Here's my substantially complete bust of Admiral Canaris, wartime chief of the Amt Ausland/Abwehr or German Intelligence Service (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abwehr). I am starting a new string to show the sculpt and the painting of it, mostly because I want to break the link with my earlier terrible first attempt. This is a bit better, although my wife says the dog looks a bit like a muppet. I hope he looks better with paint. That's my first attempt at sculpting a dog and a wire haired dachshund ain't easy. Canaris had two of these - Sabine and Seppel (later replaced by Kasper). He doted on them and a sure fire way of ending your career in the Abwehr was to scold one of Canaris' pets.



You probably know that Canaris was a key supporting member of the German Resistance, providing cover for an active conspiratorial group in the Abwehr, saving Jews and foiling some of Hitler's plans in a way that decisively changed the course of the war. When his personal diary was found at OKH HQ in Zossen in early 1945, he was tried and executed on Hitler's direct order. The execution occurred on April 9, 1945, two weeks before allied troops liberated KZ Flossenburg, where he and his small group of resisters were being held. Also executed were Generalmajor Hans Oster (who gave away German invasion secrets to the Allies in 1939), Karl Sack (Judge Advocate General of the German Armed Forces), Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer (now seen as the closest thing there is to a Protestant saint), his brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi (killed at KZ Sachsenhausen; Dohnanyi was a mainstay of the German resistance against Hitler 1938 - 1945), General der Artillerie Friedrich von Rabenau (of the Goerdeler/Beck circle), and two Abwehr captains involved in the July plot - Ludwig Gehre and Theodor Struenck.



The bust is sculpted in a combination of Sculpey firm (head & dog head) and Magic sculpt.



I will be painting him in acrylics and inks, as per usual. Here's the uniform and medal bar.





Colin

Wow - the original wasnt far off, but that's tremendous! I love the composition with the dog, will make an amazing piece painted up, fantastic!

Steve

Great result! The longer I look at the pictures the more I appreciate what you did - his likeness is surely hard to get.
All the best!
Martin

Hi Colin,
I don't know too much about dogs, that said it looks like a dog to me but the Admiral is is a great piece of sculpting Mate.
Awesome work, it will be amazing when you get the colour on it. I can hardly wait,
Well done.
Keith

Fabulous sculptwork.
Likeness is great.

Marc

Very nice indeed mate

Steve

Hi Colin,
That is a superb piece of sculpting and a great likeness, Canaris is not too bad either. You should feel very proud of your efforts, looking forward to seeing it painted in the future.
cheers
Richie

Glad that you are better, Colin!
Awesome work, mate! Can't wait to see this bust painted! Will watch closely!
Cheers,
Zeno

You did a marvelous job in capturing his likeness Colin! I look forward to seeing him painted up.

Joe

Thanks for the positive reinforcement gents. When it comes down to it I don't think anyone but old Wilhelm himself would worry about critiquing the accuracy of Kasper and I am fairly happy with the old man himself. Canaris had a lot of character in his face, something that makes the sculptor's job easier rather than harder. I hope to get the first paint on him this weekend. Still a few minor sculpting "imprecisions" to remove in the meantime.

Colin

Colin:
Wow, how gratifying it must be to have
talent like that. You're quite an artist, sir!
Congratulations, and thanks for the
background history as well. The Miami Jayhawk

I say this in all sincerity... I am in awe of what you've done here. The likeness is about as close as you can get IMHO using only grainy pictures as a reference.

Well done my friend. I hope to see this in person soon.

Get painting!!!

Colin the Younger

Undercoated. He'll look better with colour.



Colin

Looking really good Colin.
Get that bush in to play Mate.
All the best
Keith

Hi Colin!

Congratulations! You done a terrific work mate.

Pedro.

Thanks gents - by way of self critique I will say that I am fairly happy with his face. I think I should have made his shoulders wider (although they do look narrower than actual in the photos for some reason). I am not too thrilled about the right arm, the hand or the dachshund. I wish I had seen the review of Pete Morton's Rat Catcher in time for this as he nailed it doing almost the same small dog and hand hold. Anyway, I am hoping I can remedy some of the faults I see on the dog and hand with paint. Finally, I think I did his awards and epaulettes too fast - again I hope I can correct any weaknesses with paint. We shall see - that's what happens when you sculpt in your sick bed. At least a I learned a lot from this one.

Colin

I don't know Colin, I think you're being too hard on yourself... Looks great to me. Lets see some colour on it ASAP

Undercoated face in Liquitex pro deep portrait pink bottled paint (per an old article by Phil Kessling).



Did some work on his eyes....they are still a little out of balance so I need to even them out.



Put some raw umber ink around the eyes and brows to begin picking out shadows.



Canaris had fairly vivid blue eyes.



Colin

Just realized I can use a .jpg of Canaris' actual visiting card as a base label, although the rank is wrong.



Colin

Good start on the face. Nice colour on the eyes.
Using the visiting card on the base is a fantastic idea... love it!!!

Carry on, my wayward son

Colin