We’re back at it with how I sculpt my relief work! Phew! We’ve tackled quite a bit so far, but hopefully you’re finding some of it useful for your own work.
In Part IV we dove into The Deepening, or the major subtractive component to sculpting a relief so now in this Part V, we’re going to tackle the additive aspect, all the while factoring in The Flattening. The thing to remember about sculpting relief is that it’s a process — there is a method to this madness. Once you learn that method then, the madness begins to make a lot more sense. Indeed, I use these same techniques for all my relief work regardless of size or shape or engineering since they’re highly adaptive and flexible, things I value in a sculpting process.
Makin’ It Blobbier
Warm your clay up under the lamp or in your clay warmer so it’s really soft and squishy. You want it soft because this step is going to require a lot of squishy clay simply to save your fingers. We’re going to be doing a lot of clay squishing in this step!
So we’ve considered The Deepening, the subtractive aspects of the relief, the sticky-iny parts, so now it’s time to consider the sticky-outy parts, the raised areas, the higher points. So yes, we’ve used our flat surface as the medium depth, the foundation or platform from which we carve into or build out from; it’s our medium depth, our starting point. It’s much like the mid-tone basecoat for a paint job, of sorts.
For this blob-adding step then, think about which portions will be closest to you and then work in descending order from there, all the way back to the lowest points. You don’t have to apply clay like this was gospel, remember, but the basic idea of it is a handy guide for your decisions. Like notice on Nashat that I had to apply blobs for his fetlock and hoof so they could stick out a little bit from his cannon.
Ordinarily I wouldn’t have done that, but I needed to preserve that thickness to that lower leg so in order to add dimension, I had to add rather than subtract. And note on him how much I added to his head so I could really do some serious sculpting there to make it pop? But note I didn’t make his ear alto-relievo as I might have ordinarily done — he’s destined as a standee and if he falls over, I don’t want a fragile, protruding ear to bust off. I want him to be as sturdy as possible as a whole piece for the collectors. Same for Meddur.
Now there’s a trick to this step — you want to make your blobs as proportional as possible to the shape and size they’re ultimately intended to be. You don’t want your blobs too small though that’s better than having them too big. Making them too big is a lot more of a hassle to “sculpt down” than it is to “sculpt up” because you didn’t add enough. Really, adding clay is usually a lot easier than removing clay. So this step is going to have a learning curve, so be ready for it. That said, you don’t have to be super precise, of course, just try to get in the ballpark. And don’t get too fussy either, again stick with the big ideas. What you’re doing now is blocking in the sticky-outy parts, not doing the actual sculpting yet. And use your fingers to smoosh in big swaths of clay if you need to, don't be timid. When you’re done, yes, you’ve made a mess of it…trust the process! It’s scary now and you may be intimidated, but trust the process! You didn’t ruin your relief, you added the necessary dimension to it, the necessary bulk, and the process works…trust me, it works!
So clearly, we worked with The Flattening as we placed on our bitty blobs as we “compressed” our visual into the relief paradigm. Here’s Nashat and Meddur then with their bitty blobs blobbed onto them so you can see what I mean.
You can see how much I added to achieve the protruding contours, using my traced in muscle grooves and features as a guide as to where to place the blobs. You can see that I generally followed the intended structures, too, using my fingers to give them their initial planes and shapes consistent to anatomy and perspective.
In particular, note how their forequarters are protruding a hair more than their hindquarters? With their bellies in the middle? We’re talking only millimeters here, but even those little differences can make a big impact. Of special note though, notice how important distortion is in playing to perspective? Your brain is going to register depth just fine if your perspective-induced distortions are correct. Our brains do a lot of filling in for us so we have an instant advantage here.
Trouble Shooting
Be mindful of how far you allow your clay blobs to protrude, or rather, how much clay you build up and where. Like you don’t want your eye sticking way out unnaturally, especially in comparison to your nostrils, teardrop bone, or zygomatics, for example, Or you don’t want your hindquarter to protrude out higher than your forequarter unless the pose or engineering demands that. Remember the layers between your two reference points and how everything falls between them.
Check your drawing and references a lot as you squish on bitty blobs to make sure you’re placing bulk in the correct locations in the correct proportions. If you’re off here, especially with placement, that could cause a systemic error that’s rather involved to fix later. So work with care in this step, take your time.
Planing your blobs correctly is important. You’re blocking in your sculpture now and we all know how important this step really is for how easy the rest of the process will pan out. Like you can see I’ve already factored in the planes in this step on Meddur and Nashat, it happens that early. Really, if you get your planes wrong now, it can create a systemic error by throwing off other areas of your piece. This is actually a common misstep made with relief, getting the planing wrong. So again, when you think you’re done, pop your piece under directional light to check if that light plays on these initial contours consistent to your references and drawing. If not, make adjustments now, don’t wait for later.
If your fingers are getting tender or sore, wait for your clay to warm up more again as it’s getting too hard and therefore too stiff to work. I like to cycle through clay blobs so I’m always working with the softest, gooshiest clay possible. It just saves your hands!
Conclusion to Part V
So much squishing! But we’re all bulked up now and ready to really start sculpting! Now it’s super easy to become a bit overwhelmed at this specific stage of the game, I know. I sometimes still feel that even after all my experience. Your traced lines are gone and you feel a bit intimidated because it all feels so confusing and daunting. But it isn’t. Yes, there’s a lot to do now, but you’re going to chip away at your piece one small portion at a time, moving across it systematically until it’s all done. You’re going to pull your design right out of the clay little by little so trust the process! Honestly, you’ll be amazed at what you can actually do when you babystep your way through something!
So in Part VI, we’re going to get to the actual sculpting portion of the process which is so fun and fascinating! Maybe you’ll even find your Groove and you’ll be stunned at how your piece just literally sculpts itself. Really, once you get the hang of relief work, your process will become faster and faster as the easier it gets. Or yes, maybe you struggle and get lost along the way, but don’t worry! There are tricks up your sleeve you don’t even know about yet that I’m going to show you next time.
“Sculpture is an art of the open air. Daylight, sunlight, is necessary to it, and for me, its best setting and complement is nature.”
- Henry Moore