We’re back at it in this nine-part series about my own methods for sculpting relief work. In Parts I, II, III, IV, and V we’ve covered everything from history to tools to The Deepening to squishing our sticky-outy blobs on there, and now it’s time for actual sculpting in this Part VI! So let’s just get right to it!…
It’s Smooshing Time!
As someone who’s been sculpting relief work since the early 90s, just over thirty years ago (yikes!), I can distill this step down into one simple concept: You just smoosh clay around until it looks right. That’s literally all it is. That’s the best I can offer. Add more clay where you need it, take clay away where you need to, and just smoosh it all around until it looks right to you. And how right is proportional to how long you’ve been doing this — it’s all experience.
So my next best I can offer is: Just keep at it. Despite all the challenges and daunting nature of it, just keep at it. Yes, it’s going to see like a huge, impossible task. Yes, there are going to be ugly stages you have to power through. Yes, it’s going to be intimidating and scary. Yes, you’re going to make mistakes. But you’ve got to finish what you start and move onto the next piece to gain more experience. And just chip away at it, little by little. You don’t have to tackle the whole thing at once. And making mistakes is how we learn, there’s no avoiding them. In fact, they’re your best teachers. And don’t worry about making mistakes as oil clay is very forgiving so every hiccup is an easy enough fix. You totally got this!
So instead of me trying to instruct you how to sculpt in the inert format of a blog, instead why don’t we talk about how many folks go haywire when they’re sculpting and some trouble shooting so you can figure out where you went wrong and how to fix it. So to that end…
Using the wrong tools: Many people haven’t experimented enough with tools to find the right fit for them so they just struggle continuously with a tool that’s a poor fit for them. Then frustrated, they quit. Don’t do that. Try lots of different tools and there are hordes of them out there to play with. Myself? I like this tool, a glorified stick with a thicker end and a skinnier end.
I use it to define and spread and smoosh the clay around, pushing it around until it makes the right formations and contours. But I know many artists who prefer a more pointed tool like a sharpened pencil or a more rounded tool like the end of a paint brush. Many use loop tools in a more subtractive approach. So it’s entirely up to your preferences. There is no wrong tool if it fits you. And don’t forget your fingers! If the scale of your piece allows it, your fingers can be the best tools ever.
Getting overwhelmed: Too many beginners think they have to work on the entire piece all at once and quickly become exhausted by the sheer magnitude of it all. I would be, too. Instead, I recommend picking a place — any place — and starting there and then working outwards in any direction you want to go. I’m right-handed, so I generally start on a body part to the left of the piece and work my way across, going right, so I don’t smoosh what I just did. If you’re left-handed, that might be the opposite direction. Or maybe you’d like to start on the face and work outwards from there which is fine, too. There’s no wrong place to start — just start. And never feel like you have to do it all at once. Babystepping and piecemealing can often get you to the finish line with more sanity at the end.
Forgetting layers: It’s easy to get wrapped up in a portion of the body that fascinates us and then building it up or carving it down too much in relation to the rest of the body. Like I’ve seen eyes that were much too protruding or nostril rims sculpted like volcanoes or joints that were much too bulbous or “reversed” layers between the forequarter and hindquarter only because the artist forgot about the relationships between the layers. We have to remember The Flattening effect and all the relationships it creates between the layers. An easy trick then is to view your relief edgewise on the tile to see the topography of your piece as it really is…which parts are sticking out the most — are they the correct bits and are they sticking out at the right amount? Now yes, if you had to break rules, this doesn’t apply, but overall it’s still a nifty hack if you get stuck when something doesn’t look quite right. More times than not, it’s wonky topography that’s throwing our Eye off.
Carving in too deeply: Remember these things need to cast well! If we carve into things too deeply we’re going to tear our molds, like carving too much into ears, nostrils, or in the mane and tail or feathers. Make sure the silicone can pull well out of every portion you sculpt. But this caution also goes for muscle grooves. Oil clay is so nice to work with, yes, but a good sculpture, a realistic sculpture, is a study of not just accuracy but of restraint, too. Restraint in now extreme things are actually expressed. It’s so easy to really carve in those muscle delineations because of that wonderful clay, but dial it back. Always think of realism first. But likewise, don’t be shy with that clay either. Capturing depth and dimension is about really knowing when and where to be bold so…be bold. Use your directional light to help you match the accurate shadows and highlights to better gauge how effectively you’re sculpting your design.
