5 Tips for Getting Better at Sculpting
Focus on Shapes
All sculpting is about shapes. The problem is that we are wired to want to focus on the details and not the big picture. We want to start sculpting a face by working on the eyes, we want to get the fur on so that we can see a dog, and this instinct to focus on the details can cause us to rush past the most important parts of a sculpture. You need to start with big wonky almost formless shapes. One of the ways to find these shapes is to squint at your subject. I’ve also just drawn onto my reference images to identify the shapes.
And you might say: wait! If I’m only working on my big shapes when will I ever get good at detail? And you’re right you can’t stay in big shapes forever. But everything is shapes. So master your big shapes, work on your medium shapes, get to the small shapes and you’ll be well on your way to being a better sculptor. But you have to start in the big or else the smaller will never quite sit right.
Put Healthy Limits on the Amount of Time You can Work on your project.
One of the things that can make your sculpting grow is giving yourself a time limit. Lots of people get caught up in the perfection of the work that they lose sight of the growth they want. If you look at my first sculptures they were kinda ugly. And in honesty, they would have been ugly whether I put in 4 hours or 40. Because the skills weren’t there yet. And if you only have 2 or 3 hours a week to dedicate to your sculpting it would take you 20 weeks to do a 40-hour project.
Now should you limit everything you do? No this is all about making choices to improve over time. If you want to improve quickly you have to limit some of the work you can do so that you can get more attempts in in less time. The quality of your work will likely suffer when you limit your time but we aren’t trying to make the best work ever we are trying to get good quickly. So put limits on what you can do at one time.
To see your skills increase develop patterns of practice and challenges.
What do I mean by distinguishing between practice sculptures and challenge sculptures Well for me, a practice is a sculpture that I know I can do. It’s a sculpture at my current level. That employs similar techniques to the techniques I have learned or am in the process of learning. A challenge sculpture is a sculpture that makes you nervous. A sculpture that has some element that makes you think “I’m not sure if I can actually make this project happen.” It’s a project that gets you out of your comfort zone.
And we go between these two modes to help us learn faster. We practice our current skills 3 or 4 projects in a row and then challenge ourselves for one project. In the process of being challenged odds are you are going to find a new technique or come up with a method to solve the great problem of your challenge sculpture and you can now add that to your arsenal and practice it.
And so we develop a rhythm of practice practice practice challenge. Practice, practice, practice, challenge. And in doing so you incrementally cement the good ideas and skills through practice and stretch yourself through challenges and in doing so you will find eventually your challenge sculptures will become your practice sculptures and you’ll be things you never thought possible.
Watch other people sculpt
Another really solid thing to do is watch other people sculpt. Everyone’s brain approaches the work slightly differently, everyone has a special tool or technique that they employ, and you can learn through watching. I of course make videos on youtube you can watch and I also live stream every week at twitch.tv/sutherlandhandmade.
But rather than just suggesting watching me I will offer you a couple of options both in the youtube and live stream category that I watch.
Youtubers
Ace of Clay - Probably the best-known sculptor on youtube. Makes fantastic videos and is really informative.
North of the Border - Does a mix of things but often does sculptures and shows a wide range of techniques.
Streamers:
Cnotbusch - This man is an incredible sculptor and very open with his work. Specializes in using cosclay and is highly skilled at impeccable detail. Also a nice guy.
Anemare - She is another fantastic sculptor who I enjoy watching. Great at making faces and highly detailed fan art.
So yeh watch other people you will learn so much.
Follow the Fun
At the end of the day, you gotta do what you enjoy. I started with coloured clay and I found it frustrating. Could I have stuck with it? Probably yes. But instead, I tried medium Sculpey and I enjoyed it so much more. So I gave up on coloured clay.
And yeah someday maybe I’ll give it a whirl again but for now, I want to get better at clay in general and the best way to do that is to be happy while doing it. So follow the path that brings you the happiest. Follow the fun. So if you like making one thing like Santas… just make a bunch of those. If you find monsters cool focus on monsters. If you just like sculpting and not painting: don’t paint.
You have all the time in the world to learn but you won’t really give it the time it deserves unless you want to. And the best way to get there is to focus on having fun.
