The inspirational female figure concepts were worked on while on vacation, but the gesture pose was modified after reviewing some of the life drawing sketches made earlier in the year. I decided the leaning, semi sitting figure worked best with the round globe structure I wanted to place below the figure. Similar to Sandro Chia's approach in his Rome sculpture the figure uses the globe as the resting spot. Defining the 3D position was done using clay and working out all the limb angles was next.
I really connected with the life drawing sketches and photos of Yulia looking down with a slight smile and decided to move forward with that as the focal gesture. I worked out the angle and head position with my clay bust which shows the tilted downward angle of the eyes. Work on the clay maquette ( mini-version of the sculpture) was done to connect the body angles to the large globe. Deciding to position the figure looking back in a reflective glance seemed to work best for the design as large public sculpture.
After finalizing the clay maquette for scale and gesture it was time to decide the full monumental sculpture sizing and begin making the sculpture in concrete.
Stay tuned for how the process went.