Sketching in Clay

Sketching in clay is a new blog i have created to express the importance of doing studies for sculpting. This blog will showcase ideas and thoughts about sculpting as well as demos on the entire process and tips along the way.

When a new sculpture is started most artists will sketch it out on paper and then jump into the finished piece. While this is a great method, i believe for me that having a 3D maquette has more benefits. A maquette is also a great tool for learning different techniques. Instead of starting a sculpture and thinking that you have to bring it to a final piece try focusing on certain aspects like structure or ears or expression. I think doing quick studies like these will help you learn faster and you will gain a better understanding of anatomy and character.

I try to do 1 hr warm-ups every day, sometimes focusing on certain characteristics or likeness or just trying to think outside the box and seeing what happens. When you stop thinking about what you want to make and you just let your subconscious spill out what it wants to you can have some amazing creations. The best part is your spending 1 hr (or 10-30 min whatever you can fit in) to work on something you feel you need improvement or want to explore and you will come up with 1 of 2 things. Either a piece you like and you can spend more time finishing later, or a piece you don't like and now you have 1 less bad idea in your head and you learned something valuable while making it.

Here are a few sculpts i have done in the past.

This a maquette i did for my Monster Squad Gillman piece. I did this not only to work out the expression and gesture, but it also helped me with the block in. After doing this i had a better understanding of the character in 3 dimensions.