Sculpture

The Sculpture Program is full time and requires three years to complete. Students work daily from the figure or portrait, while attending lectures in Anatomy and Art History. Their faculty are graduates of the program, and versed in the method, philosophy and language of instruction of The Florence Academy of Art.

The Sculpture Program is offered in Florence, Italy.

Sculpture is offered in Florence. Our program provides a strong foundation in sculpture by focusing on the development of primary craft skills. In order to understand the complexities of form in space, the program emphasizes the use of observation and structural knowledge to develop a capacity for visual judgment and visual accuracy. Students are taught not to stray towards mannerism. Also central to the program is teaching students to be self-critical.

The program is broken down into lessons in sculpture and lessons in drawing. Drawing is considered a fundamental skill for sculptors; when students are able to achieve an accurate rendering in 2 dimensions they can apply this knowledge to the more complex task of observing and rendering a sculpture with its multiple viewpoints. Students therefore will spend three hours five days a week drawing the live figure in charcoal. They will also have two hours one evening a week when they will draw the live figure in pencil. Students learn to draw on a light background to concentrate on line and emphasize the total silhouette. Precision of this outline is crucial for accuracy, as comprehending the figure’s geometry by locating and connecting the bony points will help the sculptor find and explain specific forms in clay.

The last week of every semester is reserved for casting project with the techniques of waste moulding and rubber mould. Advanced students may choose to cast their work in hydro resin, or use the services of local foundries to cast their work in bronze.

An optional course offered to all students who have completed successfully the one year Anatomy course is Ecorché Sculpture in which students use armatures and plastiline clay to create a replica of the body’s skeleton and muscles.

Applicants will not be considered for advanced entry to the Sculpture Program. Students enrolled in Sculpture are required to complete the full three-year curriculum in order to graduate.

1st year

Beginning Sculpture

“We sculptors have a greater goal: to develop an aesthetic vocabulary to fully express one’s ideas as they develop in one’s work.” – Robert Bodem, Former Director Sculpture Program

Beginning Sculpture

1st year | 22.5 credits

Students learn to focus at the start of a project on those essential elements that allow then to obtain a likeness in pose and structure of their subject.
Students enrolled in their first trimester of study copy the features of Michelangelo’s David (nose, eye, ear, mouth) in clay as the first step to sculpting a portrait; this exercise teaches the student to clarify and organize his observations before setting to work; students progress to the copy of a human skull, and then sculpt their first portrait from a model. During the first trimester, when students work from live models, whether portrait or full figure, they start with a series of short poses lasting 6-8 hours if working from a portrait model, and 15 hours if working from a figure model.

For the outcome to be successful, these short poses require the student to develop an understanding of how to structure and prioritize the crucial information of the pose. In this way, the student learns not to get lost in the myriad of information a finished sculpture might contain, and to focus at the start of a project on those essential elements that allow them to obtain a likeness in pose and structure of their subject. By the middle of the first year, beginning students start to work on lengthier projects: sessions with a portrait model will last 30 hours, and figure sessions, 60 to 70 hours, with the precise goal to bring the project to a higher degree of finish. During these exercises, the student is expected to learn how to connect the first two crucial elements of figurative sculpture: how three-dimensional linear qualities relate to internal structure. Once these two qualities are brought to a competent conclusion, the third element of sculpture, modeling forms, begins.

Upon completion of this course you will be able to:

  • Properly observe objects in 3-d
  • Separate linear qualities from form quality
  • Set up their work by “drawing-in and drawing-on” their projects
  • Understand the procedure for developing portraiture
  • Understand the procedure for setting up 1/2 life-size figure sculpture

Sculpture Drawing

1st year | 22.5 credits

When students are able to achieve an accurate rendering in 2 dimensions, they can apply this knowledge to the more complex task of making sculpture. Drawing is considered a fundamental skill for sculptors; when students are able to achieve an accurate rendering in 2 dimensions, they can apply this knowledge to the more complex task of observing and rendering a sculpture with its multiple viewpoints. Therefore, the Sculpture Program is broken down into lessons in sculpture and lessons in drawing (although third-year students may opt not to continue drawing during their final trimester). Students will spend three hours, five days a week, drawing the figure in charcoal.

