Staged Soft Sculpture

I made these little soft sculptures using the wool-needle felting technique. I’m realising more and more that I don’t really like the process of making soft sculptures, as I find the process too time consuming, and I often feel underwhelmed by the final result. I also don’t enjoy the process of taking and editing photos of them, that said, I am interested in experimenting with a film camera to take staged photos of my soft sculptures in the future. I’ve no doubt that I’ll make more soft sculptures at some point, but for now I’m glad that I have the medium of painting to fall back on, as I suspect I won’t be making many soft sculptures often or any time soon.

I always thought I would continue to predominantly work with soft sculpture as it was the medium I felt I was strongest in, even though I was always unhappy with the final results. I also had a hard time creating consistently because of how time consuming the process is, and I’m happy to have finally started working in other mediums such as painting.

Another thing I’m considering is working with wood, stone or bronze for my sculptures, I would have to learn how to do this as they are not materials that I’ve worked with in the past. I think I’d be alot more satisfied with the results, as those types of materials are alot more rich and durable, wood, bronze, and stone are also materials that most West African artisans use to make their sculptures, and I like the idea of creating work using the same materials as them.

Some ‘candid’ photos of my soft sculptures: I wanted the tiger to look loose, and a little abstract, not sure if I achieved that, as I think he looks a little goofy.

I also created this oil painting on A3 paper, the painting is loosley based on the images above. I don’t like how I depicted the figures in this painting, as I felt that they were too stiff and veered too far away from the loose style that I’ve been trying to cultivate.