As a companion to yesterday's portrait of Siegfried Sassoon as my own salute to the centenary of WWI's start, I sculpted this little portrait of the greatest of the war poets - Wilfred Owen. Owen was a Lt. In the Manchester Regiment. Suffering from shell shock, he was sent to Edinburgh's Craiglockhart Hospital where psychological officer casualties were treated. It was here that he met Sassoon, who was to be a major influence on Owen's poetry. The two become fast friends and Sassoon became Owen's mentor. Returning to the front before war' send, Owen was killed in the war's last week. The telegram communicating his death arrived at his mother's door on armistice day as the bells rang announcing peace.

Anthem for Doomed Youth

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
— Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.



Model is the same size as Sassoon, about 1/6. Sculpey firm. Still more minor tweaks to the face and Eye shapes required. The upper lids need to be heavier.

Colin

Owen's most famous poem....

Dulce et Decorum Est



Colin

Hi Colin,

Seems puerile to "Like" this post however Chris Eccleston's redition of Owen's poem is heart wrenching & hard to listen too without sadness.
Good on you mate for trying to capture those sad eyes of Wilfred's.
It's as if they knew something before they were supposed to.
Thanks for helping educate us about another young man.

All I can ask is "Why?"

Mike

Another interesting subject!
Enteraining and educational... I was completely unaware of these gentlemen before your posts. Thanx for that.

Great start

Colin the Uneducated

Great stuff Colin. Love that poem. Ironically it was until very recently that I could stand Eccleston, but he is fantastic here!

Hello Colin,

I have been watching your sculpts here with interest. They are quite good! But I feel I must comment here, as you have gotten so close on some of your portraits. But one thing stands out to me: The eyes on your sculpt are too small. But then, I think I can say that about every bust I have seen you do here to date. I know I mentioned this to you before when asking for critiques.

One thing I CAN say, is that since you do this consistently, time after time, then it must be a "stylistic" thing. That is, you do it consistently without your being conscious of it. I think you belong to the "stick a ball o' putty into the eye socket" school of eye sculpting. If so, this can be easily corrected by consciously making the eye "ball" larger than you have been doing in the past. Your eyeballs have consistently been too small all along.

Take a look at a good anatomy book. The eyeball is, in fact, quite large. What we see when the eyelids are in place is merely a sliver of the diameter of the entire eyeball itself.

Looking at the photos of your Owen sculpt, and the photos of him you posted, the too-small eyes jump out at me. Also, you have missed the slight droop of the axis line of his eyes toward the outer end. This is what gives that slightly "sad" air about him.

Also, pay attention to the curve of the upper eyelid, which you have made very even at inner and outer ends. This is wrong for nearly any eye. The eyelid is always more sharply curved at the inner end. In your photos of Owen, you can clearly see where his upper eyelid takes a sharp downward turn at the inner ends near his nose.

Also, that slightly upturned eye brow shown in the first posted photo of him adds to the slight feel of melancholy. And, while I am on a roll, his lips need to be fuller and more sensuous looking too.

If this criticism is unwelcome, then I apologize. I think you have great potential as a sculptor and I am only trying to help make constructive criticisms toward helping you fulfill that potential. Anyway, i hope this is received in the spirit I intended....

Keep up the good work!

Mike

Coming on great.
Pete

Watched Jeremy Paxman 1hr doco on YouTube as result of your project here Colin & that of Sassoon.
Totally enlightening & even deeper respect for Wilfred who not only became renown for his poetry many years after his death but was also a great leader & soldier as a young man.

Thanks for inspiring us to learn

Mike

Hi Colin, another very good likeness, are you going to continue the series?
Best wishes, Gary.

@ Mike Good - absolutely no need to apologize Mike. I am getting constructive criticism from one of the best in the business so I won't complain about that. The eye size issue has indeed been mentioned before. Eyes are indeed my greatest challenge sculpting - getting them the same shape, level, the right size, not too sunk, not too bulbous etc. While I do try to keep them realistic size as a personal style choice, I agree I do make them too small even then. I will have to continue to work on them going forward. I will also have to do some work on getting accurate eyeball sizes. I do indeed use a set putty ball as the eye ball. And I agree they have been too small to date.

