Sculpting the Bas Relief Demonstration Tutorial part 7

When sculpting in oil-based clay, the clay remains pretty consistant. It does get harder or softer with temperature, but it's oil content remains stable.

Working in water-based clay is quite different. The clay dries when exposed to air. Here in semi-arid Colorado it dries significantly faster than in humid Florida.

You will find that if you are holding clay in one hand an applying that clay to your sculpt with your other hand or a tool, that the clay in your hand dries very quickly - you'll see gray dust on your fingers and cracking clay on your hand - the contact of your skin to the clay is wicking the moisture from the clay. That makes it stiffer and more likely to crumble.

To counter this, if I'm working with smaller bits of clay, I'll take a ball of it and slap it onto an unfinished area of my sculpt - in this case a portion of the sky but it could as easily be the hair or the base of the shoulders if a bust. That way the clay is sitting on the clay and retains about the same moisture content...I simply take a pinch or use my tool to grab a swipe of the clay for application.

At this stage of the sculpt, areas are starting to dry out a bit. I am now starting to cover those sections with a damp paper towel to keep it from getting too dry when working in other areas. It will get progressively drier and firmer as I'm working, allowing for more accurate detailing.

Sculpting the Bas Relief Tutorial part 4

Here I am continuing to to add clay and build up the forms. It's very important to remember to turn your bas relief as you work, just as you would a sculpture fully in the round.

It's tempting to spend a lot of time in an area - but if you fail to work on all areas in equal amounts, you'll stop for a cup of coffee and come back to discover vast amounts of distortion caused by overworking a single area.

By turning the sculpture from side to side, you'll see where areas will need to be built up or pushed back. As the work evolves, you'll need to constantly reassess the depth of each area. This is where a discerning eye and artistic license will come into play. This isn't a canvas with a drawing or painting and it isn't fully round....it is somewhere in between. You'll need to employ drawing-like techniques to give the illusion of depth to some areas and that fine line can only be found as the sculpture

progresses.

As you can see here - I have determined how far out I want my high relief to protrude and as I work, I swivel the work from side to side to see it in profile to determine how far to build out the torso and the arms.

Don't be afraid to cut into the work. At this stage I cut off both her arms to allow access to the torso when I determined that it needed to be filled out more and brought further forward in the relief. That is part of the process.

Again, as you work, keep bones and flesh in mind - this will help keep your forms fresh as you work.
When taking a break from the work, as this is water-based clay, it must be wrapped up. I have found many ways of wrapping, but my favorite has become to simply mist the

sculpt and cover with plastic drop-cloth that I purchase by the roll. I like that I can cut it to size for the project and clings to the edges of the wood securely and helps to maintain the moisture until the next session.

Sculpting the Bas Relief Tutorial part 2

Now that I have all the clay on the board at slightly larger than 18" x 24" and about 3/4" deep I ready to begin. I place the sketch onto the clay and cut away excess clay.

Next I cut the shapes out of the paper and place back onto the clay - this gives me paper to trace around.

I'm using a simple wooden skewer to do the tracing and drawing but you could use a stylus, knitting needle or sharpened pencil to get the same results.

Once the outline of the figures is traced onto the clay, I set the board up on an easel on my table. When sculpting a bas relief it is important to work as vertically as possible. Laying the board flat and trying to work on it will give you a distorted view as the perspective will change the look. Sculpt the work in the same position as

you plan for it to be viewed - as much as is possible.

At this stage it is rather heavy - I'd estimate that the board and clay combined is about 35-40 lbs.

I also like to tack up my drawings nearby as I'll be referring to them frequently as I work.

Next I take a loop tool and begin to dig down the background by about 1/4" inch all the way around. This separates the figures from the background a bit.

Finally, I grid off both my sketch and the clay - using the grid to help me locate proper placement, I begin roughly sketching in the drawing of the figures using the skewer. At this stage it will be very rough, which is fine, as it is only a starting place for me to gauge where I will be building up the forms and the 'drawing' on the clay will be

obliterated.

With the drawing in place I am ready to begin adding clay to the forms.

Sculpting the Bas Relief Tutorial part 1

This tutorial is one way to sculpt the bas relief. I have already sculpted two bas reliefs in a series depicting strong young women and this is the third in that series.

I am sculpting in water-based clay. Can you sculpt in oil based or other clays? Absolutely and sometimes I use oil-based clay. But as this sculpture is 18" x 24" that equals to about 40 pounds of clay. If I were using oil-based clay, that would be about $150-$200 in oil clay and a lot of time softening the clay in a clay-warmer as oil-based clay can be quite hard, especially in cooler climates like Colorado.

A benefit with oil-based clay is that I would have minimal board prep. Oil-clays are quite sticky and would adhere to a slick board or Plexiglas's with the need to prepare the board - just apply the clay and it will hold in place.

But I have chosen water-based clay for the texture and surface qualities. In theory, I could sculpt this, hollow out the back a bit and fire, however it's quite large, which would require a very large kiln and flat pieces like reliefs are susceptible to warping when drying.

Instead of firing this as a single piece, I will be sculpting in clay, making a mold and casting in a permanent medium - in this case either bronze (which would be quite heavy at this size) or a polymer modified fiberglass-reinforced gypsum (brand names Forton and Aqua-Resin).

A) The first step is designing the art. Here I have the sketch at full size of 18" x 24" of the new piece "Setting Her Sights".

B) Next I cut out the image

C) I have a piece of wood cut larger than the overall size of the sculpture and has a grid made from small screws and picture wire. This is going to anchor the clay onto the board so it doesn't move or slip around. You'll see that I've sealed off the board using packaging tape - that will keep it from leaching the water out of the clay. It will also help later in mold making.

D) here you can see that the screws and wire are rusted from contact with water-based clay from my last relief. That's not a problem as the clay isn't the final piece - the casting made from the mold is. But you could also use galvanized metals to avoid the rust issue.

E) Now I start slicing off tiles of clay about 1/2" thick and slap them down onto the board. You want to slap them because you want good contact without air pockets.

F) Layer the tiles across the entire grid on the board

G) Taking a block of wood or a rolling pin pound down the clay.

H) Roll or pound until flat

I) Finally I take a serrated metal kidney tool and crosshatch the clay to make a seamless surface. The clay is now one flat seamless tile measuring about 19" x 12" x 1/2" deep and is ready to begin the process of sculpting a bas relief.