chriswoodartist

BEHIND THE SCENES : books, medlars and a maquette

I am currently reading “Dying Day” by Vaseem Khan and a cracking read it is too ! Set in Bombay in 1950, it is a one of the Malabar House series of books. A priceless 600 year old copy of Dante’s “The Divine Comedy” goes missing, together with its custodian, a British scholar and war hero and the case ends up on Inspector Persis Wadia’s desk. Persis together with English forensic scientist Archie Blackfinch are hot on the trail, uncovering a series of complex riddles, written in verse . . . and then the first body is discovered. The death toll mounts and it becomes clear that someone else is stopping at nothing to posses the priceless artifact.

I enjoy reading crime novels and this one is laced with solving puzzles and amusing interpersonal relationships. Set in post independence India it is a fascinating insight into not only a bygone era but one that I knew very little about. I have read Khan’s first book in the series, “Midnight at Malabar House” and that too was one of those books that was hard to put down. I’m about half way through Dying Day. I normally read in bed at the end of the day but it’s very  tempting to pick the book up and finish it now !

The large format French copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy was shamelessly bought for the illustrations, as I am a big fan of Gustave Dore. My knowledge of French is limited to schoolboy French, therefore I have not been able to translate it. Nowadays there is no excuse and anything can be scanned with a mobile phone and easily translated. I’ll keep you posted.

The drawing of Medlars is progressing and now all that remains is to step up the contrast, then it’s a question of more translation – drawing into dry point engraving.

I unearthed the plaster maquette of the Jack Russel (who had been asleep under my work table) following a conversation with a friend. I have yet to find the final outcome but for the inquisitive – check out my sculpture portfolio on my website.
The dog began life with a few drawings, then I made a wire armature, which was padded out with newspaper and chicken wire. Next layers of plaster were added direct, using a splatula but mostly fingers ! There was a bit of fine tuning with files and a surform plane. I didn’t clean the surface up too much as this 3D sketch was intended to be what’s known as a broken coated Jack Russel.
Having made this “sketch” I developed the final sculpture, which I modified by tweaking the limbs to add a little more character. I also sanded down the surface and applied gold leaf to the areas that were tan coloured and I also coloured up the black bits with graphite powder mixed with watered down PVA glue.  I’ll post a photo of the final outcome when he comes home to roost !

That’s all 4 now !