Use your references religiously: It’s so easy to go off-track when sculpting a relief because that clay is so squishy and unwanted distortions can happen rather quickly. Use your calipers often with your references, too, making constant comparisons as you work. You can even poke into your clay with them to mark a reference point. And have a good anatomical chart handy because you may have to use it to decipher what you’re seeing in your photos, information you need to know for your relief, especially if you get stuck. You can even draw the anatomical features or structural relationships into your clay as guides, something I do a lot as I work. Just look at Nashat and Meddur when I did this. Trust me, a relief will teach you a lot about anatomy, conformation, and breed type in a short time because a relief can look wonky a lot faster than a 3D sculpture!
Getting confused and scared: If you start to get intimidated, break the relief down to smaller bites and then break those smaller bites down into the most basic shapes and relationships. In fact, break everything down into the most basic shapes and relationships and trust the process to marry them all together. The head and joints and the legs can be real trouble spots for beginners in this regard, so just break them down into the most basic components you can and restart that way. See, the thing is with the angles we might choose to sculpt in — like 3/4 angles and whatnot — things can look really confusing and weird. Trust the process. Sculpt what you see in your references and your design no matter how weird the shape or orientation — it will make sense in the end. And never forget, you can always go back and retweak areas that end up not fitting. Oil clay will always let you do that.
Overworking an area: Oh my gosh, this is so easy to do! But resist the urge to keep spinning your wheels with an area. Walk away. Develop a fresh eye and come back to it later. See, the thing is, if you’re spinning your wheels with some portion of your relief it’s because there’s probably something wrong and that area is trying to tell you that. So you’re essentially trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Or perhaps your skillset isn’t quite ready to tackle that bit yet. It happens. So move onto another part and work out from there for a while. Just switch gears but keep moving forwards. You can always come back to that problem area later. Or perhaps there’s a systemic problem that has culminated in that particular portion of your relief. If you suspect that’s the case, refer back to your references and your drawing to suss out the problem. Or it could be that area is giving you fits because it’s actually a surrounding area that’s off which is forcing the issue. Or maybe we’re just exhausted and need to take a break. That happens, too. Go do something else for a while — you need to be working on your relief in joy, not drudgery.
Getting lost in the process: It’s also easy to lose our way as we sculpt a relief because the distortions can be so extreme and unfamiliar. Indeed, all the familiar topography of the horse we know so habitually is made quite foreign through a relief’s flattened perspective. In fact though, this is actually a great aspect of relief because it can break our formulas and habitual interpretations by forcing us to See things quite differently. A relief can really freshen your Sight in this way. Nevertheless, how do we find our way out after getting lost? Well, refer back to your references and your drawing then visualize in your head what the area is supposed to look like on your relief and imagine yourself sculpting it. What angles would you have to hold your tool? How would the clay have to be smooshed to mimic the structures? What layer are you working on and is it in proper relationship to the other layers? Draw on your relief if you have to to clarify structures. Again, break things down to basic shapes and relationships and visualize them on your relief then proceed to sculpt it. Overall, stepping back, taking a breath, and visualizing where you need to go first can often light the way. Above all, trust the process to make it all make sense in the end.
Being timid: Be bold! Smoosh that clay around, you don’t have to be gentle. In fact, the more you work the clay, the better it works so don’t be shy with it. When I work, I’m really smearing it around to shape things, carving stuff off, scraping stuff off, and adding stuff on. It’s all very fluid and organic. Like take a look at Nashat and Meddur and you can actually see how I’ve drawn my tool over them to achieve the contours. So don’t think you only have to just carve way — add where you need it because you may indeed need more in certain areas as you work. Like I keep a blob of warm clay squished onto my tile as a reservoir for needed clay. You never know when some little blob will be the right touch to an area and I want it in quick, easy reach.
Be responsive to the needs of the illusion expressed in the relief then and know that you can go back and forth as many times as you wish. And don’t worry about toolmarks right now — make them! Tool marks are actually really beautiful things that speak to the process and your creative energy so savor them while you can.
Being too aggressive: On the other hand, learn the feel of the clay as quickly as you can. Why? Because if you’re too aggressive, you’re going to cause rips and tears, crumbling and crumpling in your clay. What you want do achieve is a smooth smearing effect that’ll smooth nicely later with solvents.
Not cleaning your work as you go: When you’re using those loop tools, clean up those tailings as you sculpt. Don’t let them pile up in a big mess to get in your way. Likewise, clean your tools often so they don’t become gunked up with clay. Similarly, clean up all that little pilling that can build up, too, especially in the mane and tail. You don’t want those melting into your relief when you do your smoothings to mar those areas. Keep things as clean and gunk free as possible as you work.
