The various stages of Ian Brennan working on the master copy of a statue being worked on in the artist studio and art foundry.

The original proposed carved Marquette shown wearing a suite, this suit design was later changed to his longer football club blazer and trousers

This almost twice life size statue is sculptor Ian Brennan's first human form bronze sculpture, and was commissioned to depict the football clubs former player and manager club when he was 80 years of age wearing his favourite club blazer in his classic trademark pose, smiling and waving to the fans. The original master copy is been created from plaster, clay and wax, the fine detail which can often be found in Ian's wood carvings can also be seen reproduced in the different materials he is using to create this original master copy. It has taken Ian around 16 months so far to produce the master copy and once Ian's work is completed it is expected to take a further four months work in the foundry to cast in bronze.

One of his first concerns was trying to work out the correct proportions of the statue as it was also to be placed high on a pedestal outside the football stadium with the majority of people viewing the statue from below. Due to the distinct slope outside the stadium, the size of the statue and the tall pedestal it will be standing Ian was made aware that it may well be necessary to try and adjust the statue's proportions so as to make it appear correct when the statue was viewed from some distance below, so he decided he would try using the similar proportions as Michelangelo had once used to create his famous masterpiece "David".

Stage 1 of 4 : The armature and sections of the master copy being prepared :

As this was a particularly large sculpture and making it entirely from clay it would weigh well over a tonne which would obviously make it very difficult to move from Ian's studio to the art foundry in London over 70 miles away he altered the master copies steel armature framework so it would separated in the middle.

The armature was first covered with foam which was carved to the rough shape of the sculpture, this foam was in turn covered with a thin layer of a water based acrylic resin which is very light but also strong and then a thin layer of clay which he would use to model the detail of the statue. Not only did the full size near completed statue weigh a fraction of a normal all clay version would do but it also meant by use the block and tackle the sculptures 'jacket; could relatively easily be lifted up off the 'clay trousers and both pieces moved about on wheels which enabled the sculpture to be worked on without the use of a ladder or scaffold.

In September 2006 it was decided that as so many preparations had to be made for the unveiling ceremony next year which would obviously take some time to organise this unveiling would now be announced to take place on the 17 March 2007. To try and keep to this schedule rather than gradually assemble the full size statue in one piece in his studio as he would normally do, he decided to work on each piece of the sculpture separately and as soon as each part was completed they would be collected by the foundry, moulded and cast in wax. This process should hopefully allow the foundry more time preparing the moulds and casting the individual wax sections rather than having to wait for the whole master copy of the statue to be completed which was not expected to be until in January next year.

Working on the statue in many separate pieces so far away from each other is obviously not an ideal way of working particularly in trying to retain the correct overall prospective indeed this method of working is something Ian would certainly not recommend, however he feels once the sculpture is finally fully assembled in wax at the foundry it should still be possible to make any necessary adjustments to the overall balance of the sculpture in the wax stage before it is cast in bronze.

As Ian's wood sculptures are well known for its very fine detail he achieves in his work although it takes longer to do he wanted to again produce this master copy of this statue the same way but this time being carved from plaster and clay. The sculptures large plaster shoes show below; show all the signs of being carved like a comfortable well worn pair of leather shoes with all the stitching and crease finely detailed carved in the plaster. The sort of detail Ian likes to achieve can also be seen in the texture and lines he has also created in the larger than life pair of hands produced for the sculpture.

The art foundry collected the carved plaster shoe's, hands and football from Ian's studio on the 8th September to be moulded and cast hollow in wax in the foundry along with the carved plaster base which the statue will eventually stand on, Ian can now concentrate on modelling the clay jacket and trousers in his studio.

The completed wax hands ; the hands were originally carved with the end of the shirt sleeves attached with the intention of inserted the hands down into the hollow wax jacket sleeve of the lower arm with the end of the shirt cuffs level with the end of the jacket, just as it would normally appear when worn.

The plaster jacket covered with a layer of clay prior to fine detailing. The jacket and trousers having now been completed as far as possible in clay and were collected by the art foundry in early December last year, for moulding and casting in wax.

With the clay trousers and jacket being loaded in the van on the way to the foundry, work on sculpting the head can now be started

The foundry have now produced all the moulds for the whole statue except for the head which is now being worked on in Ian's studio. The full size hollow wax castings are now being prepared and assembled in the foundry.

Part of a silicon rubber moulds used to produce the main sections of the sculpture; Using the photograph of the subject shown below as a guide the jacket was lowered down to the correct height and then fixed in position. Fine detailing to the shape and features of the wax could then be made. As the statue was for the most part was going to viewed by the football fans from below, Ian was rather keen to ensure that you could still see the line of the trousers and belt disappearing underneath the inside of the jacket as it would look in reality.

The original photograph of the subject was used as a guide to try and work out the correct height of the jacket along with the wax arm, hand holding the football, they were then welded into the correct position with wax.

With the final positioning of the wax arm and hand holding the ball was fixed in the desired position in the foundry it was then welded with wax.

The statue is now awaiting the sculpted wax head which is still being worked on in Ian's studio. Once the head of the sculpture is complete it will also be delivered to the foundry to enable it to be assembled onto the rest of the wax body and finally fixed into the correct position. This would have then be the first time that the whole sculpture has been fully assembled as one complete sculpture either in clay or wax and then any changes to the detailing, positioning or proportions of the sculpture can finally be made

As the date of this unveil ceremony was getting nearer everyone involved are now working flat out to complete the sculpture on time, including Ian who was still busily working on the sculpture of the head in his studio 70 miles away so it could at last be offered up to the otherwise completed wax statue waiting in the foundry Casting in bronze however is a rather slow and complicated process so to keep to schedule the foundry now had no choice but to begin cutting up the various wax sections into much smaller pieces to begin the dipping and casting process.

The arm which will be holding the football ; part of the trousers ; the jacket having been dipped in the ceramic casting material