Soapstone Hound Part Two - The Head

Having achieved the basic shape and size of the dog, it now follows to begin work on laying in some details that will give it some individuality and personality. When working in 3D, making sure you have a convincing and engaging face is essential. The human eye is exceptionally good at detecting asymmetry or abnormalities. We are drawn to eyes, therefore we must make certain that the head and face are well-executed.

Bow wow, bitches.

As in any art, be it drawing or painting or sculpting, it is useful to break the project down into basic shapes. Looking at the source material, we see that the dog's head is essentially teardrop in shape. The stop--that part of the dog's face just before the eyes--is minimal, and tapers into a very fine muzzle. The face itself is very slightly "dished". Also, his poll, the top of his head between the ears, is softly rounded and flows into a long, strong neck.

Here, I have mounted the sculpt into my vise clamp and am using the riffler to illustrate how I achieve the dished face. I have also laid in very rudimentary ears and eyes. These are shallow and temporary; the various details of the dog are very rough and will be redrawn several more times as the shape is refined. Ironically, although we are working in stone, at this stage nothing is written in stone! The project is still quite fluid in terms of details. 

Right now, he looks more like an Easter chick than a lean, mean, hare-hunting machine, but we still have a bit of work to do. That work is removing stone so that it resembles the source material, all the while constantly checking the sculpt from every angle to ensure as much symmetry as possible. 

Remember, it is a lot easier to remove soapstone than it is to add it, so go slowly and check your progress often.

And this is what the head looks like a little later on.

Imma crap in your yard, okay?

With more details laid in, especially the ears, it starts to look less like an angry chicken, and more like the Ashmole hound. As I work more on the face, I will further define the eyes, touch up the corners of the mouth and clean up the ears. A dog's ears, even droopy ones like these, are always "proud" of the surface of the head. Therefore I will use a chisel to undercut the ears somewhat so they "pop" visually.

This photo is included to demonstrate how both sides of the face are symmetrical. (Sorry for the shitty lighting and photography.)

In the next post, I will continue to remove excess stone from the dog's neck and chest, and start roughing in the haunches, collar and forelegs.