lamboblogging

Discussion question. No matter where I look I can't find a real in-depth discussion about this and it doesn't seem to be addressed much at all.

Does sculpting have 'styles'?

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Maybe that sounds silly but hear me out. Most artists would agree different artists have their own style. Lots of people struggle to 'find their style', there are plenty of people who pick pieces from various styles, there is a recognized 'style' language (realism, exaggeration, stylization, etc).

But I don't know that that exists in sculpture as much. Reason being, good sculpture uses references generally (even head references). Those references are translating something into a 3d object. You could be super creative and have this idea of using lillypad leaves and radiator grids to stylishly create new supercar details. Etc. But in the end... you're translating something INTO a 3d object, which you then sculpt. Like 2d art, it could be stylized, realistic, photo-real, cartoony, etc. But ultimately the way it BECOMES those 'styles' is because of the translation from something ELSE that was that style. That is, when someone is thinking of or looking for references for a character, they're picking pieces that already ARE the style they want (or a bases). So say I want to create a DnD character. I can choose for them to be stylized, realistic, etc.

But in the end...it is just a 3d representation of a style developed in 2d or translated from an existing object. Which means ANYONE following those same references will end up with a similar creation.

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Contrast that with painting or drawing, where there are things like line weight, paint choice, color flow, etc, and it seems to be there ISNT really such a thing as style in sculpting. The style comes not from the sculptor but from the references they choose from or the 'genre' they choose to create in.

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I hope that makes sense. That's the premise. I have never seen a 3d model that I thought 'oh, that's such a unique STYLE'. I've seen unique characters, creations, etc. But the style is always lifted from something else. I haven't seen anything where I'm like "oh, the way that guy sculpts eyes is super stylishly unique". Instead I'm like "oh cool, he's putting large anime-style eyes on a realistic face". Even looking at the greats of physical sculpture, the categories of classical, baroque, etc... are about subject and a sliding scale of realism -> idealism. There doesn't seem to be much distinction of 'oh this guy's chiseling technique is really unique".

Submitted April 02, 2020 at 07:19AM by Kaede_Game_Sculpture https://ift.tt/2UyRBqI