3D Printing Supports the Traditional Crafts

As it was mentioned in one of our blogposts, the contemporary art is becoming more and more influenced by the technology-driven devices. Although there are sometimes robust opinions shared by spokesmen for traditional methods, no one can underestimate the overall presence of the digital art phenomenon. The opinion on the changes concerning the present art is obviously up to you, but before you make a point, check out the incredible works of Fabio Rizzo.

3D printed Darth Vader statue by Fabio Rizzo

Trigger or Threat?

Fabio Rizzo is an Italian designer and a talented sculptor, but first of all he is the person who knows how to obtain great results by taking from the two different methods. For him, creating art nowadays is not a matter of choosing one technique instead of another, but rather finding out how an individual can benefit from available methods. Speaking of his everyday creations, the artist simply explains how the 3D printing technology in fact compliments the traditional sculpting and facilitates the whole process of figurine making. Although he decided to incorporate two different methods, as one is more artistic and the second one is a bit more on the scientific side, he didn’t find it improper or even challenging. Thanks to his background artistic knowledge concerning sculpting, he knew how to design a model and where to add the proper details to make his figurines obtain the desired look. The 3D printing gave him in fact the huge potential of creating many copies of the same model, precise, detailed and excellent to practice any post-processing techniques.

3D printed Yoda statue by Fabio Rizzo

Start with the Classics

It’s definitely a good idea to start with the classic forms of art and then switch to the more up-to-the-present ones, like 3D printing. A piece of advice given by Fabio is to learn the basics of sculpting as it simply allows to develop the manual skills within time and get familiar with the material. The artists also stresses the influence of the classic sculpting on his overall designing skills: “I love traditional because is the way you really learn how to sculpt, how to pose, how to get dynamism, and plus, it’s more romantic, you have the perception of the piece of clay by your hands and tool, I can’t imagine myself digital sculpting without a background of traditional.”

3D printed Hulk – work in progress

Get Prepared

Having the right tools is absolutely essential. In case of the 3D printing it makes a really huge difference as when your 3D prints are failed and far from being precise, even the large amount of talent and well done post-processing wouldn’t guarantee the desired results. Creating the physical object on the basis of the digital model involves a reliable and dimensionally precise 3D printer. Zortrax M200, which was a natural choice for Fabio Rizzo appeared to be the optimum tool for creating small, but rich in details figurines. Apart from the great quality, the artist also stresses the convenience of using the Zortrax 3D printer as it fits his needs and allows to focus on nothing more but designing. Asked about the 3D printer, Fabio says: “I was looking for a product with the best quality/price ratio; in addition, I made the firm choice to not worrying much about parameters, settings etc.… As former traditional sculptor I wanted only to focus on my sculpting workflow and let the 3D printer do the majority of the rest: Zortrax M200 has been my “best friend” at doing this.”

Hulk ready for smashing

Release the Potential

Talking about the additive technology, the artist shares his opinion on the future and influence of the additive manufacturing. He simply appreciates the “limitless” potential of 3D printing and its impact on various professions and branches of industry, making a point of the affordable prices of Zortrax products and their capabilities. According to his point of view, the people who are open minded and open to the new technologies can easily adjust them to their everyday work, passion or hobbies and gain unique advantage over others. Thanks to the Zortrax solution, which provides the users with a complete ecosystem and almost hands free devices, even people with little experience in 3D printing can obtain satisfying results and 3D printed models with exceptional quality. For those who feel that they lack some knowledge or are beginners who have just started their adventure with the 3D printing, Zortrax team prepared series of manuals, tips& tricks and complex assistance available on the Zortrax Support Center webpage.

3D printed skull statue by Fabio Rizzo

Modern Means of Expression

The artist types Z-Brush as his favorite modeling program, and that’s simply because it gives him the impression of traditional sculpting. He also admits that: “the transition between the two methodologies has been painless.” and obviously praises the “undo” button that allows to backshift the added changes. When it comes to the matter that his figurines are made of, Fabio is mostly fond of grey Z-ULTRAT as according to his opinion it has the best mechanical properties, finish and resistance. From the huge variety of Z-ULTRAT colors, including 15 shades in 4 different palettes, Fabio decided to choose the grey color, called by him: “ “the revealer” because in grey we can see better all the details and flails”. As you can see, the material serves as the proper basis for the further improvements and post-processing techniques that add some color to the models. When it comes to the details, Fabio recommends simple methods as sanding, polishing and priming the model. Thanks to the quality of Zortrax M200 3D prints, he didn’t find any other advanced methods necessary for his figurines.

3D printed statue close-up

Various Opportunities

As Fabio shows, 3D printing apart from various ways of utilizing, can serve also as a way to express somebody’s creativity and give some more learning opportunities to sculptors and modelers. Compared with the traditional way of model-making the additive manufacturing phenomenon brings some new quality to the craftsmanship and allows development of the artist. However, the key point of creating successful 3D prints is having the tools like Zortrax M200 3D printer, that guarantee that the digital model and its physical representation will be equally good looking and precise. As you can see in this blogpost, where you can watch the models created manually and by the use of Zortrax M200 3D printer, the figurines made by the machine are as accurate and detailed as those done by human hands.