Eagle Commission

Recently, I was offered a commission to create a life-sized Eagle.  This is for a private individual in Tallahassee, Florida.

I looked at all the stones around the studio.  This piece, that was partially hidden by tall Johnson grass, looked like an Eagle with its wings over its head.

I created this line drawing to fit what I could see in the stone.

Meg used her crane truck to move the stone into the studio.  It was bigger and heavier than it looked in the stone yard - they always do...

I cut the bottom flat and stood it up.

I used Photoshop to overlay the design and transfer a crude outline onto the stone.  I had to tweek the drawing by angling it back - to properly fit.

In front of the fan are 2 large pieces of scrap that I cut from the block.  They will become sculptures themselves one day.  

(That will be two 100 lb. blocks for future sculptures

- that came off a 1,200 lb. block for a Eagle sculpture

- that came off a 9,000 lb. block for a bench sculpture that went down to Houston, Texas

- that came off a 24,000 lb block for the arm of the 40' Awaking Muse of Meg's that went down to Orlando, Florida

- that was split from the ground in a quarry near Bloomington, Indiana...)

I created a 1/4 scale plasticine clay model (without any fussy detail) to fit into ...

...the preformed stone block.

This is the front view of the clay model.  I deliberately made the wings together to give each other strength.  

This front view of the stone shows that I could spread the wings out.  It's tempting... but, I know from experience that the thin wings would be easily broken when moving the piece.  

This is the current state of this project.  I've got time to get feedback before proceeding...

(that will give the fledging wrens that are fluttering around the studio time to develop and go forth into the world...)