HERE WE GO!

I will try to include as many details and tips as I can while doing this piece.  Feel free to ask details if I miss something.
For complex sculptures; in this case a cantilevered figure, pre-planning is essential for strength.

 Here is a very fast sketch of the concept for this piece.

This overlay shows the armature inside the figures.

The main support (black) is either a rod or series of wire and tubes which will support the two figures and will run from the base through the body of the bird to end as a socket for the support in the hand of the child. In this case I used a 14 gauge wire inside a 5/32 brass tube as the main support.

The rest of the bird armature is a  14 gauge wire which will be attached to the main support (red).

Support for the child is a simple wire armature (if you are not familiar with this, look in the older posts on the blog) with a 3/16 tube over the left arm wire which slips over the end of the main support tube (orange).

 The main support

 Neck and right leg part of the armature

 The two parts of the armature are joined with foil tape.

An additional brass rod is taped to the knee joint to add more support.

More to follow in days to come.

Thanks for looking, have a great day!

Mark