In the previous three posts I covered the planning, background and gold leaf stages of creating this beautiful bedhead. This is the final post in the series and includes the most memorable section of Klimt’s most famous painting .. the sculpting of the kiss itself.
The faces under-way
I begin sculpting the faces and necks, then eventually the hair. It is very hard to maintain 2-D and enable 3-D at the same time, I need to think ahead on how different features will be painted in the final finish.
Her dress and shoulders
Once the faces are laid I then finalize her dress. I have no particular reason of doing faces before the dress, it was just how my creative mood took me at the time. Her dress is all bejewelled with crystals and paua shell, I also use silver and copper leaf and metallic paints.
And then the hands
I hate doing hands … one elongated Klimt hand done … and 3 to go …
Then finally all the hands are all done … I hate sculpting hands, did I say that already?
All the sculpting is now finished and I have begun painting the skin tones, hair and her hair veil. I noticed in the original the man is very dark skinned and her skin is immensely pale.
Skin tones pre make-up.
This amazing close-up photo of the original canvas was copied from a book but a don’t know which one! The richness of the colours, the use of blues and warms side by side, the shrug of the shoulder … the immensely talented Gustav Klimt!
The final 3-D finish
It’s hard to see from the photo how 3-dimensional their faces and hands actually are. These photos are pre waxing and still have a high sheen to them.
Finished!
The final bedhead – so how did it go? I would love to hear your comments and hope you enjoyed watching my process of creating the Kiss bedhead. I have made this bedhead three times in total, and the final one was in 2005 for $3000AU.
See: Making the Kiss bedhead – stage 3
See: Making the Kiss bedhead – stage 2
See: Making the Kiss bedhead – stage 1
ALWAYS THE ARTIST
Dina
‘The Kiss’ Bedhead_DinaGoebel2003_s
