Three-Dimensional Work and Materials
Three-Dimensional Work and Materials tests whether you understand form as mass in real space, and whether your making method can physically survive. Examiners look at proportion, structural soundness, joinery, surface decision-making and how the piece reads from the viewing angle it will be shown from.
Form, structure, surface
Proportion and structural mass come first; surface and texture come last. A piece with a convincing silhouette and correct weight distribution reads from across the room even before modelling.
Three families of making
Additive (clay, wax, plaster build-up), subtractive (carving stone, wood, foam - irreversible, so plan from all four sides), and construction/casting (cardboard, wire, wood, found objects; waste moulds and piece moulds in plaster).
Armature and gravity
A wire or wood armature carries the weight and holds gesture. Check the centre of gravity: a plumb from the pit of the neck should fall between the feet. Thicken ankles and any narrow support - thin clay ankles fail under their own load.
Clay discipline
Score and slip every join; keep walls even, roughly a centimetre, so drying and firing stresses are uniform; hollow thick masses; wrap in plastic to slow drying and prevent differential shrinkage cracking.
Relief
Bas-relief is shallow, alto-relief projects strongly. Undercut edges so the relief casts its own shadow under the intended light direction, and keep the background plane consistent or deliberately broken.
Proportion conventions
Adult standing figures are conventionally about seven to seven-and-a-half head units; contrapposto shifts weight onto one leg, tilting pelvis and shoulders in opposition. Polykleitos' Canon made this proportion a rule in Greek sculpture.
Worked example
A 30 cm standing clay figure. Bend an aluminium wire armature with the weight leg vertical; check the plumb line. Build the torso core as a hollow cylinder, add legs with scored slip joins, thicken the ankles, then add the head as an egg shape before any facial modelling. Hollow the base, wrap in a bag for two days, dry slowly, then bisque fire before glazing.
Traps that cost marks
No armature, or a solid clay mass that explodes in the kiln; joins stuck without scoring and slip; uneven wall thickness; facial detail before proportion; seams left from moulds; a base that tips; ignoring how the piece will be lit and displayed.