Sketch-Sculpt: Part 1

We all need a kick-in-the-ass sometimes. I got one last year. It was while I was visiting an art blog where an artist made a striking sculpture that caught my attention. That particular art blog belongs to the Process Junkie, Mr. Lucio Alberto Ruiz-Diaz. He's a very talented artist, and his sculpture is really great, but the thing that grabbed my attention the most about his sculpture was his approach. He treated his sculptures like sketches. He would build his armatures out of coat-hangers, styrofoam, and anything else that served the purpose. Then he'd just go-to-town on it with his box of clay and whatever sculpting tools (make-shift or not) that he had on hand. In short, he didn't make a big production out of it. He just did it. After all—it was only a sketch.

This hit me like a ton-of-bricks! You might call it a form of inspiration, but it wasn't just inspiration that got me going. Something else was at play. I felt challenged by the simplicity of the process. It's just a sketch, right? I can do a sketch-sculpt. I have some extra coat-hangers. I have those same tools. Heck, I even have clay!

Maybe it was the challenge, or maybe it was a much needed distraction from my work, or maybe I finally realized that sculpture was something that I've always wanted to do. Whatever the reason, I'm glad for it because it worked.

It was on a Sunday, sometime in the afternoon. I grabbed a coat-hanger, a pair of vice-grips, some duct-tape, and a small wooden base, and I started my first sketch-sculpt.

This is where my sketch-sculpt stands so far. I'm not quite done with her yet. She'll go through a few more changes before I'm through, but that's ok because it's just a sketch. A sketch can change. A sketch can be altered, refined, and even played with. A sketch is a learning tool, and this one has taught me a lot! It took me several months to get to this point, including many do-overs and adjustments, and I'll go over some of the steps I took to get here in my next post.

One last thing. Getting started on sculpture wasn't the only kick-in-the-ass I got last year. I also got a good one from Tippett Studio that helped me pump-up my animation skills while I was working there as a character animator (those guys are amazing!), and another kick from all my pencil-pushing artist friends to start doing more drawing, and yet one more kick that I gave to myself to put up this art blog. That last kick finally worked.

Welcome to my first post!

Cheers,
~Tony Preciado.