What is additive sculpture?

Additive sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by separate parts added to a whole. Used in many art mediums, this type of sculpture includes paper, wood, trash, clay and metal.

The most typical medium used for additive sculpture is wax or clay. As opposed to subtractive sculpting, which involves removing substances from a sculpture, additive sculpting is flexible. It allows an artist the freedom, expression and opportunity to rework the sculpture, if desired. With certain mediums, molds created from the additive sculpture are cast in a more permanent material, such as bronze. Greek artists of the Golden Era of the fifth century used additive modeling.