SCULPTURE: 3-Dimensional Art
• Permanence
• 3-dimensional art / realistic
• Types- full round (may use devices
for support)
• Relief: maintains 2-d quality, low or
high (by half their depth)
• Linear (thin, elongated items),
mobiles
Methods of Execution
• Subtraction (carving away)
• Material culture determines wood, stone,
bone, etc.
• Types of rock: (1) igneous (granite- hard,
lasting, difficult)
• (2) Sedimentary (limestone- lasting, easy,
smooth, luster)
• (3) Metamorphic (marble- lasting, pleasure
to carve, colors)
Methods: Subtraction
• Creates a model, smaller than sculpture, of
clay, plaster, wax
• Roughs out the image to within 2-3 inches
of finished area
• Using a different set of tools, the sculptor
finishes the work to precise detail
• Finally the sculptor polishes the material
Methods: Construction
• Construction- adds element to
element; built sculpture (plastics,
metals, terracotta clay, resins, wood,
mixed media)
Methods: Substitution
• Substitution- molded or cast
• Positive = artist creates an identically
sized model
• Negative = covering the model with plaster,
which when hardens is removed, the
sculptor has created the negative mold for
the sculpture
• Sculptor pours molten metal into mold, the
metal hardens when cooled & the sculpture
emerges- it can then be polished
Lost Wax Technique
• Lost wax technique (cire-perdue)cast sculpture in which the basic mold
uses a wax model which is then
melted to leave desired spaces in the
mold
Lost Wax
1. Sculptor covers core of clay in the shape of the
sculpture with wax layer
2. He then carves details into the wax and attaches
rods & pouring cup & covers everything with a
thick layer of clay
3. When the clay dries, the artist heats the mold to
melt the wax & then pours molten metal into the
mold
4. When metal solidifies, the mold is broken to
release the sculpture- it cannot be duplicated, and
is hollow, therefore lighter and less expensive
Manipulation- modeling- clay
Sculptural Art Elements
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Mass (literal)
Line & Form: open & closed
Space / Negative space
Color
Texture
Mass (Literal)
Open Form
Closed Form
Negative Space
Color
Texture
Texture
Texture
Design Principles
• Proportion, relative relationship of shapes
to one another
• Scale- size in relation to standard
• Repetition (rhythm, harmony, variation)
• Balance - Biomorphic / geometric forms
• Articulation: manner by which we move
from one element to the next (how the
artist has repeated, varied, harmonized, &
related its parts and the movement from
one part to another)
• Focal area (emphasis)
Proportion- size of the parts in
relation to the whole
Scale: size in relation to normal
Repetition
Balance
Contemporary Methods
• Found Objects: changes the context
of objects, combines objects in a
different way, or decides an object
has an aesthetic reference and
presents it that way
• Ephemeral art: conceptual, transitory,
and makes statement then ceases to
exist
Ephemeral Art
Sensory Experience
Touch
Temperature
Age
Dynamics
Size
Lighting
Environment