Sculpture is a form of three-dimensional art made with a variety of different materials including metal, clay, and stone. Learning sculpting can give you practical skills and knowledge and can also be fulfilling creatively. Here, you’ll learn more about the ways that you can benefit from sculpture and how it can enhance your life. Regardless of your overall goals, learning sculpture can be a valuable and impressive skill to learn.
What is Sculpture?
People have been expressing themselves through sculpture since prehistoric times. The J. Paul Getty Museum explains, “The earliest known works of sculpture date from around 32,000 B.C. Early man created utilitarian objects that were decorated with sculptural forms. Ancient peoples also created small animal and human figures carved in bone, ivory, or stone for possible spiritual or religious purposes.” Since then, artists around the world have been creating many different types of sculptures for a variety of different reasons.
Sculptures can be created from many materials. Traditionally, most sculptures were formed from bronze, clay, wood, or marble, but sculptors have recently started to work with a wide variety of other things as well. Art historian and artist Julien Delagrange says, “A new set of different materials has found its way to sculpture—think of PVC, stainless steel, concrete, foam, and much more—implementing industrial processes, engineering, and new technologies—for instance, 3D printing—resulting in new possibilities.”
One thing that makes sculpture unique is that it is experienced in a physical space. Viewers can look at a sculpture from different angles, touch it, and even interact with it, and their experience often changes depending on where they are in relation to the sculpture. The Getty Museum says, “Because sculpture frequently occupies space in much the same way as humans occupy space, we can identify with sculpture in a different way than with painting. Unlike painting, which traditionally represents an illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat surface, sculpture actually inhabits the space shared by the viewer. Sculpture is also tactile—one could actually touch it and feel its various textures and forms. Finally, looking at sculpture is a dynamic activity: the work changes as the viewer moves through space and time.” In recent years, some sculptors have begun to experiment with the viewing experience, adding other types of media like sound and light, to create a multi-sensory viewing.
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Benefits of Learning Sculpture
There are many benefits to learning sculpting. It can lead to a unique job, it can give you practical skills and knowledge that are useful in other aspects of your life, it can be a good way to express your creativity and emotions, and it can help you connect with other people who share your interests.
Creative Expression
Many people find sculpting to be a fulfilling form of creative expression. Sculptors work with a range of different materials such as wood, clay, plastic, and metal, and they get to communicate their ideas and emotions in unique and creative ways. Some sculptors even include things like music or lighting in their displays. All of this artistic expression can be a lot of fun, and can also bring a strong sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. If you want to learn more about all of the different ways that sculptors can express themselves, you could take a class where you get an overview of the topic, like Introduction to Sculpture.
In addition to being enjoyable, there is evidence that doing something creative like sculpting can be good for you. Professor of neuroscience Christianne Strang says, "Creativity in and of itself is important for remaining healthy, remaining connected to yourself and connected to the world.” For instance, being creative can help you look at things in different ways, or solve problems more effectively.
Better Health
There is also evidence that sculpting can improve your health. Many people say that when they sculpt, they are forced to slow down and exist in the moment, focusing only on the creative process. They say that they often forget about all of their worries, and that they frequently find sculpting to be meditative and stress-relieving. The nonprofit Foundation for Art & Healing writes about how this meditative process can benefit the body, explaining, “Physiologically, making art has powerful effects on our bodies: reducing blood pressure, bolstering our immune system, improving brain cognition, and fighting inflammation.”
There is so much evidence about the health benefits of creative activities like sculpting, that a number of medical professionals even offer something called art therapy, where people struggling with a variety of different health problems engage in creative activities as a form of therapy. The Sage Neuroscience Center explains this form of therapy in a blog post: “The main goal of art therapy is to help the person struggling to finally be able to relax enough to get in touch with their emotions. By creating art and doing something as simple as coloring, stress levels are seen to drop exponentially in patients. Helping the patient finally relax allows them to focus their mind on other things such as processing emotions, focusing on themselves, and working on emotional release.”
Improved Spatial Awareness
Learning to sculpt can improve your spatial awareness, which is your awareness of the objects that are in space around you, and your body’s position in relation to those objects. Sculptors train themselves to better observe and understand the way objects occupy space, and they learn to visualize and manipulate these objects from various angles. For example, in a New York City sculpting class called Sculpture: The Human Form, students learn to better understand the way the human body occupies space, and how its place changes with movement.
Improving your spatial awareness can be beneficial for a number of different reasons. Spatial awareness is important to doing most types of art. It can also help you out in many situations in everyday life. For example, you may be able to better understand and respect other people’s personal space, be more coordinated, or read a map more easily.
