I hadn't sculpted a model in 5 years due to work pressures and stress. I was daunted by the prospect of breaking out the putty. But I had promised my friend Michael that my next model would be a portrait of his Dad. A small thank you gift for a valued addition to my German Resistance autograph collection and my own little salute to the memory of a man who put his own life, and that of his family, at risk to take on Nazism in Germany.
Sculpting a portrait is not easy. Sculpting a portrait for a surviving family member is that much more difficult than it would be for the general populace as the viewer has actually seen the subject in life, not just in a period painting or a 2D photo. It took me 3 tries to render an acceptable likeness of Michael's father.
The hardest part was to get the profile right. As can be seen from the photo, Heinz had an unusual profile that was not evident from frontal or three quarter pictures. One advantage of of having contact with the family is that additional information is available that is not generally known. For example, Michael provided me with a fascinating array of unpublished family photos, as well as information on his eye and hair colour that I would never otherwise have had access to.
The following pictures show the final head as I sculpted it in my favourite 1/5 scale.
