I discovered soon into sculpting that the armature had been welded together wrong. It was 3-4 inches short in height in places (arms and child) and his torso wasn't twisted enough. The gesture is extremely important to me since it really is the essence of the piece. How the person stands, carries them self, and holds the child depicts what they feel about themselves, what they are thinking, and their philosophy on life. St. Anthony always seemed to me a person of great intellect who was well grounded in his knowledge of the word of God and had a presence about him. How he held the child was everything to me.

SO....he got ripped apart down to his waist, cut apart and re-welded. Next time I am welding the armature myself, and not having somebody else do it.

Left: Before (wrong locations)

Right: After (correct locations..notice how the child is held farther on his right)

It is hard to tell in these pictures, but if an armature is an inch or more off in places that are critical like his hands and feet, then you are fighting against your armature the rest of the time! It isn't worth it.

I'm now back on track. I'm using lasers to plot the spacial points.