I would be interested in others' approach to sculpting eyes.

I have done more on Owen's eyes as you suggested. Specifically I have added to the upper lids and have got them heavier toward the outer edges if his eyes. I will also revise the mouth a bit. I will post more photos when I get further along. I will probably combine my Owen and Sassoon into a common topic.

I appreciate you taking the time to offer detailed feedback. That's what makes this site great for the hobby and it argues against those who say PF is just a back slapping club.

Cheers

Colin

@ Mike Butler - I watched Paxman's doc on YouTube yesterday. It's a good effort and I thought the arrival of his KiA telegram to his mother's door on Nov. 11, 1918 as the bells ran to announce the end if the war was particularly heartbreaking. I see that Regeneration has already been pulled down from YouTube. I downloaded a copy on the weekend and I feel absolutely no guilt at all for getting this as I already have the DVD - and it is missing a number of crucial scenes - WTF!

Anyway, I am currently bouncing back and forth between Owen and Sassoon so I will likely start a new string showing progress on both.

@ Gary - I hope to do similar portraits of Robert Graves, John McCrae (the Canadian responsible for In Flanders a Fields), and possibly Rupert Brooke, William Noel Hodgson and George Butterworth ( the composer). Here's a page on renowned British poets killed on the First Day if the Somme.....gives some context to what we lost in 4+ Years of war. http://www.scuttlebuttsmallchow.com/killedsomme.html

Colin

Here's another favourite Owen poem. The Parable of the Old Man and the Young from the end of Regeneration.



Colin

Colin - I knew nothing about these guys until I started researching the Great War when I found a family letter. I thought poetry was for girls and that I was too guy to bother with it. Wrong!

Colin the philistine

Actually, I like poetry... just more the darker Poe-ish type stuff. Also, in a bygone time, I wrote all the lyrics for my band's original songs... Kinda poetry ... certainly not girly or romantic stuff by any stretch. I kinda dig the old Norse sagas as well.
When I have read the work of various "war-poets", I find it more moving and poigniant than any of the "flowing music of my withering heart" crap .

I've not one romantic bone in my my entire body. Just ask my wife.

Colin the Brooding

Great sculpting as ever.

Hello Colin,

There is nothing wrong with the way you execute the eyes. Many sculptors use the hard ball of putty technique. I know John Rosengrant does for one example. If you would like to continue this method, all you need to do is make your eyeballs larger than you have in the past. Easy!

Or, you can try my method. It is similar to your method in that a ball of putty is pushed into a depression made in the face to represent the eye sockets. The difference is that the ball is a bit larger than needed for a "hard" eye ball. I make the ball a bit oval shaped with the long dimension horizontal. This is pushed into the depression then the "edges" are blended into the socket area with a sculpting tool. This will leave you with a depressed eye socket and a bulging area in the middle. This is exactly what you want. Then representing the eyelids is merely a matter of incising them into the "bulge". I usually use a needle for that.

I prefer this method because it is more flexible than using a hardened eyeball. I can make more drastic adjustments - like pushing the bulge around - if necessary. With a hard eyeball you are limited by the hardness of the eye. The important thing with my method is to avoid "squishing down" the "bulge" of the eye. If you work around it carefully, it is easy to maintain the bulging shape.

That's all there is to it!

I hope this helps.....

Cheers!!

Mike

Thanks Mike - I will give it a go. Next bust after the two poets. Apprecaite the advice.

Colin

Hi Colin, another name to consider for a bust is Isaac Rosenberg who, from his self portrait, has a particularly interesting face.
Regarding the eyes thing, I use the little bobbles of pewter that form at the exit points of air vents in a mould. Mind you, I generally sculpt at 90mm. so for a bust size sculpt I use an appropriate sized ball bearing.
Best wishes, Gary.
P.S. For those who like the cynicism of the war poets, I refer you to my poem "The Politicians Progress" on the lounge forum.

Gary - I don't know Rosenburg. I will look him up. Although if I start doing all the war poets I will be doing a battalion of men LOL.

I would love to find a bunch of bearings of variing sizes. Pretty hard to find. I gave up and decided on putty.

Thanks

Colin