Matakishi's Tea House
A simple little site...
By Jason Miller
When to Cut
Maybe I'm the only one but for the longest time it never occurred to me that I should cut mistakes off my greens. I could say that I was trying to learn from my mistakes but really it was a fear to cut away any detail that I had worked an hour or more on.
Psychologists would tell you all about Cognitive Dissonance and Effort Justification but what it amounts to is that no one likes to feel that all their hard work and effort is wasted; worse, no one wants to feel like a fool. (Yay! I actually just used one of my University Degrees.)
Truth be told I have found that sometimes it is best to restart a section or in some cases cut away some work and have another go at it. I'm not the only one, even the pros recommend it. When I showed off some of my recent work on
Yahoo, Bob Lippman recommended taking a knife to one of my figures (ok, he didn't put it like THAT lol).
Here is some of the advice that other sculptors had on this subject:
"When you don't like a piece you have done take the knife to it" -Tony
"Sometimes you sculpt a part that individually looks great, but for any reason it doesn't fit well with the rest of the work so cut it away may be a bit painful. I'd say "If you did once, you can do it again". The bottom line is, don't be scared of cutting off stuff you did, even if it took long. If you think it can be done better, then do it" -Javi
"Knowing when to cut is a very hard lesson for any artist to learn. I think there are two parts to that though. The first part is being able to see the mistake, and the second is being able overcome your objections or fears and actually make the cut. Wane "The Dane" Hansen said it best. He said don't fall in love with your sculpture. If you do, you won't be able to look at it objectively. If you can't see the piece objectively, then you can't correct the mistakes that have been made. Stay objective. If you find yourself at a point where you see a mistake that's been made and you are afraid or unwilling to fix it, you've lost your objectivity. Put the piece aside for a couple days and work on something else. Come back to it after a while and see how you feel about changing it then. Usually, the mistake that was only a minor little thing a couple of days ago will be so extremely obvious after you've let it sit a while, you won't hesitate in chopping it off and starting over. If you're STILL afraid to hack off a chunk after all that, I've found a trick to beat the fear of cutting. Just keep these facts in mind:
#1 I'm a sculptor
#2 I created the piece in the first place
#3 I can do it again and again if I have to...
#4 Chances are the second, third, or tenth time, it's GOT to be better than it was before!
Pretty soon you get calloused to the whole *chopping bits off* thing and it becomes second nature when you're sculpting. Practice makes perfect, and that includes cutting. Speaking of which... I wonder how they practice for a Briss??" -Gene Van Horne
In the end the changes I made to these figures were the ones the client wished, after all, they are his figs and he had wanted a certain look to them. Here are the 'final' shots. These are the ones the client is presented with. He may suggest changes as needed. In this case he wanted the baby in the mother's arms to be in just pampers and no blanket.
So, after a deep breath, I sat down with my X-acto blade. After some careful cutting and peeling (layered greenstuff comes off as such- layers) I had the baby trimmed. Then I trimmed them extra for good measure- I can always add putty but I would hate to have to cut again!
You can see how it peels off nicely.
I left enough of the original to provide a 'dolly' for the new baby...
Maybe I'm the only one but for the longest time it never occurred to me that I should cut mistakes off my greens. I could say that I was trying to learn from my mistakes but really it was a fear to cut away any detail that I had worked an hour or more on.
Psychologists would tell you all about Cognitive Dissonance and Effort Justification but what it amounts to is that no one likes to feel that all their hard work and effort is wasted; worse, no one wants to feel like a fool. (Yay! I actually just used one of my University Degrees.)
Truth be told I have found that sometimes it is best to restart a section or in some cases cut away some work and have another go at it. I'm not the only one, even the pros recommend it. When I showed off some of my recent work on
Yahoo, Bob Lippman recommended taking a knife to one of my figures (ok, he didn't put it like THAT lol).
Here is some of the advice that other sculptors had on this subject:
"When you don't like a piece you have done take the knife to it" -Tony
"Sometimes you sculpt a part that individually looks great, but for any reason it doesn't fit well with the rest of the work so cut it away may be a bit painful. I'd say "If you did once, you can do it again". The bottom line is, don't be scared of cutting off stuff you did, even if it took long. If you think it can be done better, then do it" -Javi
"Knowing when to cut is a very hard lesson for any artist to learn. I think there are two parts to that though. The first part is being able to see the mistake, and the second is being able overcome your objections or fears and actually make the cut. Wane "The Dane" Hansen said it best. He said don't fall in love with your sculpture. If you do, you won't be able to look at it objectively. If you can't see the piece objectively, then you can't correct the mistakes that have been made. Stay objective. If you find yourself at a point where you see a mistake that's been made and you are afraid or unwilling to fix it, you've lost your objectivity. Put the piece aside for a couple days and work on something else. Come back to it after a while and see how you feel about changing it then. Usually, the mistake that was only a minor little thing a couple of days ago will be so extremely obvious after you've let it sit a while, you won't hesitate in chopping it off and starting over. If you're STILL afraid to hack off a chunk after all that, I've found a trick to beat the fear of cutting. Just keep these facts in mind:
#1 I'm a sculptor
#2 I created the piece in the first place
#3 I can do it again and again if I have to...
#4 Chances are the second, third, or tenth time, it's GOT to be better than it was before!
Pretty soon you get calloused to the whole *chopping bits off* thing and it becomes second nature when you're sculpting. Practice makes perfect, and that includes cutting. Speaking of which... I wonder how they practice for a Briss??" -Gene Van Horne
In the end the changes I made to these figures were the ones the client wished, after all, they are his figs and he had wanted a certain look to them. Here are the 'final' shots. These are the ones the client is presented with. He may suggest changes as needed. In this case he wanted the baby in the mother's arms to be in just pampers and no blanket.
So, after a deep breath, I sat down with my X-acto blade. After some careful cutting and peeling (layered greenstuff comes off as such- layers) I had the baby trimmed. Then I trimmed them extra for good measure- I can always add putty but I would hate to have to cut again!
You can see how it peels off nicely.
I left enough of the original to provide a 'dolly' for the new baby...
