A Fun & Entertaining Sculpture Demonstration
We all enjoyed a lovely evening last Thursday at the West Seneca Art Society’s demonstration of the month, featuring my sculpting a portrait head of my own likeness (the easiest way to get a willing model). I’ve presented similar art demos over the past several months for various art groups, teaching some of the tools and techniques for beginning a classical head sculpture in clay. Punctuated with plenty of dry humor and lots of Q & A, the meeting proved to be a good time for all involved. There were about 30 attendees at the event comprising artists and art enthusiasts.
Topics covered in the demonstration included some of the tools and materials used in the sculpting process, including oil based clay, metal and wood sculpting tools and photo reference material. We also discussed an overview of the “lost wax” bronze casting method, as well as casting sculptures in two-part artist’s resin. A large portion of the presentation was dedicated to the early stages of physically sculpting the human head, with special focus on combining observational skills with knowledge of artistic anatomy and proportion. We also reviewed some of the similarities between classical realist sculpture and direct painting techniques. As always, art seems to be a field with endless potential for crossover among the various disciplines within it.
The sculpture demo took place at the Burchfield Nature & Art Center in West Seneca, NY. Next month the Center will feature a solo exhibition of my paintings and sculptures, including a public reception on June 7. I’ll be posting details about that as the event gets closer.