Not taking breaks: Seriously - take breaks periodically if just to step back and evaluate what you’re doing. If you power through too fast you’re going to make mistakes, create distortions, and cut corners — don’t do that. Take your time and pace yourself. Sculpting a relief is methodical work so respect the process.
Misplaced focus: Keep in mind that this first go at sculpting is only the first stage of sculpting, the “rough-sculpting” stage. In this, you’re getting the relief prepped for finessing later. In other words, don’t focus on details and textures just yet at this stage, just keeping your focus on the anatomy, precision, perspective, and correct Flattening and Deepening aspects of it. Save the detailing and finagling for later — we’ll get to it, yes, but later.
Hairy Territory
Okay so yay! You’ve finished the body and it turned out so cool! Great job! But now we have to add the mane, tail, or feathers, things which I do after the fact. It’s just a quirk of mine I suppose because you can sculpt yours right along with the body if you wish, it’s up to you. Now I often don’t really have an idea of what to do with the mane and tail until I’m done with the body and the relief has told me what it wants. Another quirk of mine I guess. Either which way, I like to take a mechanical pencil and draw on the target configuration right onto the tile as a guide which lets me work things out ahead of time. Like take a look at Nashat and Meddur with their penciled in manes and tails. Then I take my warmed, squishy clay, smoosh it on there and sculpt away. It’s really quite fluid and spontaneous.
Now there are many ways to sculpt hair convincingly so the way you like to do is the right way for you. For this, it’s a good idea to study how other artists sculpt hair to get some ideas but make sure you adapt to a method that’s comfortable and expressive of you and your style. And keep this in mind — as you sculpt you can always change your mind. Your penciled in mane and tail aren’t dogma! Like on Nashat, notice how I didn’t input that flipped up hair at his withers? At the last moment, I opted to omit that as I thought it made for a stronger design to omit it. Never be afraid to change your mind with your relief’s design on the fly. It’s one thing to see your relief drawn out on a piece of paper and quite another to have it made real in clay so what works on paper doesn’t always work in clay. Or perhaps your relief wants to be a certain way quite different from your design and that’s okay, too. Listen to your piece, always. Almost always when you do, a stronger composition will result. I don’t know how that works, but it does.
Here's Meddur's mane and tail blobbed in so you can see how spontaneous and roughed out they start. I'm not timid here...just get that clay on there. I used my fingers, shaping the blobs into snakes and jamming them onto the tile firmly. Just make sure all the tendrils have "a pathway to the back," unless you want to sculpt them more "in the round." Then I'll just sculpt them, making any changes along the way because I find that manes and tails often evolve as you create them. I actually find manes and tails the most difficult part of the whole process because capturing randomized passive physics, while still flattering the overall composition, is a tricky dance. It's fun though, but it can be a real challenge at times.
Trouble Shooting
When you think you’re done at this stage, trust me, you’re not. Take a picture of your piece with your phone and look at it through the objectifying lens for a fresh look. Even better, pop it into a photo editing program on your computer for a bigger view. Flip it over horizontally for a fresh look. Or look at your piece regularly in a mirror, reversed, and don’t forget to inspect it upside down, too. And compare this photo to your references and drawing — do they match? And always check your work under directional lighting to make sure those planes and dimensions synch with your references. Keep doing all this until that piece is just so then you’re finally ready to move onto the next step.
Huzzah!
So now you’ve done all that and you made all your corrections and ta-da…you’re finished! You’ve sculpted out your relief — you did it! You tackled some challenges and you saw your way through it — great job! But you aren’t done yet. See, you just finished what I refer to as the rough-sculpted stage, the first stage of sculpting. We'll have another go at sculpting but only after we knock down all those tool marks which we have to smooth out first.
So here are Nashat and Meddur rough sculpted so you can get an idea of how far I go with this stage. It’s pretty far. But note that there are no details really and a lot of the texture isn’t present. Those are things we’ll get to later.
Conclusion to Part VI
You’ve come a long way, you! Super job! Look what you did — appreciate that! Pat yourself on the back. You created something that didn’t exist before — how cool is that?! But we still have a ways to go which we’ll get to in Part VII. Meanwhile, savor your moment! Always savor every creative win as each one represents a personal triumph in some way. Be proud of what you accomplished! You’ve earned it!
So in Part VII we’ll discuss how to get rid of all those tool marks so just hang tight! Until next time then…job well done!
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”
- Vincent Van Gogh