We’re back again with this nine-part series about how I sculpt a relief. We’ve covered a lot of ground so far in Parts I, II, and III, so in this Part IV we’re going to tackle The Deepening, that step in our process that establishes the basic perspective of your piece. So let’s go!
The Deepening
So now we have your design on your flat clay slab, right? Okay…time to add dimension! Time to do the major subtractive component of the relief. So study your design and consider which point on that horse would be close to you and which part would be furthest away. So as for right now, ignore the points that would be closest to you and think mostly on those points that would be furthest way — those are the spots we’re going to target with The Deepening.
On Nashat then, his closest part is his right forefoot and head and his furthest away point is his right hind foot. On Meddur, his muzzle and left fore hoof are the closest to us while his right hock is the furthest away from this perspective.
So, to achieve The Deepening, take your loop tool and literally carve those points down. Don’t go down too far as to make your clay too thin in that area (or “farther way” than your background if you have one), but take away some of that clay. (It’s okay if you remove your traced-on muscles and stuff as you’ll add those back in later.) And don’t forget the ears! (If you have a background, you’ll have to carve that in, too, as the point furthest away.)
So here’s Meddur treated with The Deepening and you can see the impact it makes right away. As I've determined his two reference points, which are closest and which are furthest away, I've taken clay away accordingly.
Now here’s Nashat all carved out with The Deepening touches and notice how he has started to come to life with some dimension already?
But if you really look at him, you see I broke my own rules! I had to. Because here’s the problem — he’s designed as a standee so I have to think about weight…all that weight visited on that right hind foot when he’s stood up! So here’s my issue: I want his head to really pop as a focal point. So I plan for it to have the most mezzo-relievo work, i.e. the thickest part and so the most weight to it. That means I have to take weight off elsewhere like his fore legs, which is why I’ve carved them down so much. Ordinarily I would have left the lower leg of the right fore alone since it’s “out in front” but I couldn’t do that here because of engineering logistics. What’s more, notice how I didn’t take any off his lower right leg? He’s fully thick there and for good reason — it has to support the rest of him when he’s stood up so I want that area to be thick. See — there are those judgement calls. But I’m not going to worry about that because with his sharp perspective and other tricks up my sleeve, it’ll all work out in the end.
Regardless, also notice on Meddur and Nashat that I delineated some of their large muscle mass creases, areas that would be deeper “into the body.” And note how their bellies have been defined as well. Just think in terms of big ideas at this point though, the big ideas with the deeper planing of the subject. Don’t start working on details or finer points yet — just the big planar ideas. In a sense really, The Deepening is a general recreation of the proper shadows in your piece right from the get-go. And notice how crude I’m being here — you can really see the toolmarks of my loop tool, can’t you? No need to be delicate at this point.
Trouble Shooting
Now if you’ve cut away too much of your clay, no problem! Just take some of your softened, warm clay and squish it back on and reshape it and start over. All fixed! Oil clay is very forgiving.
Take care not to distort your traced design as you work. This is why loop tools at this stage are so useful as they cut away rather than smoosh.
Don’t futz and fiddle at this stage. Just focus on the big overarching ideas as you’re simply blocking in the deepest areas. If you start to fiddle at this stage, you’re going to run into trouble later — remember, this is all a progressive process. Trust the process.
If you ever break a piece off accidentally — don’t worry! Just squish it back on and blend it back in. But if like a leg or whatnot comes off, just squish it back into place and use those anchoring tabs again. You can clean the edges up later.
Now take your piece and put it under directional light — how does it look? Study your reference photos and drawing — are those major shadows lining up properly between your piece and those references? If not, make adjustments.
Conclusion to Part IV
Wowee—we’re on our way, aren’t we? As long as you’re having fun, that’s really all that matters! And don’t worry too much about what you’re doing. Oil clay is so forgiving that whatever you hose up, you can fix with relative ease. Just add more clay, reshape, and you’re ready to move forwards again. So while we’ve tackled The Deepening in this Part IV, in Part V we’re going to jump into the additive aspect of sculpting relief work! In other words, we’re going to add on some clay blobs! Yes — we’re going to make our piece even blobbier! Onward, to glory!
“A sculpture is just a painting cut out and stood up somewhere.”
- Frank Stella