How I Start

This is a continuation of the bas relief project I am working on. A bas relief is basically the combination between a two dimensional drawing and a three dimensional sculpture. This combination is what I think provides the most challenging thing about a bas relief. In a drawing, there is a 'fixed' point of view - all perspective, scale and sense of form can be driven off that point. A full blown sculpture, that is three dimensional, takes on the natural sense of perspective as all other objects in the world - but a relief, at one moment and in passages of the piece, is flat and drawn - and, especially when a relief goes into 3/4 or 'full' relief - this part has to emerge into the three dimensional world but transition back into two dimensions in a way that makes visual sense. In the image here, I show the foundation of how I started with this project. I first take many images and combine them to create the final image. I then start with an under-drawing and begin to build the clay up in a very rough manner.