The Building of the Horse #1
Greetings Steem Powered Humans,
Behold, for your viewing pleasure, the first of many progress updates on my 2018 Burning Man honorarium project, Rearing Horse.
To start off the project I did some scale calculations. I want my horse to be proportionally correct, except of course when I intentionally invoke artistic license to change something to be more to my liking. To that end, I found some horse skeleton pictures on the internet, printed them out, and took measurements to be scaled up. Conveniently for me, my main picture worked out to be 12:1 in relation to my planned horse size, which means that 1 inch on the picture is equal to 1 foot on the sculpture. I took some liberties right out of the gate with the hoof size as you can see, as I like the large Clydesdale type hooves. I will likely bulk up the rest of the horse's musculature as well to some degree.
Once I had a guide for scale, I started building. I have been having to split my time between this project and other work that pays off more immediately, so I have not been able to make as much progress this week as I had hoped. I started off with the frame for the rear legs, tail and buttocks as that will be the base upon which the rest of the piece is built. These bolt plates are the structural part of the rear hooves, serving as two of the three support points that hold the sculpture up.
I then welded the tube for the lower part of the leg in place, and the brake disc sections that will form the aesthetic part of the bottom of the hoof.
I cut tube sections from joint to joint up the legs to the pelvis and welded them on the corners such that I could still change the position of the legs fairly easily. I will need to add gussets and tube sections to fill in the gaps once I am sure I am happy about the position.
Once I had a basic framework for a pair of legs, I constructed a pelvis to attach the legs to. The larger tube on the top is essentially a portion of the tailbone, and the back end of it is where the tail will attach to the body. The next step will be for me to make and attach the tail frame tube, add gussets to this frame so it can be safely moved, and bring it outside where I can get the spine frame figured out and positioned.
Stay tuned for progress posts on a regular basis (hopefully every Sunday) through to completion!
Link to my first post on this project detailing how I plan for it to be when I am done: https://steemit.com/art/@captainyeeha/my-next-large-sculpture
Thanks for reading!
I am looking forward to see this piece come together over time! I didn't even think to look for other burners on this platform until tonight and am happy this is the first post I have come across. Do you already have your placement from the organization for your artwork??
Hi fellow Burner! I am glad you came across me, and I hope my updates keep you entertained. I have no official word on where it will be placed, but I am hoping for the three o'clock keyhole, which is near my camp. It will likely be somewhere on the 3:00 side regardless.
I will not be attending this year, need some space to re appreciate the beauty that is the community. I will be living vicariously through your progress and that should be enough for me this year :) I hope that you get the placement that you wish for!
I'm curious, do you know of any communities on steemit that are burning man centric? I find this place holding many of the same principles as the event and I would think many would be drawn to its similar nature.
I don't know much about steemit communities in general.