Publications

Over the years I have produced a few books, and I plan to write a few more. Like my podcast, it's one of the ways I try to encourage the dissemination of knowledge concerning figurative sculpture and its history, in order that it has a future.

My books are self-published, through the self-publishing company Lulu Press. You can buy them on Amazon or any other online book retailer, or you can buy directly from Lulu Press by clicking the link below.

Sculpting from Life - A studio Manual of the Sight-Size Method

"This is the first and only instructional manual written about the sight-size method as applied to sculpture. The blossoming Atelier Tradition in the United States and abroad has changed the way contemporary artists are trained, but scant attention had been paid to how figurative sculpture fits into this tradition, until now. 157 pages and over 200 illustrations guide the reader through every aspect of figurative clay modelling, including bas relief work, portraiture, and figure modeling, how to equip and outfit a studio, how to hire and use models, and more. The sight-size method is a strikingly different approach to clay sculpture than is offered by any other how-to manual. Combining optical principles and studio practice dating back five centuries and passed from Master to Apprentice right down to the Author himself, the sight-size method is a philosophy of perception as much as a powerful tool for the sculptor. Written for teachers and students alike."

So, that's the blurb at the bookseller's site - I'd like to add that I wrote this over a decade ago and I have plans to produce a second edition, with more and better images (I made this book at the dawn of personal digital photography, and it shows), and more content concerning sight-size and its historical context. And this time, maybe even an image for the book cover! ...But the information you will find in the first edition is sound, and I have had good feedback on it in terms of its usability in the studio.

On Sculpture, By Leon Battista Alberti

Translation and commentary by Jason Arkles

Leon Battista Alberti's important treatise, Della Statua, is rarely translated into English, and when it is, it is translated from the point of view of literary history and academic scholarship, which completely disregards the reason Alberti wrote it in the first place- to educate students of sculpture.

Here, presented for the first time in English in the form of a practical sculpture manual, as On Sculpture by Leon Battista Alberti, the text is illustrated both with images which have accompanied the text in historical editions, as well as new images illustrating various topics, methods, and devices Alberti describes. Each section of the book is accompanied by a detailed commentary which explains finer points of Alberti's work, and place his teachings in both a contemporary and historical context.

I named my own teaching studio, Studio Della Statua, after this important work. This book planted the seeds for the rational, mathematical and optical approach to sculpture pursued by centuries of sculptors and is closely allied to the methods I practice and teach.