FoldedFrog
Mame
I’ve always liked the penjing style rock plantings. If the right rock is found, it can be a beautiful sight to behold. The problem I’ve always had is finding the right rock, the right size, the right shape. Where I live, we have mostly granite that seems to come in three sizes & shapes, big round boulders, smaller round river rocks and gravel. Lots of granite in Georgia.
I want to create something that reminds one of the tall karst in China - steep with lots of eroded cliffs. Or maybe the decaying sandstone of the American southwest. I've been studying for a while and finally decided that it might be best to try my hand at sculpting exactly what I have in mind but was a little skeptical about how the “false rock” would be perceived. Then I saw where Masahiko Kimura made some (abstract) rock formations from concrete and thought, “If it’s good enough for him….”
I've done some sculpting before but not to this scale. I was fortunate enough to find a very good instructional video of making realistic concrete sculptures of rock. This past weekend I had four days off work and decided to give it a try. I had made some preliminary sketches and had in mind the size that I wanted so I set to work. Holy Cow! It took pretty much all four days what with making the armature, the base, the outer sculpting then coloring but I’m pretty happy with the result.
The last pic is a Photoshop experiment with adding the trees. There are three openings for trees.
Opinions: Should this be in a clay tray, on a slab or free standing? This baby is heavy! Even though it is hollow, it still weighs about 75lbs and I'm afraid it might break a tray. Any opinions as to tree species that might look best? Cascading junipers on rock plantings seem a little ubiquitous.
I want to create something that reminds one of the tall karst in China - steep with lots of eroded cliffs. Or maybe the decaying sandstone of the American southwest. I've been studying for a while and finally decided that it might be best to try my hand at sculpting exactly what I have in mind but was a little skeptical about how the “false rock” would be perceived. Then I saw where Masahiko Kimura made some (abstract) rock formations from concrete and thought, “If it’s good enough for him….”
I've done some sculpting before but not to this scale. I was fortunate enough to find a very good instructional video of making realistic concrete sculptures of rock. This past weekend I had four days off work and decided to give it a try. I had made some preliminary sketches and had in mind the size that I wanted so I set to work. Holy Cow! It took pretty much all four days what with making the armature, the base, the outer sculpting then coloring but I’m pretty happy with the result.
The last pic is a Photoshop experiment with adding the trees. There are three openings for trees.
Opinions: Should this be in a clay tray, on a slab or free standing? This baby is heavy! Even though it is hollow, it still weighs about 75lbs and I'm afraid it might break a tray. Any opinions as to tree species that might look best? Cascading junipers on rock plantings seem a little ubiquitous.
