Bronze Sculpture Art for Sale: Creative Process, part I

If you’re a sculpture art aficionado, you may wonder how bronze sculpture art comes to life. True sculpture artistry is a long and involved process that takes time and many steps to ensure the best possible outcome.

The sculpting process begins when I create an armature. This wire frame is the skeleton, or rough outline, of the piece and provides the initial form. The armature pictured here is wire and hard French clay that will eventually become a bronze sculpture of a 30″ ballerina.

I create the armature from steel frame and use soft, pliable wire, filled out with styrofoam and other soft materials. My goal is to approximate the body of my subject. I frame the position of the legs and the arms and use wire and tin enhance the form. The armature’s size is usually 30 inches or so.

Once I create the form as the base of the work, I adhere it to a wooden platform base and place it on a revolving pedestal. The pedestal helps make it easier and more efficient to apply the clay to create the sculpture’s form.

Once the armature is finished — it usually takes a week or so to get it just right – I carefully and meticulously apply clay to the wire frame.

I create the shape of the form and bring it to life using clay with the proper consistency. This process ensures I am able to achieve the proper figuration to outline all of the details that will form the final sculpture.

It takes months to get the right shape, movement and articulation correct. The piece evolves and changes constantly under construction. In the course of creating the form, I study and replicate the subject matter, using multiple angles of observation. When the piece is completed, it goes into the next and final chapter, the casting process.

These images showcase some of my work in the early stages of the creation process and in the finished versions. If you are interested in exploring a purchase of a bronze sculpture or learning more about my work, please review my site, contact me or visit one of my affiliated galleries.

The clay image pictured above is the original form for “Nude Woman.”  The photos below are “Broadway Dancer” and  “Tall Lady in Pleated Dress.”  Final products will be available soon.