Commenticus

Whilst ‘Commenticus’ sounds like an over the top title for such a small sculpture, it’s Latin for “invented, devised, fabricated, imaginary”. This links with my intention for the artwork.

The piece was for a school project. We basically got to do anything, so I decided to explore the idea behind mythological creatures. I noticed how some of these creatures are simple combinations of regular animals (e.g. a unicorn = horse with a horn, harpy = bird with a woman’s face). I wanted to play around with this idea for myself, drawing inspiration from various wildlife around the world. My aim was to create a sculpture of an animal that looked familiar, but not exactly identifiable. Basically, I was creating my own mythological creature. Sort of.

I ended up with a simple design, using a generic bird head as the base, adding dear-like ears and thick horns. I finished the sculpture by covering it with ordinary vegetable oil. Soap stone is known for being really soft. This makes carving easier compared most other stones. However, it also means that it gets powdery and messy. Using oil stops the stone from making a mess. Vegetable oil lets the stone keeps its original colour, however there are other options. I used shellac for my Wedge-Tailed Eagle sculpture – If you’re interested in seeing the difference, have a look at that post.