They will also have two hours one evening a week when they will draw the figure in pencil. Students will often draw on a light background to concentrate on line and emphasize the total silhouette. Precision of this outline is crucial for accuracy, as comprehending the figure’s geometry by locating and connecting the bony points will help the sculptor find and explain specific forms in clay. By also drawing with a dark background, students learn to identify changes in form or planes.

Course Objectives

To introduce the student to the most important elements when drawing the figure: proportion, body type and gesture.

During the first trimester students do not need to finish a drawing but have the beginning stages well understood and solidly drawn. Proportion, body type and gesture must match what has been observed in nature on the model.

During the course of the year, students solidify the understanding of line drawing and introducing mass drawing as a tool in order to be more accurate. Proportion, body type and gesture have to be solid. Shapes have to be specific. A value key has to be introduced and the principle of how to work with values has to be understood.

By the final trimester students practice accuracy in line and mass drawing, key the values to the lightest and darkest value seen in nature, and work out the values in between in relationship to each other referring back to the value key.

Advanced students may take the drawing one step further and experiment with values, keying the background and shadow value referring to the value key, and if the quality of the drawing allows it, start working on halftones, moving from the dark halftones into the lighter ones.

Upon completion of Sculpture Drawing you will be able to:

  • Indicate important internal information with few lines
  • Demonstrate understanding of proportions, body type and gesture
  • Demonstrate understanding of anatomy
  • Relate and connect body parts to each other in a rational way
  • Maintain symmetry even if foreshortening is present
  • Reach an accurate outline and shadow line in an earlier stage of drawing
  • Introduce a flat grey value, turning the drawing from a pure linear approach into a mass drawing
  • Perceive the drawing through shapes; light shapes and shadow shapes and corrections must be made
  • Refine shapes until they are specific, not generalized
  • Refine values to explain form
  • Refine edges to describe form

Anatomy

1st year | 3 credits

Weekly lectures begin with a discussion of the skeleton and myology, the study of the muscles, and then move to drawing exercises with the model. “The Living Form” is a phrase taken from the 19th-century anatomist, Dr. Paul Richer, in his classic text, “Artistic Anatomy”. It describes our goal as draftsmen, painters, and sculptors who study anatomy in order to see the shape and structure of the human form as it exists in life, as opposed to the altered and fragmented forms of the cadaver, or the static nature of charts and diagrams.

Richer believed that the key to understanding form is to draw from life regularly and to complement this visual method of study with a solid intellectual understanding of the structures of the human body. With its strong emphasis on drawing from life in both the painting and sculpture programs, students at The Florence Academy of Art study anatomy daily. It is the goal of the Anatomy course to complement these studies and offer students new tools to help them understand the connections between exterior forms and deeper structures.

Weekly lectures begin with a discussion of the skeleton and myology, the study of the muscles, then move to drawing exercises with the model. Throughout the course a strong emphasis will be placed on morphology, the study of the forms of the body pertinent to artists. The drawing portion of the class is designed to help students think more constructively about their approach to the human figure and to offer techniques that help commit the forms of the human body to memory. Students will be encouraged to study from various sources that include selected texts, life casts, 3 dimensional models, the works of master painters and sculptors, live models, and local resources in Florence. Extra work outside of the class is not required but encouraged. Those who attend regularly and participate in class exercises will be given priority for admission to the Ecorchè Sculpture course.

