I am going to be making this new piece this month. Not exactly sure how long it will take, but that will sort itself out.

The Gentle Dragon will be life-sized, and unlike most dragons, this one is intended to be entirely friendly. Imagine a huge, sweet, grandfatherly creature that doesn’t mind in the slightest that children like to play all over him. He should be loving, protective, but slightly frail and very old.

What will make this sculpture unique is his eyes. I’m making them in glazed ceramic, the same color of cornflower blue my dad had. These glass eyes will make this sculpture come alive.

Maquette of The Gentle Dragon

I did this small (7-inch tall) water-clay sculpture in about eight hours. I did it to establish a lot of things, most importantly the gesture. The gesture is more than just the look and position of the figure; it is the feel, the emotional core – the “why” of the piece – and this either connects with the viewer or it doesn’t.

This message must be strong, unambiguous and dimensional. The Gentle Dragon is not merely cute; he is intended to be loving and caring in a grandfatherly way. He is massive, but also frail and slightly arthritic; protective, but quietly so. And he is most certainly intelligent, in the way only those experienced, worldly, and old can be.

To capture the fleeting nature of a clear emotional state, I did the work quickly, in one sitting. It helps to have a particular person in mind when starting. This is my dad. His face was lined with the hard life of logging and injury. He lived to see all his kids grow up strong and happy, and shared a life with a wife both beautiful and loving. He lived into his 80s, and passed on just a few years ago. His wife, my mom, survives him still.

Initial glaze tests on porcelain half-spheres

A local ceramic artist, Allen Ross, was able to build three sizes of heavy porcelain eyes. The small one will be the Gentle Dragon’s; the largest ones are meant for the Tree Troll. I chose five pair for the first tests. I painted them in oxides so it was easy to see what effect I was getting. They are now ready for bisque firing, glazing and final firing.

The results of the first tests and second try

Hmmm – that will teach me to use the precious porcelain blanks on an untried method of painting. The irises came out fine, but I layered too much black oxide on the pupil, so the glaze buckled over that area. Now, sensibly, I’m doing the second tests on simple tiles instead.

There are 18 tests, all different techniques, painting styles, and multiple layers. One of these is bound to look good….

Visit Kim Graham Studios to see more of the artist’s work.

At last I have finished designing my digigrade leg extensions and am now selling them to costumers, performers, and actors at Kim Graham Studios. Here is a good shot of the finished satyr version, with split hooves. These leg extensions make the wearer 14 inches taller, which makes me 6′ 7″ — and a real crowdstopper!

This one-minute Digilegs video demo on YouTube shows just how naturally they move. The hooves slide on springs; the movement constantly hides the foot mechanism and gives the wonderful impression of an additional ankle joint.

For Steamcon, a steampunk convention in Seattle (October 23-25, 2009), I’m already planning a “steam-powered” version with gears and moving parts. A Jules Verne mechanical satyr — it will be so cool!

If you have questions, please contact me at kimsculptor (at) gmail (dot) com.

Visit Kim Graham Studios to see more of the artist’s work.

It is time to revisit the mechanism that will move the fins. My primary reason for building this particular project was to learn mechanical movements. After I finished sculpting, I set aside a week to really figure this out.
The objective is a caterpillar motion, with a change in speed, that varies between a small flutter and a large sweeping motion, and these two motions cannot be synched. My engineering friends Kim Hall, Paul Illian, Pasha Amigud, and Bill Jeswine offered abundant suggestions. We began with frantic scribbling on napkins and available paper, accentuated with lots of hand movements and shuffling through the Grainger Catalog.
The next step was to build a super-rough prototype from available steel, bolts, screws, wood, glue, baling wire, and PVC. Have a look at it after the jump.

We assumed it would take at least three attempts to get it working and ten more to get it right. These photographs show our third attempt. The concept is good, the size is about right, and it works!

The fin mechanism prototype in progress

So far, this has taken about 40 hours. The next step is to make all the parts out of much more robust materials: rod ends, bearings, pillow blocks, steel and ultra-high molecular weight plastics.

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