Course Description

This week-long workshop is a crash course in quick figure sketch in clay. Each student will sculpt at least four complete sketches, which will be fired and kept by the students. Across the five-day workshop, you will sculpt in a variety of timeframes from 20 minutes to two days. You will practice the fundamentals of working in clay with hands-on instruction and demonstration from our instructors, learning the best techniques to build the figure without an armature in a variety of poses with different clay bodies. In the shortest sketches, you will learn the basics of sketching a figure in clay by considering gesture, structure, volume, and proportion. As the week progresses, we will prioritize speed and efficiency to create larger and more finished figures that are naturalistic while maintaining a dynamic freshness in mark making. By the end of the workshop, you will have four sketches of different scales and finishes that will be dried and fired by our instructors, in house.

The first day will be 20-minute sketches with frequent poses changes to learn the process of thinking and building volumetrically. The second and third days will be a different model and pose each day, with students completing one-day sketches each day. The fourth and fifth days will be the same model and pose, with students dedicating the whole of the two days to a more finished or larger scale sketch.

Day 1:

• Introduction to the basics of working in the sculpture studio, using clay, setting your work on the stand correctly
• Set the first pose with the model
• Students make very small sketches (five inches tall) to gain confidence with the medium
• Continue to set different poses and sculpt small sketches, 20-40 minutes each
• At the end of the day will choose their favorite sketch to hollow and keep to be fired

Day 2:

• Set a new pose that will remain for the day
• Students work larger, around 10 inches tall
• Students get a feel for a pace that reflects the desired finish considering the time frame
• Introduction to surfaces and finishing tools
• Student can choose to keep or not keep their piece from the day

Day 3:

• Set a new pose for the day
• Students work at the same scale, potentially with a different clay body depending on confidence
• Repeat of day 2 with more experience and confidence
• Student can choose to keep or not keep their piece from the day

Day 4 and 5

• Set a new pose that will remain until the end of the workshop
• Students increase scale or push the finish for the next two days, with specific guidance from instructors on how to achieve their goals
• Student will hollow and keep their final piece