Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 3).djvu/574

 represent the making of a sketch-model, but a life-size bust. The method is the same in both cases, however; while in the case of the bust the manner of working with the clay is better exemplified than in that of the horse. Moreover, this series of photographs enables the reader to understand another important department of the sculptor's art. The scaffolding, so to speak, is simpler than in the case of the horse. An upright "peg," some twenty inches in length, tapering towards the top, is fixed into a wooden platform about eighteen inches square. This platform, to prevent warping, is formed of two pieces of wood, the lower piece having the grain of the wood reversed. The peg is simply a stay to hold up the bust. Sometimes the bust is built upon a support shaped like a Latin cross, the transverse, or shoulder, fitting into a slot cut in the upright. In the photograph, however, only the peg is shown, with the addition of what are technically known as an "armature" and a "butterfly." The former is constructed of thin gas-piping, and is used for the purpose of enabling the artist more easily to modify the set of the head, if there be occasion to do so; the leaden piping enabling it to be flexed this way or that, according to the peculiarity or habit of the sitter, which is not always perceived at a first sitting.

The "butterfly" consists of a small cross-piece of wood, shaped like a Greek cross, and attached to a piece of wire, by means of which it is suspended from a nail driven into the top of the peg, or, as in the present instance, from the "armature." It hangs loose from its support, and in the modelling is pressed against the upright or framework. It is not always used by experienced artists; but even they find it useful when the head of the sitter moves to and fro. It is used very largely in all important framework structures for sculpture.

The artist now goes to work with the clay, applying it and building up the bust with his hands, his best tools. With the fingers broader and bolder work can be produced than with any tools, no matter how elaborate. Old Nollekins, the sculptor, used to say: "My best tool is my thumb." With the fingers the artist has more freedom in handling the clay; whereas by working with even the best tools he is apt to get his work "niggling," as if a water-colour painter endeavoured to produce effects by stippling or cross-hatching, instead of by bold washes. A sculptor said the