to be particularly well done. Wonderful work sir.

[Guest]

Cheers Steve

If you didn't know how craggy Sherman's face really was you'd think the sculptor had exaggerated the wrinkles. As it is, he's rather toned them down.

[JR]

Top marks from the stalls Peter.
Please leave it alone and don't look at it !

[Guest]

Cheers John - Don't worry, it's safe. He looks more like this Matthew Brady photograph:

[JR]

Looks like he's checking his heart is still working ok !

[Guest]

I think he's going for a Napoleonic pose - also, there seems to be a ribbon there, probably attached to his watch.

I'm always struck by how creased the uniforms look in this era. Before dry-cleaning of course, so a jacket would probably only ever get a sponge down and brush-up - must have had an interesting smell after a couple of years (before deodorants too).

[Guest]

Here's Uncle Billy:

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There are a couple of areas of shine on the blue where the varnish hasn't quite dried - apologies.

Another enjoyable bust. The face was quite hard to shade, as there weren't many angled planes under all of those wrinkles. I tried to bring out the pronounced fold under his right eye a bit more to get a better likeness, but I left the other cheek as it was, as the photographs seem to show something different going on there, though it's not clear..

The tunic was painted with mixes of Vallejo Prussian Blue, Matt Black and Off White.

That's the last of the new busts in my stash, so I think I'll work on re-painting some older ones.