The sculpting continues!
This week I continued work on my little maquette…
Foolishly, last weekend, I felt confident that I would have my maquette sculpt finished by end of our work day on Monday. On Monday evening, I felt fairly confident I would have it finished by end of Tuesday. By Tuesday evening, I was somewhat confident I might finish it by the end of the week… and well, you get the idea.
My maquette is still not finished, and it has been a real challenge for me… in many ways!
I think the biggest challenge has been having supervisors with such keen, detail focussed eyes! At home, nine times out of ten, I am my own boss, and my clients tend to let me have almost complete creative control over the end result… therefore it is really up to me to make the decision and say “It’s done!”. In truth, often I have to announce this sooner than I would like due to time management/ budget restrictions and “close enough is good enough” has to be my attitude a lot of the time. I often complain that I wish I could have more time to finesse. And this week, I was given that gift, and though I 110% see it as a blessing, there were times when it did test my resolve.
Never, have I worked so hard to get something Right. I say Right with a capital “R” as it is a subjective term. My two supervisors on my sculpt, head of puppetry Georgina Hayns and sculpter Toby Froud, both incredibly skilled and highly experienced, have been my outside eyes, moving towards getting-it-Right. There were definitely times throughout the week where I struggled with feelings of inadequacy, so desperately wanting my eyes, to see as theirs do, frustrated that I couldn’t seem to deliver what they were after.
And look, I don’t think I am doing a bad job. I am an intern, and here to learn as I constantly remind myself. But (without going in to too much detail) I didn’t want to forego talking about these kind of internal mental/ emotional battles… as I think it is important to acknowledge that these kinds of feelings are valid, and hugely important to growth. I think it would be an unrealistic expectation and a bit of an inauthentic and boring story to pretend I was on cloud nine the entire time.
The critiques of my sculpt are however getting more and more minute, meaning I am definitely getting closer to reaching sign off. I think George has perhaps sensed some of my frustration and has kindly reassured me that I am nearly there, and has pointed out that this is quite a common part of the process for the sculptors. So in that way I am very happy to be having a true experience of this job and this industry. I am certainly not being Molly-coddled.
One of my biggest struggles in the last couple of days of the week was the wood-grain. The character I am sculpting is meant to look like it is made of wood, and it has been such an uphill battle for me. The first time I attempted it the wood-grain was too shallow. The second time, too deep. The third time, too tight. Between each attempt I have cleaned all of the previous woodgrain off the puppet (a time consuming process) in order to start again. On Friday (amongst some other adjustments to my character) I began my fourth attempt at the wood grain. So fingers crossed I get it Right.
I got some great advice from sculptor Hasani Walker, about using dental tools. A revelation I loved as I have always liked how the puppetry industry finds materials and products from other industries to suit our needs… like how fishing shops have the best marionette string, hobby shops have the best little mechanisms, ball joints etc. Hasani was kind enough to lend me one of his dental tools to tackle my wood-grain, and I am finding it a lot easier to work with. I will be on the lookout for dental tools to add to my own sculpting kit!
The other challenging part of my week has been knowing/ feeling like I am not contributing. From the very start, I have known that the character I am sculpting has actually been cut from the film. This truly has been a project just for my own growth and a chance for George to see what my sculpting skill set is like. I am so appreciative to have this opportunity to learn and grow and feel very privileged to have the amazing teachers and support that I do. But when I see everyone bustling around the puppetry department getting things done, having so many things on their plate and hearing talk of tight deadlines etc, I so desperately want to be useful! But all in good time.
So it has been a good week, but definitely a challenging one! Now after having a long weekend, (Presidents Day for my Aussie readers), and plenty of time to decompress, I feel eager to get back to work and nail this sculpt! But unlike last weekend, I have no expectations, and no desire to know exactly when I will finish this project. It will be what it will be, and I intend to soak in every minute!
- About as much of my desk as I can show you without breaching the terms of our NDA.
