Manga Nativity - sand sculpture

Another themed nativity I have for you now. This one was from the 2008 La Pineda, Catalonia sand nativity project. It was the last project I did that year and I was very happy with the result. For this year we went with the theme of Manga and so each of the traditional crib characters were carved in the Japanese animation style.

I got to work on Mary, Joseph and Jesus with a bit of help from @stijgerart. He carved Josephs head and them went away to start the landscape which would join all the sculpture together. I'll talk more about this later.

Manic Manga

We have all probably seen Manga cartoons and the fascination the creators seem to have for school girls. I wanted to make Mary in this style because of the innocence and also that hint of sexiness they always seem to have. I also wanted to make her not too cartoonie but just like a animation that came to life. I must say I was happy with how she worked out. The big eyes and delicate features were well suited to the sand. It was like carving velvet.
It was maybe not exactly Manga but It help bring attention to her among all the other stuff that was going on and for me she really is the center of the whole story.

The baby Jesus was suckling at her breast. (I hope this post won't be censored). The awkwardness in the way she holds the baby shows that she really isn't ready for this role of Mother of God.

Finishing touches

We did get a few rain showers during the project evident by the fluffy texture on her face. I probably could have smoothened this down but I like when the weather adds it's touch to a sculpture.
In her eye you can see two little circles of sand. This is just a technique I use to give a hi-lite in the eye and normally in Manga there are two or more. It's a subtle effect which really brings the eyes to life.

The thing they are sitting in is supposed to be like some sort of Pokemon ball. More of a stylistic thing really but it looks like some sort of a love nest that the three characters can sit in.

Making a balls of it

Around the base of each sculpture and joining the whole exhibition together we used a new tool that @stijgerart had invented called the Willysphere. It is a very simple device which can be used to make the perfect sphere. Like a little Mexican hat you rub it over the surface and it follows around to make a perfect ball. He has made them in all different sizes and they are a great way of filling an area with nice geometric forms. When you have to make one it can be a nice therapeutic experience, when you have to make hundreds you may have to get therapy of another sort.

Wilfred actually got a patent on them and has brought them to market, they are called Sand Shapers. To me they will always be called Willyspheres.

The use of them on the sculpture gave the whole thing an alien landscape look and was actually a pain in the ass to do although it was a great test for the tools possibilities.
I will make another post some time about the other exhibits. For this one I just wanted to talk about my own element. Me me me me!

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Ps

Thanks for reading. I use PeakD to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, amongst other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Hive Blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.