Whats the process involved in creating a realistic sculpture?
After discussing the intent of the piece with the client, the scuptor will produce one or several sketches or models. For a larger piece, this may be a fairly involved process. Once everyone is satisfied with the model of the planned piece, the sculptor will construct a metal armature engineered to hold the weight of the soft modelling clay. The sculptor will do the actual sculpting of the piece over a period of weeks or months depending on the scale, then get the approval of the client on the final clay piece. Then a mold is made of the clay piece by the sculptor or a skilled artisan he hires. This often damages or destroys the clay original. If working in stone, a plaster model is made from the mold, which is then exhaustively measured and these measurements transferred to a block of stone by drilling many holes at certain precise depths and locations all around the piece. The stone is carved down to just above these drilled depth markers, then the actual carving begins and the piece
