Practice question · Multiple choice
Subtractive carving is described as irreversible, whereas additive modelling is fully reversible. What does this distinction fundamentally impose on the sculptor's practical workflow?
Hints
- How does an irreversible removal restrict the outer boundaries of a composition?
- Does the ability to add and subtract clay eliminate the material's physical limitations?
Show the answer
B. Carving demands that the final envelope remains fixed from the start
Why
Treating modelling as weightless confuses malleability with structural physics. Carving requires strict advance planning precisely because every removal is final and bound to the initial block, whereas casting is a preservation measure rather than an operational constraint on making changes.
Practise Sculpture: Taking Away and Building Up
The app has 4 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Art History I is free to start.
More questions on Sculpture: Taking Away and Building Up
- A marble figure holds an arm out into empty space. Why does the sculptor usually leave a strut of stone…
- Which are true of the indirect lost-wax method?
- Complete the account of sculptural process.
- A clay model is usually the final object in modelled sculpture.
- How many main steps does the lost-wax process take, as set out in this lesson?
- Sort each work characteristic by the material it points to.
- Arrange the stages of the lost-wax process in order.
- Arrange these decisions in the order a sculptor faces them.