Unique Career Opportunities
Learning to sculpt can lead to a wide range of career opportunities. When they think about sculpting, many people think of sculptors who work as fine artists, creating sculptures for gallery exhibitions, public installations, or private commissions. However, sculptors also work in many other types of jobs. The film and entertainment industry employs sculptors to do things like create props, prosthetics, or creature designs. Sculptors also work in the toy industry, creating action figures, collectibles, and toys. Jordan Butler works as a toy sculptor and says, “Probably the best [of my job] is that I get to see an item on the shelf in a store somewhere in physical form and know that I had a part in making a toy that somebody is going to collect and play with.” Another place where sculptors are found is in architecture, where they create architectural sculptures and scale models. Finally, some sculptors work in education, where they teach their skills to other people.
Sculpting careers are predicted to remain stable in the near future. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (the BLS) collects, analyzes, and publishes information about the labor market. It predicts that employment of Craft and Fine Artists–a category that includes sculptors–will grow about 6 percent in the next ten years, which is about average. According to the BLS, New York, Texas, and Florida have the highest employment levels for Fine Artists. New York, Washington, and California are top-paying states.
Improved Fine Motor Skills
Sculpting–like many other types of art–involves fine motor skills and coordination. For instance, sculptors manipulate a variety of different materials and sculpt small details. These actions require dexterity, precision, and precise movements. As a result, when you learn to sculpt, you’re likely to improve your fine motor skills.
Better fine motor skills can be particularly useful if you like to do other things that require precision and dexterity such as other types of arts and crafts where you use your hands. Working on your fine motor skills can also be important as you get older. Research shows that these skills can begin to decline with age but can be improved with regular practice.
Stronger Observational Skills
Observation is an important part of sculpting; sculptors need to keenly observe the person or object that they want to sculpt, noticing proportions, small details, and subtle nuances. As a result, learning to sculpt involves improving your observational skills.
Having good observational skills can be useful in many other parts of your life. When you know how to observe the world around you, you can interact better with it. In a recent LinkedIn post, the author explains how observational skills can be useful in the workplace specifically. For instance, she says that this can be a way to avoid conflict: “Once you decide to observe what annoys a person and what makes them happy, establishing a healthy relationship with everyone in your workplace becomes as easy as breathing.” In addition, she says, “Not only does observation skills help an individual to avoid conflicts from taking place, but it also improves overall efficiency, productivity & positive output. This is because the more keenly you observe yourself and your surroundings, the more you understand where gaps exist and how those gaps need to be filled. Once you begin observing people and their responses, it also enables you to become a better communicator, enabling you to structure your message in a better manner such that it establishes a connection with the listener.”
The Opportunity to Meet New People
Learning to sculpt can be a way to meet new people who share your interests. When you sculpt, you can meet people in many different ways, including through clubs, exhibitions, shared work areas, or sculpting classes. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention talks about the importance of making social connections with other people, explaining that social connection is a vital part of well-being, and stating, “People are by nature social creatures.” It says, “Social connectedness influences our minds, bodies, and behaviors—all of which influence our health and life expectancy. Research shows that social connectedness can lead to longer life, better health, and improved well-being.”
How to Start Learning Sculpture
Taking a class is one good way to start learning sculpting. With a class, you can learn the fundamentals–in addition to insider tips and tricks–from an expert, and you’ll also have the opportunity to ask questions and get feedback on your work. If you take an in-person sculpting class, tools and materials are often provided. For instance, St1Carving with Ailene Fields is an in-person class in New York City, and beginning students are provided with basic tools and goggles or safety glasses, while more advanced students have access to an air compressor for carving.
In contrast, with an online sculpting class, like Portrait Sculpture, students need to provide their own tools and materials. However, a major advantage of an online class is that you can attend from any location you want to, which means that you don’t need to commute, and you can choose from sculpting classes all over the country.
Practice is another important part of learning sculpting. In fact, many sculptors stress that practice is a constant part of sculpting, with sculptors always being able to improve or learn new things, no matter how experienced they are. For instance, metal sculptor Ivan Iler says, “I'm never going to be satisfied with what I've done or what I'm doing. I'm constantly trying to move to the next level, to up my game.”
Key Takeaways
Sculptors create three-dimensional art, using a variety of different materials. There are many reasons to learn this skill:
- Sculpting can be a fulfilling form of creative expression.
- There is evidence that doing something creative like sculpting can be good for your health.
- The process of learning to sculpt can improve your spatial awareness.
- Sculpting can lead to a number of unique career opportunities.
- Learning to sculpt will improve your fine motor skills.
- Through the process of learning to sculpt, most people develop better observational skills.
- Sculpting can be a way to meet new people.
- Taking a class is a great way to start learning sculpting.
- Practice is also an important part of mastering sculpting.
- To find options for in-person or online sculpting classes–including private group sessions–contact CourseHorse.