Traditional sculpture is the foundation of digital sculpture/modeling. Students need to be exposed to traditional methods and just get their hands dirty with out the luxury of an undo button. We have a subscription to Sculptural Pursuit, which is an awesome resource for our students. I feel they need to be immersed in all forms of sculpture, not just digital mediums; it is the foundation of the art form. Unfortunately many digital programs do not offer cross-discipline training and which is a shame.
Our class room is mainly a digital lab and production studio with over 30 HP workstations, a green screen studio, video and photography equipment, portrait studio, and traditional sculpture center. It is a sweet setup, but has taken me years to build and I have been teaching 3D for over 9 years.
The traditional sculpture center is generally used for clay maquette character models and other projects. Students are exposed a very different tool set from a number different clay types (WED water based, oil based and Jolly King oil-wax based plastilina) to a whole other way of sculpting with their hands and tools.
Exposing students to traditional sculpture is really inspiring and it leads them down different paths that you would not expect. Sculptural Pursuit is an awesome source of inspiration. Every issue has such a wide range sculptures from classical to temporary public works. We have had a subscription for only about a year now, but have been buying them individually for a couple years. It is part of our curriculum now and it also give me great ideas and examples for the class. I highly recommend subscribing.
One way or another, students need to be exposed to traditional sculpture techniques and traditional artists. If you do not have the room or the funding, start simple and subscribe to Sculptural Pursuit and then project-by-project start building your lab. I will talk about our traditional sculpture center later. http://www.sculpturalpursuit.com/
