Sculpture Technique Drawn
From 20 Years Professional
Clay Modeling Experience

Basic Sculpture Technique

People often ask me whether you carve the clay by cutting into it or model by adding the clay on. The short answer is you do both techniques when working with any type of clay (ceramic, polymer or oil-based).

Be sure to go to the clay modeling tools pages after you have looked through this basic section, which will give you instructions on how to use all the basic tools.

When you are ready, many advanced techniques are shown in the Sculpting Tutorials.

Another must read before you start out are the Sculpting Tips pages. Sculpting Tips 1 goes through all the different modeling clays, and Sculpting Tips 2 gives you some background about how each type of clay is best managed and utilized.

Armatures

I am often asked about armatures, so let's deal with that point before we go on. You need to use armatures with plasteline and polymer clays. There is no need for internal armatures if you use the right ceramic clay . For more information see armature.

I recommend Potclays 1150 if you are UK based like me, or if you are US or Canada based one of Amaco's earth clays (see here for my full review) is the way to go. The structure of all the clays mentioned will allow the rough sculpt to harden off to a strong but flexible consistency, while remaining plastic and not dry out too fast, particularly in small areas.

You need to understand how to manage your clay though (see sculpting tips).

Before we go there, let's recap on the stages of working up a piece (Rome wasn't built in a day - put your patient head on).

To summarize, here's the stages a sculpt using ceramic clay has to go through:

1. Roughing Out (Background).

Its just you, your tools and a lump of fresh clay. A bit daunting, huh? A bit like a blank sheet of paper for a writer.

Then using fresh soft clay as your friend you can push and manipulate the clay into a rough shape.

Everything can be amended from here, so don't worry too much - it's a bit like an artist slopping on the first layer of paint for the background. This is the essence of sculpture technique using ceramic clay.


However, this first layer of clay gives you a base on which to work, a bit like the foundations of a house.

If you are doing a human figure, you would be advised to measure and mark some basic reference points even at this stage (i.e. how high the shoulder will be and where the hips are in proportion).

Don't try to fiddle with detail at this stage, just mark off dimensions in a pragmatic way ( I use these dividers ). There's plenty of time for getting all arty later.


You should now have something that looks like the cat dragged in, but who cares?

2. Let Your Background Set.

Leave your 'background' to harden off a bit until it isn't so sloppy and has enough resistance to apply more clay without bending or collapsing.

Don't let it become too dry though because once it has dried beyond a certain point it loses some of its plasticity (see clay management in Sculpting Tips 2 ).

3. Add And Subtract.

You can then add or remove clay to your hearts content as long as you keep the clay in good workable condition (see above & below).

4. Cutting and Repositioning.

Once your piece has been roughed out, you may be aware that something doesn't look quite right (if you are brutally honest - which you need to be). Some surgery is required (at least that happens most times with me).

Using your potters knife never be scared to cut off whole sections and rejoin.

This is one of the beauties of working with traditional clay rather than, say, plastiline where you have internal wire armatures.

Adding Clay (modeling on):

Sometimes you have to add soft clay to soft clay. This often happens in the early stages of a sculpt. You don't have to wet the clay to get it to stick firmly.

You have to add the clay carefully in balls or pellets and not press too hard.

Once underway, you are normally adding softish clay from the bag to slightly hardened off clay.

In this case you have to wet the harder clay with a brush.

As I said, you will have to add & subtract clay in equal measure when you are progressing a piece.

You remove the clay using various cutting tools or scraping tools. Some tools are designed for adding and some for taking away. Some do both.

Removing Clay (Sculpting off):

These tools are known as cutters.

More of this in the Sculpting Tools section and the Sculpting Tutorials section.

Detailing: This basic 'Sculpture Technique' section doesn't cover detailing too much - that's in the Sculpting Tutorials advanced section. The principle to note is most detailing I do is not done on the piece.





In the 'Julia' sculpt on the left, the face, hands and the raised part of the intricate lacing were all done separately.

They were then added to the sculpt at different stages. Separate, the tricky bits are accessible to being worked on properly (see off sculpt page).

The hair was done on the piece (apart from the hand-made flowers).






Don't forget, apart from this Sculpture Technique section showing basic techniques to ground you correctly, you can also go to the Sculpting Tips: about types of modeling clay and their uses.


return from sculpture technique to homepage or alternatively back to clay sculpting