Bas -relief sculpture

Modelling services

Bas-relief modelling finds it’s way into many places.

You probably see it most on coins and medals, but it also features in architecture, memorials, greetings cards, and packaging such as alcohol and cosmetics.

Due to my background in coin minting, most of my freelance work is for the coin industry, but I have also produced bas-reliefs for companies such as Hardy’s wine, Neal’s Yard, Lalique, and the ‘Hand on Heart’ vineyard.

I’m a pragmatic, commercially minded modeller, and my focus is always to max out the value added by creativity within the bounds of my clients budget.

Tl;dr I’m not an artist. I’m a service provider. You pay for me to adapt my skills to your needs.

New tools, old skills

I was trained the old fashioned way - Plaster of Paris and clay.

I spent much of my apprenticeship hand carving animals and letters out of blocks of steel.

CAD design and CNC came into the industry about 6 months after I did, so my work has always been a blend of old and new techniques.

As with most comparable industries, ZBrush is the go-to tool for 3D content creation. It actually has more in common with hand sculpting than it does with CAD, as it’s based primarily around working by eye.

I use a variety of digital tools and apps to deliver my final products, but the end product is always formatted to my clients needs.

  • That’s up to you.

    I cover the full process from concept through to preparing the final CAD model for engraving.

    Some clients want me to come up with the ideas, some just want me to prepare the models.

    I can also tidy up existing models, or replicate old/ damaged pieces.

  • That’s subjective and depends on what you want me to do. I operate a forward plan of around 2-3 weeks, but the process time for a sculpture is usually a couple of days, so if you have an urgent requirement, chances are I can fit it in.

    Design work is more fluid, as it tends to be conversation heavy. If you provide me with a deadline, I’ll come back with a timeline of what needs to done by when.

  • Less than you think.

    I work on an hourly rate of £50 GBP p/hr, and a single model usually comes in around the £500GBP mark. Working on an hourly rate allows clients to pay for the value they need. I usually agree a rough starting budget and work to a useable product, so revisions are always QOL improvements.

    Working digitally means that there’s no material costs or physical process to consider - the timescale for a 10’ memorial sculpt is the same as a 10”.

    Some of my commercial clients load the product development costs onto the price of the final object (especially in the case of collectible coins), so fixed costs help keep parity in P&L accounts. I can work this way too, if we agree costs and revision boundaries up front.

  • I’m a commercial, white-label modeller. On settlement of invoices, you own the concept, artwork and 3D files.

    Some things to note:

    1) I don’t breach copyright. Clients who supply artwork or reference images are asserting that they have legal rights sufficient for me to a) use those images as direct reference for a bas-relief sculpture, and b) adapt the images as necessary to fit the process contraints of that sculpture.

    For concepts generated by me, I draw everything from scratch, so any reference images are used solely as WIP guides. Portraits of deceased, notable figures (Winston Churchill, for example) are more oblique in their legal requirements, so please let’s chat first.

    2) Whilst ownership of design IP passes to the client on settlement of invoices, I do reserve the right to take action if my work is used in ways that are illegal, likely to cause offense, or damage my reputation.

    3) Transfer of IP rights to a client does not include the source 3D files. I invest considerable time streamlining my work to remain commercially competitive, so my source files contain bespoke processes. Transfer of IP does not include those processes, ony the completed ‘flattened’ sculpture.