Sculpture Techniques

Sculpture Techniques

Sculpture Techniques:

Where do art techniques emerge? are they taught to us or do we learn them as we go along.

Interesting thought..........

Sure we can pick up certain techniques from your teachers. Though, I have heard that to many art teachers try to impress their techniques upon their students, thus, limiting the students natural ability to find their own way.

Making clones of their students, true reflections of the art teachers themselves.

Now a good art teacher needs to realize this and correct themselves, further more.... giving the students room to develop their own techniques.

How many art teachers out there are attune enough to do this -

I don't really know.

Building your own techniques depends on what medium your working with at the time. I myself work in a few different mediums depending on what sort of sculpture I am going to do at the time.

This depends on what size the sculpture will be and also the amount of detail I will be putting into it.

Lets have a look at the different sculpture techniques in wax and clay. These are the two I usually use. It was also necessary for me to use Plasticine once also.

Wax Sculpture Techniques

Not the easiest of mediums to work in, though this is the medium I work with the most. Now, wax, when cold can be hard and somewhat unyielding medium, yet forgiving to mistakes and very easy to control.

I use my hands and dental tools to work with when I'm sculpting in wax.

Dental tools are strong and precise, being steel, they can also be a bit sharp, so be careful not to dig in too harshly into the wax, as wax has a way of taking up all marks precisely.

I have never felt the need to heat my dental tools, as the right sculpting wax is malleable enough to never need melting once you are sculpting in the details.

"By the way, if you want to hear more in depth stories on the trials and tribulations I have had with doing my own sculptures. I will be sharing them in my free monthly "pet art newsletter" . Why not come join us........

Work with good light around you, whether it's natural light or non-natural light at night, make sure you are in an environment that is well lit.

The wax you choose will come in one color, when working with such a mass of just one color, you need to be able to distinguish the detail clearly, so good lighting is a must.

You will find that with wax, your sculpture techniques will be rather controlled and not as flamboyant.

Your natural skill with working with your tools and hands in wax will come naturally, so keep your finger tips smooth, or the roughness of your skin will come out in the wax as you sculpt.

Plasticine Sculpture Techniques

When I was overseas, separated from my wax and needing to do another sculpture.

I wasn't going to have the wax sent over to me (half a world away) and I was not going to get more ordered. So I used Plasticine.... THAT'S RIGHT! Plasticine.

I found it was not the same as working with wax. But, really..... I was used to wax, and Plasticine was very foreign to me at the time.

Sculpture techniques in plasticine I found, took on their own style. And I quickly found that I could get the same results with it. A bit clunky, but it did the job and another sculpture was done.

I also used dental tools for this medium, just bare in mind, when you finish a sculpture in plasticine, be careful not to bump it or get it damaged.

You know what plasticine is like, it will never harden as it gets colder. So you always need to be on the alert, where you put your finished sculpture, and that it stays in one piece before you can get it cast.

Artist ~ Andrea Balch ( "The Saracen " in wax )

Clay Sculpture

Most probably my favourite after wax. Now I'm not saying that wax is any better. I am a stickler for detail, so most of my sculptures are detailed as in nature, so.... I use wax most of the time.

But clay..... oh clay, it's not only very therapeutic to work with, it has a self expression of it's own.

Being a natural substance, clay, when worked with water can be quite expressive.

You only have to put slight pressure on it with your hands and add more water and you have the clays own natural upheavals through pressure alone. This you can't get with man made substances.

“The best artist has that thought alone Which is contained within the marble shell; The sculptor's hand can only break the spell To free the figures slumbering in the stone"~Michelangelo

I use wooden tools that you can get from most art shops, and you can make your own, even the humble paddle-pop stick can become a good tool to acquire and place in your wooden sculpture tool kit.

If I am going to do a larger sculpture with mild detail, I leap into the clay and work with it.

You have such a free and easy way of expressing you intentions in clay.

Your hands create the basic shape, then your tools carve in the detail, then back to the hands and a little water to smooth off and finish the sculpture.

Sculpture techniques such as you will find with clay will come naturally. You will learn to control your hands skilfully, though, not as restrictively as you would with Plasticine or wax.

Clay may not be as precise as wax, but I have found that sometimes, free expression of the clay alone, can only add to the overall sculpture.

Sculpture techniques, whether it be in a more controlled medium such as wax, or a more free style medium such as clay. You learn to focus on the picture in your mind and your hands will adjust to how they need to work with the medium at the time.

You might feel a bit clumsy at the time, when firstly working with sculpture, let your technique develop at it's own time.

It might change, depending on what your even attempting to sculpt at the time, and it will defiantly adjust to become better with time, and where also talking about clocking up many hours of work time too.

All good art takes time, and if you are going to go to an art class, try not to copy the art teacher exactly, but do take on board what the art teacher is showing you.

You don't just want to become a clone just your art teacher... do you. You want to learn what they teach you, and then use those lessons to develop your own sculpture technique, and develop your own individuality.