Alessandro Gallo Workshop Download

Date: January 16th, 2021

Time: 1 to 4 p.m. PST

This 3 hour workshop will focus on hand-building and figuration and aims at sharing both techniques and ideas behind my work. Alessandro Gallo will give an overview of his approach from start to finish focusing on: Reference preparation, Building an armature, Hand-building solid, Cutting, Hollowing and putting everything back together, Firing & Finishing.

He’ll be using videos to document his process and quick demos to highlight tricks and talk about specific tools and materials. Throughout the second half he’ll talk about his work and answer questions from participants. 

 Alessandro Gallo workshop description: I will share my sculpting process from start to finish. I hand-build my figures solid using an armature to support the clay. Once the main volumes are established I cut my pieces in sections and hollow them out. After that I put the sections back together. I fire my pieces once and then color them using acrylic paints.

 The first half will focus on technical aspects, the second on ideas behind my work and a Q&A to address specific enquiries from all participants.

This workshop will focus mainly on technique, not because I believe it’s the most important thing, quite the opposite, but because I prefer to focus on tools for you to develop your own ideas. Even if your work is very different from mine you might still find very useful tips for your process.

With the help of demonstrations and videos, I will summarize all stages of my method:

Preparation

• Concept and narrative
• Reference preparation, digital photos
• Hand-building solid using a pipe armature

Sculpting
• Roughing in clay, identifying main shapes, planes and volumes
• Defining progressively the piece in all its parts

Hollowing
• Cutting the solid piece in sections
• Hollowing and reassembling
• Sculpting and refining
• Details

Firing and post firing
• Firing
• Post-firing, glues and tools
• Painting and finishing techniques