As a sculptor, I have been concerned with my sculpting techniques, adding some tool marks here and there to finalize a sculpture. However, I've noticed that most of the time these marks become superfluous and unrelated to the feel of the sculpture, they can sometimes even stand out on their own as interesting. Even though I would add them (or take away to be more accurate) to give the piece spontaneity, if I analyze enough I could tell they were contrived. So on the Twain bust I purposefully decided to focus on making the piece work as a likeness and not being concerned at all with the surface treatment. I had read something about Rodin's technique and he was describing how the energy of a sculptural form does not end at the surface that you see, but extends or radiates outward. Perhaps by thinking too much about surface technique you can kill that energy that Rodin was talking about. So for this sculpture I used 2 tools that I normally don't use at all (one of them hardly at all and the other for small details such as the eyes and nose). Mostly this was because I left my good tools at home. I did this piece in approximately 3 hours at my studio and focused entirely on making it a likeness. Most of the work was done with my hands (also Rodin's technique) and I also borrowed from Rodin gouging out the eyes deeply. While creating this sculpture I told myself I wouldn't get emotionally connected to it (afterwards is a different story). I steered clear of 'final touches' and just stopped when I felt it looked enough like Mark Twain. I may do this technique on a smaller sculpture to see if it has the same spontaneous feel.
