Bas relief portrait of a young man, 10inX9inX1/2in, clay for bronze

This 10in X 9in X 1/2in depth bas-relief portrait was commissioned by a mental health facility in Los Angeles that will go on a larger 28 inch x 19 inch bronze plaque and installed on an outside wall of the facility sometime this spring or summer. I worked closely with the mother of the young man who passed away and although it has been a while since I’ve worked on a very low (flat) bas relief portrait this came out nicely. The mother, the commissioning agency and the plaque company all expressed satisfaction with the clay original and so all that is left now is for me to give myself a pat on the back.

Yesterday, I spoke with the client and he asked me how I learned how to do relief sculpture. It is a good question and I had to remember back to when I first tried sculpting in relief. When I was an art student there weren’t any classes in relief sculpture (at least none that I can remember) and it seems I just learned it as I started sculpting more and more, making mistakes along the way but always learning from them. Some of my early private commissions were creating bas relief portraits of family members and kids. In fact, my very first commission was a bas-relief for St. Mary’s College of California in Moraga back in 2001. So how did I learn how to sculpt in relief? There really is no substitute for hard work… and patience!

“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety nine percent perspiration.”-Thomas Edison

“Patience is also a form of action.”-Rodin

relief sculpture of a young man