The studio · capability · full-round portrait sculpture

Polychrome portraits.

Sculpted faces, modelled hands, expressions fixed in fibreglass. Polychrome portraits are the most handcrafted work we produce — the one where the workshop delegates nothing to the robot.

The capability

What we do.

The polychrome portrait is the most handcrafted piece that comes out of our workshops. It is a full-round figurative sculpture — usually a head or a full human figure — modelled by hand in high-density expanded polystyrene, stiffened in fibreglass, and finished polychrome with successive glazes.

Unlike most of our scenographic pieces — where speed and monumental scale are the two main constraints — the portrait demands time, eye, figurative craft. It is not an industrial capability: it is almost a return to the workshop, where the sculptor works a face for whole days.

The portraits we make cover a wide range: from the Winx statues at Rainbow MagicLand — the six Iginio Straffi faces translated into three dimensions — to the cartoon characters for TV game shows, from the sculpted faces in historical sets to the commemorative busts for mythological iconographies. The subject changes, but the craft is always the same: modelling the face proportions, finishing the skin tones in glazes, applying patina to eyes and hair.

The few archive photos collected here show some of the workshop pieces — female figures with polychrome finish, face details, working views. It is a capability we do not document enough: we tend to photograph the monumental pieces, while these portraits stay hidden in the yards. A broader gallery still requires archive work.

Detail of a full-round portrait sculpted in the Creation Art workshops: female polychrome figure, wavy hair, front view of the face — **Female portrait.** Front view of face and hair

Another portrait in progress: mythological figure in finished polystyrene, detail of eyes and mouth — **Mythological figure.** Detail of eyes and mouth

Overview of a workshop yard with several finished portraits ready for transport or exhibition — **Workshop yard.** Several finished portraits awaiting transport

Behind the scenes

How we work.

Face proportions

The human face follows precise proportional rules — those of Polykleitos' Canon, Leon Battista Alberti's treatises, Renaissance iconography. The sculptor starts from these and then modifies them to render the specific character: in cartoon work the eyes are exaggerated and the nose compressed, in realistic portrait we respect the subject's geometry.

Skin tones in glazes

The skin tones of a polychrome face are not painted as flat colour. They are applied in successive glazes: first a rosy-ivory base, then cool shadows along the sides of the nose and under the cheekbones, then warm highlights on forehead and cheeks. The result is a material depth similar to oil painting.

Eyes and mouth

These are the two points where the portrait comes alive or dies. The eyes are painted in four layers: white of the sclera, coloured iris, black pupil, final white highlight of reflection. The mouth requires three shades of red, shadow of the lower lip, light on the Cupid's bow. These two details make the difference between a mannequin and a character.

Craft

the only capability where the workshop delegates nothing to the robot

~days

typical time for a full-round polychrome portrait

By hand

skin tones applied in successive glazes, never as flat colour

See it at work

In these projects.

polychrome portraits is a capability that recurs across our projects. You can see it applied in these works: