modeling

After my arrival at Belfair Sunday night, Lars and I looked over all our equipment and started planning the activities of the next 36 hours before the start of the Single Block Classic. Before going to bed we had a design session, reviewing several sketches we had made and modeling some of them with clay. He ended up with a model that I liked but didn't love, and I made a model that he liked but didn't love. We decided to go with his model, but I wasn't thrilled with the overall look. The core features of the monster were great, but the tentacles extending upward and outward from the base of the sculpture had a look that was sort of, well, floral. I was hoping for something more menacing.

Inspiration struck as I was brushing my teeth, and I ran back upstairs to make a new model. I made the main body and head similar to Lars' design, but I extended tentacles down through the snow and back out some distance away from the body. This makes great use of space and ice, allowing the piece to extend well beyond the original block, and it doesn't even require much ice welding. The fence posts in front of the sculpture will be additional tentacles that are a part of the creature.

Lars was already in bed, but I left it out for him to see in the morning. As he was leaving for school at 5:30 AM, I happened to be up on a call from work (gah!). He hadn't noticed the new model, so I told him to take a peek. He approved!