2nd year

Intermediate Sculpture

“There is no problem nor solution that is not a drawing investigation. Meaning, in short, stepping back from your work and making objective decisions about heights, widths, relative angles, contour, gesture, structure, proportion, spacial relationships, visual impression, etc.  Even the ever so illusive volume and topography of form is ultimately discovered through drawing.  A successful sculpture is a successful drawing, albeit in space, in clay, and in three dimensions.” – Mitch Shea, Director, Sculpture Program

Intermediate Sculpture

2nd year | 22.5 credits

During the intermediate curriculum, students confront modeling form by working 1/2 life-size during the first trimester, and life-size for the remainder of the year. The Intermediate Sculpture exercises are undertaken by students who have produced sculptures that successfully show how the human figure’s three-dimensional linear qualities relate to internal structure. During the intermediate curriculum, students confront modeling form by working 1/2 life-size during the first trimester, and life-size for the remainder of the year. The student sculpts a series of torsos, starting with a fleshy model whose forms are soft and less clearly defined; they end with a model selected with apparent bony structure that overrides organic form and presents complexities not visible in the softer figure.

To work life-size, students first make a maquette to learn to work out the compositional elements in a pose.

Upon completion of Intermediate Sculpture you sill be able to:

  • Demonstrate a sensitivity towards composing through cropping the human body
  • Demonstrate an understanding of working a larger scale sculpture, life-size
  • Model form, understanding the range existing between softer masses and harder bony edges
  • Set up and execute an armature for larger scale work

Sculpture Drawing

2nd year | 22.5 credits

When students are able to achieve an accurate rendering in 2 dimensions they can apply this knowledge to the more complex task of making sculpture. Drawing is considered a fundamental skill for sculptors; when students are able to achieve an accurate rendering in 2 dimensions they can apply this knowledge to the more complex task of observing and rendering a sculpture with its multiple viewpoints. Therefore, the Sculpture Program is broken down into lessons in sculpture and lessons in drawing (although third year students may opt not to continue the drawing during their final trimester.) Students will spend three hours five days a week drawing the figure in charcoal.

They will also have two hours one evening a week when they will draw the figure in pencil. Students will often draw on a light background to concentrate on line and emphasize the total silhouette. Precision of this outline is crucial for accuracy, as comprehending the figure’s geometry by locating and connecting the bony points will help the sculptor find and explain specific forms in clay. By also drawing with a dark background, students learn to identify changes in form or planes.

Students enrolled in Sculpture who perform exceptionally well in drawing may be selected by the instructors to draw in the model rooms of the Intensive Drawing or Painting programs, space permitting, to push the level of their drawing even higher.

Course Objectives

To introduce the student to the most important elements when drawing the figure: proportion, body type and gesture.

During the first trimester students do not need to finish a drawing but have the beginning stages well understood and solidly drawn. Proportion, body type and gesture must match what has been observed in nature on the model.

During the course of the year, students solidify the understanding of line drawing and introducing mass drawing as a tool in order to be more accurate. Proportion, body type and gesture have to be solid. Shapes have to be specific. A value key has to be introduced and the principle of how to work with values has to be understood.

By the final trimester students practice accuracy in line and mass drawing, key the values to the lightest and darkest value seen in nature, and work out the values in between in relationship to each other referring back to the value key.

Advanced students may take the drawing one step further and experiment with values, keying the background and shadow value referring to the value key, and if the quality of the drawing allows it, start working on halftones, moving from the dark halftones into the lighter ones.

Upon completion of Sculpture Drawing the student should be able to:

  • Indicate important internal information with few lines
  • Demonstrate understanding of proportions, body type and gesture
  • Demonstrate understanding of anatomy
  • Relate and connect body parts to each other in a rational way
  • Maintain symmetry even if foreshortening is present
  • Reach an accurate outline and shadow line in an earlier stage of drawing
  • Introduce a flat grey value, turning the drawing from a pure linear approach into a mass drawing
  • Perceive the drawing through shapes; light shapes and shadow shapes and corrections must be made
  • Refine shapes until they are specific, not generalized
  • Refine values to explain form
  • Refine edges to describe form

Recommended Elective:

Ecorché Sculpture

3rd year

Advanced Sculpture

“Working directly from life poses unique challenges to the artist. The natural world cannot be copied – it must be interpreted. In the absence of an intermediary, like photography, to assist in the translation of the subject, the artist is guided only by his or her individual exploration of the subject to create a uniquely personal representation of reality.” – Unknown author (overheard at FAA)

Advanced Sculpture

3rd year | 22.5 credits

The student’s observational skills are challenged to understand and use internal structures that visually disappear. In the final, third year of the program, students are challenged by complex poses and scales not seen in the first two years. The first trimester is dedicated to a 3⁄4 life-size reclining figure set up with foreshortenings that make it impossible to observe the figure as a whole. The student’s observational skills are challenged in a variety of ways: how to understand and use internal structures that visually disappear, how to make comparative measurements of a body that is now foreshortened.

The next assignment is another reclining torso, however, this time, life-size. The student’s observational skills are once again challenged with the added difficulty of how to compose the subject. Students finish their program of study revisiting the standing nude, however, they are now responsible for the entire project, from finding the appropriate model, to setting up the pose and developing an armature.

Upon completion of Advanced Sculpture you will be able to:

  • Compose with a reclining figure
  • Understand working 3/4 life-size
  • Compare an understand visual foreshortening in sculpture
  • Develop internal structures in a complex situation when the are not visible
  • Recognize the unique qualities of form when flesh encounters a hard plane
  • Prioritize visual information to translate not copy nature

Sculpture Drawing

3rd year | 22.5 credits

When students are able to achieve an accurate rendering in 2 dimensions they can apply this knowledge to the more complex task of making sculpture. Drawing is considered a fundamental skill for sculptors; when students are able to achieve an accurate rendering in 2 dimensions they can apply this knowledge to the more complex task of observing and rendering a sculpture with its multiple viewpoints. Therefore, the Sculpture Program is broken down into lessons in sculpture and lessons in drawing (although third year students may opt not to continue the drawing during their final trimester.)

Students will spend three hours five days a week drawing the figure in charcoal. They will also have two hours one evening a week when they will draw the figure in pencil. Students will often draw on a light background to concentrate on line and emphasize the total silhouette. Precision of this outline is crucial for accuracy, as comprehending the figure’s geometry by locating and connecting the bony points will help the sculptor find and explain specific forms in clay. By also drawing with a dark background, students learn to identify changes in form or planes.

Course Objectives

To introduce the student to the most important elements when drawing the figure: proportion, body type and gesture.

During the first trimester students do not need to finish a drawing but have the beginning stages well understood and solidly drawn. Proportion, body type and gesture must match what has been observed in nature on the model.

During the course of the year, students solidify the understanding of line drawing and introducing mass drawing as a tool in order to be more accurate. Proportion, body type and gesture have to be solid. Shapes have to be specific. A value key has to be introduced and the principle of how to work with values has to be understood.

By the final trimester students practice accuracy in line and mass drawing, key the values to the lightest and darkest value seen in nature, and work out the values in between in relationship to each other referring back to the value key.

Advanced students may take the drawing one step further and experiment with values, keying the background and shadow value referring to the value key, and if the quality of the drawing allows it, start working on halftones, moving from the dark halftones into the lighter ones.

Upon completion of Sculpture Drawing the student should be able to:

  • Indicate important internal information with few lines
  • Demonstrate understanding of proportions, body type and gesture
  • Demonstrate understanding of anatomy
  • Relate and connect body parts to each other in a rational way
  • Maintain symmetry even if foreshortening is present
  • Reach an accurate outline and shadow line in an earlier stage of drawing
  • Introduce a flat grey value, turning the drawing from a pure linear approach into a mass drawing
  • Perceive the drawing through shapes; light shapes and shadow shapes and corrections must be made
  • Refine shapes until they are specific, not generalized
  • Refine values to explain form
  • Refine edges to describe form

Recommended Elective:

Dynamic Ecorché Sculpture

Recommended Elective:

Dynamic Ecorché Sculpture