Planning a Sculpture

Sculpting is a process for many artists. They begin with a basic vision of what they want to create. Over time, they modify their vision as they add to it or take away unnecessary parts. Many materials used by sculptors are expensive. A mistake or badly sized piece must be replaced. Sometimes the entire sculpture may be a failure. It cannot be translated from the artist’s vision to whatever material they choose. This is why most sculptors take the time to plan their work.

Drawing is one of the ways artists plan their work. They use pencil and paper to draw the basic sculpture. As the drawing is filled in, they can use it to judge the size of different objects within their piece. It is also a good way to plan where each part of the sculpture will be. Size and space are important to plan. A sculpture will not look right if the figures are the wrong size in relation to each other or spaced too close for good perspective.