Teacher: Mr.
Bailey
Subject: Visual Arts
Topic: Sculpture
Sculpture Notes
Sculpture:
Sculpture is a three-dimensional form constructed to represent a natural or imaginary shape.
These artworks are created by shaping or combining hard materials, typically stone such as
marble, metal, glass, or wood, or plastic materials such as clay, textiles, polymers and softer
metals. The term has been extended to works including sound, text and light.
Types of Sculpture
1. Free Standing/Full Round
2. Relief
3. Linear
1. Free Standing/Full Round
It inhibits three-dimensional space in the same way that living things do.
Sculpture in the round cannot be appreciated from only a single viewpoint but must be
circled and explored.
2. Relief Sculpture
A relief sculpture grows out of flat, two-dimensional background, and its projection
into three-dimensional space is relatively shallow.
The back of the relief sculpture is not meant to be seen, the entire design can be
understood from a frontal view.
Relief sculptures are usually used in combinations with architecture as wall decorations.
Types of Relief Sculpture
High Relief
Bas Relief /Low Relief
Sunken Relief
3. Linear Sculpture
A linear sculpture emphasizes construction with thin, tubular items such as wire or
neon tubing.
Methods used for creating Sculpture
1. Subtractive Method: Carving – Carving is the process of creating a sculpture by cutting or
chipping a form from a solid mass of material using some sort of chisel or carving tool.
Because material is taken away from the mass, carving is known as a SUBTRACTIVE METHOD of
sculpture. The most common materials used in carving sculptures are stone and wood. In fact,
most sculptures throughout history were made using this method.
2. Additive Method: Manipulation/ Modeling – Modelling is a process in which the artist uses a
soft, pliable material such as wax, clay or plaster that is gradually built up and shaped until the
desired form is attained. Unlike carving, modelling is an ADDITIVE METHOD, as the sculptor is
continually adding material to the form.
The material will typically be constructed atop some sort of metal frame or skeleton to lend
support to the soft material, so it will be able to maintain its shape.
3. Substitution/ casting – In the casting process, an artist creates a sculpture from a soft,
malleable substance such as wax, plaster or clay. This sculpture will serve as the model that will
be Encased in plaster, silica or some other substance to make a cast.
Eventually, a fireproof cast is produced that can be filled with molten metal such as bronze.
When the metal cools, the result is a metal version of the original sculpture.
The major benefit of casting is that the artist may be able to produce multiple copies of the
sculpture using the same cast.
4. Constructive Method: Fabrication – The most modern sculpting technique, also known as
construction. The artist will take existing materials and attach them together in some fashion,
with the resulting combination of materials forming the sculpture. Sculptures created through
this process typically use found objects, such as scrap metal pieces that are welded together
(this type of sculpture is known as Assemblage).
A creation of art is done through joining or fastening. It also includes welding, gluing, stapling,
soldering, nailing materials together.
Some Examples of Jamaican Sculptors
Edna Manley, Basil Watson, Alvin Marriott, Laura Facey Raymond Watson, Christopher Gonzales,
Bob Marley" by ‘Redemption Song’, Laura Facey ‘Negro Aroused’ by Edna ‘George Headley’by
" Alvin Marriott.Cast Bronze. 2003.14’. Emacipation Manley. Kingston Basil Watson. 1995
Sabina Park Park Waterfront Bronze resin
Kingston, Jamaica. 87 ins
