Tuesday, June 7, 2011

It's A Relief .. an Art Relief


This last weekend, I spent Friday through Sunday in a clay sculpture workshop. It wasn't the 3-D form where you can walk all around the sculpture. This workshop was about a sculptural art form referred to as "relief sculpting."

In relief, the reduction of the background projects the object forward - not unlike what is done in a painting. With clay, it is not only possible to remove background, but also to build up the foreground. To me, this makes clay relief work a combination of 2-D and 3-D.

There are three major categories of relief sculpture. They are: "bas relief" (low relief), "alto relief" (high relief) and "sunk relief" - a form not used much nowadays. Of the three, the most commonly used is bas relief . It's even found on our coins.





Alto or high relief is the term used when more than half the figure projects from the background. Mount Rushmore is a well-known example.



The reverse of projecting the figure is sunk relief. It was used extensively in Ancient Egypt.



Now, back to the workshop... on the left is the tree branch I used as a model. On the right is my first effort at bas relief.

9 comments:

  1. Very interesting, as usual. I like what you're doing. Jen

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  2. Very good! Keep at it. FP

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  3. Thank you for sharing your knowledge on art, it's so interesting to me. Kate F.

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  4. Good job!!!!!!!!!! FB

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  5. Wow R. nice work.............and thank you for explaining the workshop. Connie

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  6. Interesting. Great description and illustrations! And nice job with that branch!

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  7. Beautiful work, R! And I love the enthusiasm of your blog. Ave

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