Well, we’ve come to Part VII where we’ve completed our roughed out relief and it looks awesome! Congratulations for coming this far in this nine-part series! But there’s still a ways to go. In Parts I-VI we’ve covered everything from types of relief to tools and clay to some potholes to steer round. So what could possibly be left? Well, a lot so let’s just jump right into it…
Rough It Up
So we’ve roughed out or “rough-sculpted” our relief so now it’s time to get rougher with it…we have to “rough smooth” it to knock down all the tool marks our sculpting has left behind. This is actually a critical step in our process, one that can even change the nature of our relief if we aren’t careful. Indeed, if you notice, an intangible energy was injected into your relief during the rough-sculpting stage. It just has this “feel” to it, doesn’t it? This immediacy and, well…energy. We want to preserve that in its totality right to the end. But here’s the kicker…rough-smoothing can kill that energy if we aren’t super careful. See, rough-smoothing can rob a relief of its flair and life because there is such a thing as over-smoothing. You never want to over-smooth your relief! It’s worse than overworking because it can do so much damage that’ll take some doing to fix, to reinstall that life back into the clay. You want to avoid that. So how do we rough-smooth and how do we keep it in control? Let’s find out…
Take your little glass bowl and pop in about one tablespoon of GooGone. Now take your stiff brushes (let’s say the 2 if you’re starting on the legs, mane, tail, or face, or the 4 if you’re doing the large expanses of the torso) dip it in the GooGone, blot out the excess on a shop towel, and scrub your clay in a scrubby, “gently rough” motion, removing the tool marks. There’s definitely a learning curve with this as you want to scrub hard enough to remove the tool marks but not so hard as to mar or distort the clay. There’s a Goldilock’s Zone you’ll learn by feel soon enough. But that’s what you want to do all over your piece, smoothing it all over. Go in the direction of hair on the mane and tail and feathers, but criss-cross your scrubbing on the body, keeping that brush moving evenly all over. On the head and legs though, approach with more caution so you don’t hose up what you sculpted — be more gentle in these areas.
It’s definitely a “go by feel” method, but there are some things to avoid to ensure a good result. First, don’t soak your clay with GooGone. This is aggressive stuff that will melt your clay into a goopy mess if you aren’t careful. You want just enough on your brush to lubricate the scrubbing and no more so dabbing your brush on that shop towel is really important to blot out the excess. Second, it’s okay if there are minor brush strokes but it’s not okay if there are major brush strokes. That means you’re being too rough or using too much solvent. On the other hand, though, third, be bold. Don’t be so timid with the clay that your tool marks stubbornly remain. You shouldn’t have to work an area for too long. Remember, you don’t want to soak your clay in GooGone and the longer you work an area, the more soaked it becomes. Work fast and learn that necessary pressure to be done with an area quickly and move on. Fourth, be mindful of flatter areas so don’t focus on one place on them too long or you’ll eat a defect in their smooth, even contour. Keep that brush moving evenly and criss-crossing to avoid creating errors in your topography. Fifth, don’t keep using a gunked-up brush. See, melted clay is going to build up around your bristles and ferule which are going to be deposited onto your relief — you don’t want that. So clean your brush often in the GooGone and wiping it clean on a shop towel to then proceed. Sixth, don’t over-smooth! You want to smooth just enough to remove the tool marks, smooth areas of unwanted unevenness, and smooth hair and nothing more. You don’t want to rob your piece of its life and energy so learn when to stop and move on to another area as quickly as you can. Seventh, don’t use the same pressure all over the relief. See, you can be rougher on the body but you need to be more gentle on the face and legs and hair — learn what pressures are needed where as it’s not all the same. Eighth, don’t use just one brush movement to smooth but exploit lots of different movements to get into every nook and cranny. For example, there’s spinning your brush and circular motions that can get into certain areas better than a scrubby motion. In short, play around with your brush to find what works best to get the needed result. Ninth, don’t overlook how useful your fingers can be for smoothing tool marks on the large expanses of the body. Just make sure there’s little to no GooGone in that area and definitely don’t dip your finger in it as a lubricant. Ick. Tenth, this isn’t your final smoothing so don’t treat it as it is. This is merely to get rid of those tool marks and no more. We have another round of smoothing in store so don’t be too fussy at this stage. And tenth, don’t forget the edges or sides of your relief, those need smoothing, too.
Trouble Shooting
If you do end up over-smoothing, don’t panic. It just means you’ll have to let your piece sit for a day to calm down from the GooGone and resculpt those areas to reinstill that energy back into them. It’s extra work that could have been avoided, but at least it’s work that’s doable.
If you get goopy melted clay from your brush onto your relief, don’t worry. Just clean your brush, wipe it down on a shop towel so it’s drier, and gently brush it off your piece. Just don’t let that melted clay sit on your relief as it’ll just melt the area beneath it. Like I said, GooGone is aggressive. Treat it with respect.
If you’ve worn a patch or groove of erosion into your piece with overly aggressive scrubbing, never fear! That can happen as you learn how to work this technique. Let your piece rest from the GooGone for about twenty minutes then go back and add more clay into that area and smooth with your tool. Then go back and smooth again, being more careful this time.
Smooth Operator
And voilá — your piece has no tool marks! All gone. Doesn’t it look nice? You can really see what you did with more clarity, too. You can even go back and redo certain areas if you wish with this new clarity then resmooth. Point is, do all your big work now because now is the time to do it.
So look at Nashat and Meddur to see how far I go with the rough-smoothing. Notice that it’s not too far? Just enough to erase those tool marks and no further. Their energy remains intact. It’s a delicate balance, but one you’ll learn quickly.
Conclusion to Part VII
So now that all the tool marks are gone…we’re done right? Nope! We have a little ways to go, but up next is the fun part, or at least it’s a fun part for me. What is it? Well, it’s the fiddly, fussy stage of sculpting which we’ll get into in Part VIII.
“The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.”