The practice of sculpture is as follows

There are five ways to make sculptures: clay sculpture, wood carving, stone carving, jade carving and sandstone sculpture.

Among them, there are two ways to make clay sculptures: one is the way to make sculptures imported from western Europe in modern times; The other is the traditional clay sculpture making method in China. Wood carving is designed for wood, giving full play to the natural form and characteristics of wood; Generally, it is necessary to draw a composition or make a clay manuscript first, and even experienced artists have to study it carefully to make a mature draft.

Wood carving should be rough before returning. For example, when carving characters, it is necessary to initially carve out the dynamics, proportions, shapes and space volumes of the characters and portray the basic shapes. Using chisels of different shapes, we can carve vivid and distinctive images from coarse to fine, from whole to part and from simple to complex.

Production steps

There are many ways to make stone carvings, which can be roughly divided into two types according to the nature of stones and the habits of sculptors. First, traditional stone carving methods are all done by individuals alone. In large-scale carving, horizontal and vertical lines should be drawn on the stone, and the material should be checked and carved by simple measurement and positioning. The second is to adopt a new technology, that is, first make a clay sculpture, turn it into a plaster statue, and then carve it into a stone statue based on the plaster statue with the help of a stippling artist.

Regarding the production of jade, most people think that it is carved with a carving knife, but it is not. The texture of jade is too hard for a carving knife to carve. Instead, the method of polishing is adopted, that is, according to the shape of the work, the redundant parts are polished off with various shapes of drill bits, diamond sand and water, which takes a long time to complete a jade carving work.