8 de July de 2025
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We’ve Completed the Male Forms Figure Sculpting Course!
It’s been an intensive 10 weeks—a full-on experience balancing work and teaching. Though the pace was challenging, I’m genuinely happy with the outcome.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve shared several insights from the course, so there may not be much left to add—except, of course, the final result, which I’m excited to share with you now. As always, the golden rule is simple: the more time you invest, the better the result. Time allows you to step back, refine the details, and elevate the work. I didn’t have much extra time myself, but I gave it my all.
Throughout this course, we’ve covered the essential building blocks of figure sculpting—proportion, geometry, structure, and balance. We used a simplified canon to understand the figure, worked closely through each section, and I offered guidance through Zoom calls and personalized feedback on your submissions.
Looking ahead, I plan to integrate examples from master sculptors in future sessions. I believe this is a key step in building critical thinking and a deeper understanding of form.
While most classical training discourages creative deviation early on, and I largely agree with that foundation, I also believe there’s value in experimenting—even making mistakes. Some of your most important growth can happen when you let go of the pressure to get it “right.” Play, explore, and don’t be afraid to create work you’re not proud of. That’s part of the learning.
Almost every artist I know—myself included—has pieces they look back on and think, “What was I doing?” But those missteps are essential. They shape us, and often teach more than the pieces that go smoothly.
What really makes a difference is consistency. The students who improve the most are the ones who keep showing up. They push through the uncomfortable parts, ask questions, and keep working—whether it’s going well or not. But equally important is finding joy in the process. Without that sense of joy or curiosity, it’s hard to sustain the practice long-term.
So wherever you are in your journey—whether you’re sculpting regularly or just beginning again—try to carve out space for it. Show up, even if it’s only for a short session. Be patient with the pace, and know that every hour you spend shapes not just your sculpture, but your artistic voice.
Remember: perfection isn’t the goal—progress is. Allow yourself to enjoy the messiness of learning, to celebrate small wins, and to build momentum through repetition and care. Some days will feel productive; others won’t. That’s normal. But if you stay with it, the work will grow, and so will you.
Whether I see you again online or in person, I look forward to continuing this journey together. Until then, trust the process, keep your hands in the clay, and don’t stop moving forward.
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Sculpture studio © 2025. Javier Murcia.
Developed by Tulpnic.
Sculpture studio © 2025. Javier Murcia.
Developed by Tulpnic.
In-person workshops are scheduled in different places at different times of the year. Most workshops run twice a year in different locations in New Zealand, Auckland being the most demanded of the locations. Australia and Europe are other locations planned to run workshops.
We are setting up a different challenge with a live model changing pose each time. Plenty of material, tutorials and online courses can help you on this journey and keep you connected with the community. To ensure you get this information, sign up for the newsletter.
If you are missing one day out of 2 or 3, we recommend you to wait until there is another chance as you might be missing quite a bit of information and time to do your work. If this is a 5 days workshop it might be ok.
Not really. Simplified figure is the only workshop we have designed to teach the basics of building the human figure so you have enough knowledge to make the most of a model. So, if you are thinking of joining the five days figure workshop with model, this might be good for you, although it is not mandatory.
Not really. The more experience you have the better. Javier Is an experienced sculptor and can adapt to your level whether you are just beginning or you are experienced, whether you are just looking at learning more anatomy or pursuing a more artistic challenge.
The workshops are designed for:
If you want to learn about the human figure, I would suggest you join the Online courses. Why? There is a lot more information Javier can share with you. You can find your time to invest in your learning process. Head studies online is about six weeks course, and the figure online course is about ten weeks. The more hours you put in, the more you will learn; that´s a rule. And finally, it is more personalized as the progress of your work will be reviewed every week by Javier personally.
If you are interested in doing a workshop but you don´t know which one, get in touch and let us know what is that you are looking for and we will help you. Either if you are looking for some good training, knowledge or just living the experience as a hobby, we can help you.
This book is essential for learning more about the human figure as it is very complete. Includes proportions based on eight heads ( be aware that we are using 7.5 heads), bone structure explanation, balance and range of movement of the joins. The anatomy applied to the figure is not necessarily as accurate as in the Paul Richer book. This book also includes pictures of models for an applied explanation.
This book is excellent for learning anatomy from a medical perspective applied to art. Here we also find his 7.5 cannon explained. The illustrations are accurate, giving the precise location of muscles, layers and mapping of the human body. This book is used in official academies like the Florence academy.
In this book, Michel Lauricella presents both his artistic and systematic methods for drawing the human body–with drawing techniques from the écorché (showing the musculature underneath the skin) to sketches of models in action. In more than 1,000 illustrations, the human body is shown from a new perspective–from bone structure to musculature, from anatomical detail to the body in motion.
This small, portable book presents a unique perspective on the human body for artists to study and implement in their drawing work. In this book, artist and teacher Michel Lauricella simplifies the human body into basic shapes and forms, offering profound insight for artists of all kinds, sparking the imagination and improving one’s observational abilities. Rather than going the traditional route of memorizing a repertoire of poses, Lauricella instead stresses learning this small collection of forms, which can then be combined and shaped into the more complex and varied forms and postures we see in the living body.
This book provides a simplified and practical vision of the human skeleton to help all artists in their drawing studies. Here you will find the most common and useful approaches to the body’s underlying skeleton and bone structure, which will fuel your imagination and enrich your observational skills as you draw the living form. In this small, portable guide, artist and teacher Michel Lauricella focuses on the essentials you need to know.
This book is excellent for the quality of the drawings; very expressive, fresh and accurate. This book is recommended as a reference for the quality of work we can achieve in the art standards mostly applied to drawing. It is also a good source of images of bodies and living anatomy.
Here are a few small set of high-quality sculpting tools available from the following stores. These are the kind of tools you’ll likely only need to buy once—if you take good care of them, they can last a lifetime.
