ZBrushCentral

Tangle Sculptures by Joshua Harker

Hi All,
It’s been a while since I last posted. I know most here aren’t really into abstract work but it’s what I use ZB for and thought I’d post. I am happy to say I was able to get these cast in bronze. I’ve been up to my eyeballs preparing for their exhibition. I showed them at The Artist Project Exhibition about a week ago in Chicago to a great reception.

I can’t say it enough how important I think it is to consider how ZB (& other software ;)) is implemented with the developing 3D technologies. I’ve worked directly with & followed the various softwares, technology development & material engineering for years, and now with recent advances I can actually put it all together to make my tangles which I previously could only interpret 2 dimensionally.

This type of stuff has never been able to be realized until now, particularly in a medium such as bronze. This is the new future of sculpture, one that will give birth to forms never before seen nor imagined. Viva la technology!

Check out my website www.joshharker.com for more images. Hope you like.
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i like it. it reminds me of a more aesthetically pleasing version of something meats miers would do.

Good to see something different once and a while. For the bronzes, you first had them printed in wax? I have been using Zbrush for my sculptures a lot lately; from 1/4 scale figures to 1000 kg. pieces of wood.
The sculptures look great…they are foundry cast?.. Must have been a nightmare to put all the casting sprues on them. :slight_smile:

Tradition medium meets the future - FANTASTIC love it so much.

Serious congrats are awarded here :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1:

Hey shhark, those are fantastic.
Please do tell us more about the process of getting these output in bronze. I worked at a bronze foundry for many years and I am guessing they had to be cast in many pieces and them assembled. I have thought of getting some of my zb stuff cast in bronze but I didn’t know that was really possible. Great stuff hope to hear more.

Thanks for the kind words-
The patterns for the bronzes were printed in a material that could be burned out similar to wax. Molds are made around the patterns, put in the furnace to incinerate it away, then filled with bronze with vacuum assist. After cooling the mold is broken away. One time deal per pattern. There is a considerable gate & vent “cage” built around the pattern which is removed after casting. I also had these versions printed. They are sintered nylon & glass then painted.
delicated-ingress_rosso.jpg

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Really enjoying how you have used zbrush to push real tangible sculpture. What amazing twists and turns. The possibilities are stunning, i also feel a great breathe of fresh air seing some work which is more abstract and a page away from all the character art zbrush is used for. You have inspred me to think alittle out of the box and start using zbrush for other artistic endevours. Thanks for popping by my sketch thread and i have bookmarked your website on my blog.

You have some great work in your galleries!!

Kind regards

Susu

…Art ! :cool:

Hey Susu-
thanks man- I’ve got a new bronze in process now. Will post pix when I get it.

My latest sculpture just arrived! Sculpted in ZB, pattern 3D printed, cast in bronze. Check out my Facebook Page page or website @ www.joshharker.com for updates.

permutation-prime.jpg

Would be fun to see the whole process, because I still dont understand how you can make this complicated abstract into bronze. Or any other material.

Might be because I dont really understand the process of molding and stuff tho :slight_smile:

Wow. Amazing. Must have cost a fortune when you combine the printing with the bronzing. I do a lot of traditional sculpting, moldmaking and casting in resin. But I’ve never been able to afford getting my stuff bronzed. I love the little imperfections and pitting on parts of it. Not sure if that was intentional or not, but I like it.

As soon as I get time I’ll upload pics of the process with comments but for now I have the the entire process posted on my Facebook Fan Page here: Bronze Tangle Process
<br> :smiley:

WOW! that process was cool to watch, my wife and I are astonished. But I’m
a little puzzled with pouring boiling bronze into printed plastic. Did you make
another mother mould out of a harder material that handles molten bronze? Or
can you print in a material that can handle the heat?

Either way, awesome effort to go through, and would be awesome to make
one to be placed in town somewhere (large scale with each segment of your
sculpture printed out separately and then put back together).

The pattern was printed plastic but the mold was an investment mold (like plaster). The investment is poured around the prepared pattern then left to harden. Once it has set & dried the investment mold with the pattern inside (traditionally a wax pattern hence the term “lost wax casting”) is put into a furnace which incinerates the plastic pattern to ash. The ash is then blown/vacuumed out of the mold & only a negative impression of the sculpture remains inside. Molten metal is then poured into the mold using vacuum assist (required because of the complexity of my design). The mold is filled & left to cool. After the metal has cooled sufficiently the mold is broken away with a hammer & the remnants sandblasted off to reveal the rough casting. The sprues & gates are cut off & the piece is hand finished. There are some printing processes that print in materials (ceramic blends) that metal can be poured directly into but my designs have been too complex for them to be an option. Hope this helps you visualize how the process works! :wink:

That’s really pretty, at first I thought the photograph of the sculpture was a Modo render (impossible to tell them apart). Wonderful! I want it. :+1:

Quick note: I’m reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula right now with the character Jonathan Harker. What a coincidence, Mr. Harker! Seriously, though, how do we buy these? :smiley:

AHH got ya now, I knew there was a harder material that was required in
there somewhere, i must have just misunderstood the pictures LOL! (and they
are supposed to tell a thousand words…) hehe thanks for explaining, have
you thought about asking your city coucil to invest in one of your sculptures
to be place in town? Or would that be a hell of a task?

Seriously flattered by the interest! :smiley: It’s funny how the last 2 posts are so appropriately connected to how I’m trying to proceed with these. They are for sale (PM or email me) but I’ve found many potential collectors have been stymied by the price I need to charge based on the costs of everything from 3D printing & specialty vacuum assist casting, to international shipping, not to mention trying to make a buck myself (big thank you to Pixologic for great software at a reasonable price:+1: ). So I’ve been exploring public art as an alternative means of finding buyers/collectors & getting my work seen. The problem is that currently there is only one place in the world with the technology & all the right resources to build & cast my work & that technology is expensive, particularly as the size gets larger which is what is typically demanded of public art pieces. There are some exciting new processes in development that I have been involved with but that is still in the future. So, that being said…The bronzes are definitely for sale but I’m also offering smaller SLS (fused glass & nylon) versions at a more affordable price.

here’s a pic of the digital version

permutation-prime.jpg

So you basically print a 3d in plastic, then add a harder material around it, then turns the plastic to ash, and you just pour whatever metal you want into it. Kinda funny I didnt think that it worked that way, even tho when I was younger I used to make tin soldiers pouring tin into a mold :slight_smile: