In this Online Sculpture Lesson, all the secrets are unlocked - free and instantly available.

Ok, tub thumping over its time to get to work. Remember, you can apply the techniques to any project you decide to take on which uses ceramic clay . Whether you use Potclays 1150 (my choice here) or another of my recommended clays . So just because my sculpture lesson is a pair of angels, doesn't mean you have to sculpt angels too.

See the ideas page for some great concepts. The world is your oyster. You might like fish or sculptures of the sun...

This Sculpture Lesson presumes you have at least looked at these pages and expands on some of the content therein.

This is a Sculpture Lesson for ceramic clay. The techniques for polymer and plasteline are different in many details.

First and foremost the ceramic clay dries and has to be managed.

Secondly, you will notice there are no armatures in the piece shown in this sculpture lesson - its just a pure lump of fresh clay.

Advice on armature here.

The Sculpture Lesson Begins........

Get comfortable. Always use a banding wheel sculpture turntable so the piece is at a level in front of your face (no stooping please). Actually, you ideally need 2 different turntables, one higher, one lower - see info box below for more on this point.

Get your references right in front of your eyeline too. These will always subconsciously influence your sculpt. Make sure they are good.

Get your damp plaster bat (see sculpting tips) and get your clay on there.

A good tip is to anchor the piece to stop it moving around by drilling a small hole through the bat and place a nail up through the bat and the sculpture. Not very high tech - but it works fine.

See the design in your minds eye. However, don't stop at that unless your name's Michaelangelo. You will need to measure.

I measure, then draw up scale guide (like a pin-man on paper) so I can constantly refer with my dividers .

On the angel figurine I knew that the top of the lump of clay was precisely where the waist of the angels would be. How did I know? I measured.

No I don't mean a tool with a hook. I mean a metaphorical hook. You need a 'hook' to help your eye see what your mind is already seeing.

Normally for me its getting the face and head on at the right place and in the right pose (I do the face off sculpt before I do anything else (so its ready when I need it) see below.

With the angel sculpt the 'hook' was different. The design revolved around a heart shape - so this was my hook. The heart had to go on so I could design the sculpt around it.

I started to get a feeling for the shape of the dresses around each side of the heart.

It may not look much to you, but for me I could see the lovely flowing robes! Imagination, is a good thing, trust me.

Some refer to it as 'positive visualization'. I am good at it.

My section on 'The War Of Art' begins to give clues as to how I got good at this skill (it is a learned behaviour).

Everyday I use the techniques shown in this ebook on positive visualization . I teach my children the same methods - one is a ballerina at the Royal Ballet School and the other just won a scholarship to University.

Pause for a question.

Question: It seems to be a big leap to go from step 4 to step 5?

Answer:

The method I find most efficient is to work 'off-sculpt' with items that need accurate scaling and modeling. I then add these sections to the piece and continue on. I include upper female torso, faces, hands and feet in this category. This is not obligatory for you, but for me, having to do commercial work fast to pressing deadlines, it is a must. Go here for more info about working with items off sculpt page:

*****************************

Using your imagination you can now 'see' the design, so go all round the piece removing bits that shouldn't be there and adding the bits that should. One of the bits that should be there are two female upper-body torsos.

I had prepared these off sculpt (so I knew they were the right scale - no messing around, I DON'T HAVE TIME). Measure twice and make once as a carpenter friend once told me.

I always put my (almost) completed face on right at the start of the sculpt because, for me, once the face is on and the head is positioned correctly, the sculpt comes alive, no matter how rough or unfinished the rest of the piece is. Its normally my 'hook' (see para 3). The rest of the sculpt is then just doing justice to my lovely person sitting there (a bit like Geppetto creating Pinocchio, I suppose).

In this angel sculpt my hook was the heart, so the faces went on a bit later.

Other sculpture lessons advise to build your sculpt evenly all over. Well, everybody is different – whatever works for you. I never put the hands on until last because they would dry out before the rest of the sculpt.



7. DO NOT Fiddle With Detail (Yet)

Now its time to get arty. Indulge yourself, enjoy and start shooshing up your sculpt.

This sculpture lesson officially instructs you to let yourself go an try some stuff. You may surprise yourself. I always do! I'm a great artisan, but not a great artist.

My shooshing on this sculpt involved putting a sweeping train on the back of this figurine. I wasn't sure what I was going to do here, I just busked it and was pleased and surprised.

Pause for a question.

Question: So when do I hollow out the sculpt ready for firing?

Answer:

Go to hollowing clay sculpture page:

*****************************

9. Detail, And Finesse and Shoosh Some More

But Beware. Whilst your enjoying yourself, your piece might be drying out too much - even though you have read and understood the clay management section. This sculpture lesson gives some additional detail on how to stop you ceramic clay from drying out.

Don't put the hands on yet (do them off sculpt as per instructions above) because they might dry out.

Drying out.

How to deal with?

Really good point this. Yes its quite easy for 1150 to dry out beyond the point of no return especially when working on small items. This is part of 'clay management' - but I need to emphasize this point more here.

The big difference with ceramic clay over plasteline & polymer is it is very prone to drying out. I was used to keeping plasteline in my hands for hours at a time as it enhances its workability. Try that with 1150 and you will literally have dust within 3 minutes. Also, on a piece that you are working on, small areas like hands are very prone to over drying. You have to watch this because once 1150 has dried over a certain limit, it loses all its beautiful properties of strength and elasticity. You can re-wet it but it won’t be the same as before. It is best to manage the sculpt so that your 1150 remains in optimum condition and never reaches that ‘dried out’ point.

Refer to the Advanced Techniques Section on how to apply finish and finesse, then.......

Look and enjoy all your hard work.

Then figure out how you can do this for a living (if you are not doing so already).

If you were wondering where the wings are - I sculpted these off sculpt and then in production they were added separately.