Sherlock Holmes: Sketces

I've always loved action figures, especially the old Action Force/ G.I. Joe range because you could pose them so easily. My brother also have an deep seated interest in action figures. This christmas I decided to give him a cool gift. It's said the best gift is the one you make yourself. Well, I didn't think a drawing or an ashtray would make him jump for joy, so I decided to do something a little more ambitious.

As well as having a common interest in minatures, we're both huge fans of Sherlock Holmes, epecially when he's played by the legendary Jeremy Brett. The answear was obvious; Make him a Sherlock Holmes sculpture for christmas! Here goes..

First off I wanted to make the iconic Sherlock Holmes, i.e. he should be doing something he's known for, examining a crime scene or smoking his pipe, but which? You always see him running round with his deerstalker and magnifying glass, but that was too obvious a choice for my taste. That is why I like Jeremy Brett's interpretation of Sherlock Holmes. He almost never wears a deerstalker. He's known for playing a violin in a robe though... hmmm, now we're getting somewhere.

 

Leasure suit and playing a violin it was then. Now I just had to figure out  his look. If I could pull it off I'd go for the Jeremy Brett version ( I may have mentioned before I liked his version of Sherlock Holmes) I opted to go for realism as much as my skills would permit me to.

As my Sherlock would be plaing the violin I wanted him to be wrapped in the music. This helped me a lot when figuring out his pose.

When I sculpt I aim for the model to be interesting from all angles. Again you have to balance this with realism. I remember once being told that the world famous skulpture of the greecian disc thrower was a bad sculpture because of his realistic pose. He looks good when viewed from the front or from behind, but when viewed from the side he looked, quote; "As a wounded soldier" That can't be good, can it?

So: Energetic movement, realistic pose and no "weak" angles to make it look uninteresting. OK THEN!