Classical Sculpture Class
Instructed by: Dorthy Thielsen
Class: Classical Sculpture
Materials must be purchased by students:
● 25 lb. bag of soldate 60 clay
● Squirt bottle
● Apron (optional)
● 2 large trash bags
● 8”x8” piece of half inch wood board (any type)
● Turntable to fit piece of wood board (optional but highly recommended)
● AA Essential Pottery Tool Kit and/or hard fettling blade
About the Instructor: Dorthy Thielsen is a stop motion animation puppet fabricator and
sculpting teacher. Her puppets and sculptures have been featured in several galleries in San
Francisco, and she has won awards in several shows. Thielsen graduated with honors from the
Academy of Art University with a degree in stop motion animation. She was a personal tutor for
other students at the Academy while she attended. The subjects she taught were gestural
figure sculpting, portrait sculpting, sculpting for animation, puppet fabrication, stop motion
animation, and painting. Her strength lies in portrait sculptures. Her sculpture work is very
classical in appearance and she excels in capturing details and planes to get the resemblance
of her subjects. Thielsen has worked on many stop motion animation projects including
“Trompe de L’oeil,” “Frog Bar,” and “Dulce de Reliquias.” She worked on an independent stop
motion film called “T.P.”, which is still in the works. Through these projects and independent
studies, Thielsen became skilled in sculpting, animation, costume fabrication, mold making,
casting, paint, puppet fabrication, concept art, lighting, armature machining, metal working, and
cinematography. She is currently working in New York City for the Puppet Kitchen. Her
portfolio can be viewed at dorthythielsen.com.
Description: Classical sculpture will focus on strengthening and exploring the core principles
of sculpting and understanding the human form. The main principles that will be taught include
proportion, gesture, anatomy, planes, variety of forms, volume, and finishing techniques. The
class is geared to all levels and for those starting out, materials and tools will be gone over to
make the student feel comfortable. The class will work from a live, nude model in order to better
understand the human form. Since there will be a nude model present, all artist who participate
in the class must be 18 years or older. The model fee is figured into the tuition. Thielsen will
work side by side with the students to demonstrate different techniques while working from the
model. Sculpture can be intimidating for some, but it is really no different than any other
medium. The great thing about sculpture is that it is a medium that is easy to modify. Sculpture
has also been proven to improve an artist’s understanding in depth and volume that can be
applied to other mediums. Many of Thielsen’s former students were painters who noticed a vast
Dorthy Thielsen
(303)242-2975
dotinmotion@hotmail.com
improvement to the depth, planes, forms, and volumes in their paintings. The class will meet
twice a week on Tuesdays, and Thursday from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM starting September 2nd and
ending September 25th.
Syllabus:
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Day 2:
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Day 3:
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Introduction to materials, tools, and techniques
Warm up exercise: sculpt an egg, cube, and cone
Lecture on proportion
Start blocking out basic gesture study
Lecture on gesture, basic anatomy, and s-curve
Continue blocking in gesture study
Lecture on planes vs. forms vs. volumes
Continue blocking in gesture study
Lecture on the four varieties of forms
Refining forms and planes
Lecture on fleshing out details, facial features, and hair
Detail and polish gesture study
Option to start new gesture study or continue previous study
Lecture on advanced anatomy
Continue work on 1st or 2nd gesture study
Group critique of work
Continue work on 1st or 2nd gesture study
Lecture on hands and feet
Refining forms and planes of gesture study
Lecture on photographing work
Finish gesture study(s)
Group critique
Finishing techniques for fired and unfired pieces
Dorthy Thielsen
(303)242-2975
dotinmotion@hotmail.com