Completed Bronze Poodle

Well after a few days of confusion with the patina, Tracker the poodle finally gets his coat. The patina artist did an outstanding job, capturing Trackers likeness. Tracker has an unique discoloration on his tail; therefore, the client decided to incorporate it into the bronze.

Bronze Dog Sculpture Metal Chasing

Bronze Metal Chasing: A variety of pieces making up a single sculpture are assembled and welded together using  TIG welders.  Next, precision die grinders and other specific tools are used to blend the welded sections together to create a  seamless joint.  Metal Chasers - Artisans spend many hours removing any defects from the bronze metal surface.

Completed Poodle clay sculpture is now ready for the mold process

The clay poodle dog sculpture is now completed. The client will now review the images and make last minute requests for any modifications. Once the poodle sculpture is approved, I will give the entire sculpture a wash with a solvent in order to minimize any tool marks and shavings that may still be visible on the surface. The process will take 2-3 days to allow the solvent to dissolve and ensure the clay returns to its natural hardness.

The solvent is used to slightly soften the clay in order to aid in the blending.

Applying a wash at this stage helps with the surface detail in order to give it a more realistic look and feel. By not cleaning the dog sculpture surface before the mold fabrication will create additional work for me during the wax-positive stage.

Molds capture every detail; therefore, it is wise to only fabricate a mold after everyone is happy with the final clay sculpt.

A wax-positive is an identical replica of this clay sculpture; the only difference is that it is a wax casting from the mold. Wax-positives for most bronze castings are hollow. The walls of the wax cast vary from 1/8” to 5/8” in thickness.

More on the process once the images are available.

View of the under side of Trackers head.

Front view...

Profile of the entire dog sculpt.

The paw area showing the poodles nails. Let me know if you wish to have the toenails shorten.

Tracker (poodle) front leg.

Detailed image of the fur texture.

Another view of the fur texture.

click on any of the images for a better better view

Poodle head sculpt critique

Here are some images of the current stage of the head sculpt. I need you to give me your input. In other words, where do you want me to tweak the sculpt. Please note, once the head is reattached to the body, we will encounter additional corrections. For instance, the ears will be modified in order to better fit the pose of the slanted head. Below you will note I made additional notes for myself.

In this image, I rotated the head in order to best compare it to my sculpt.

Here are my notes...

1. The tip of the jaw needs to be reworked, it appears to broad
2. The ears will be detached and refitted once the head is back on the body and cocked to he left as in the image you provided.
3. The cheek areas appear to need more hair.
4. The bottom jaw area can also benefit from more hair as well.
5. The bridge between the eyes and nose may need to be defined a bit more. I other words remove some of the hair in order to show more bone structure.
6. Feel free to email me any additional areas you wish to have altered; however, if you do not agree with the items I noted above please indicate. The image I am using to capture Trackers likeness is the one you provided; hence, his coat appears to be much more fuller than in the images to shot.

Here you can see his bottom teeth as depicted in the image. Since the upper teeth are hidden; will not be seen, they will not be sculpted. The eyes were reworked to give him a happier look.

Another view of the teeth and snout area.

On this profile image, you can see that additional hair may be needed on the lower jaw.

Styrofoam poodle rough cut for armature second phase

Today I began to remove the excess foam in order to get closer to Tracker's confirmation. I first used a felt marker to scribe my cutting lines. The process will take several passes before it begins to look like a poodle.

I used a hot-wire hand tool. It is like cutting butter. The fumes are the part I dislike. Yes, I used two fans to aid with the ventilation.

The Styrofoam dog will look more like a block dog for now, but with every pass it receives it will fine tune the desired proportions.

Here Tracker looks more like big bird, but this is normal. The next two phases will get him looking more like a poodle.

Possible standing poodle poses for the bronze statue of Tracker

This image taken at the beach depicts Tracker in a great action pose. Though the image lacks detail, it is not an issue since I have plenty of high resolution images of Tracker the poodle.