I’m confident the answer to the initial question is “yes”, but in my little corner of the world I’ve never met a sculptor - no students, no teachers, no amateurs or professionals - and I don’t recall hearing about significant sculptures being erected anywhere in the last few decades.
Sculpting fascinates me, but I’m totally ignorant of how it works. If you’re a sculptor -
- when/how did you start? Do you start with clay and pottery?
- How do you “practice”? Play-doh? Gotta imagine it’s different based on your preferred medium?
- do artists still use marble? Seems like it’d be insanely expensive & one mistake screws the whole thing up
Cnotbush streams himself sculpting clay figures and statues daily on twitch
Ace of Clay, Dr Garuda, Art Chong, North of the Border, Sculpture Geek, etc all post sculpting vids on YouTube.
Some use a polymer clay you bake to harden, some use plasticine based clay that never dries. Depends on the artists preference and needs.
When I was in high school - ages ago - one of the substitute teachers of my art class was sanding/polishing their marble bust they were working on. It was neat to see the process but it’s really just a lot of wet sanding once past large removal / chipping.