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“Cybersculptor” Adam Krhánek: with 3D printing, I can express myself more freely

Adam Krhánek is the creator of Europe’s largest 3D-printed sculpture. And in fact, the majority of his current work is tied to 3D printing. Meanwhile, this work also draws from his dozens of years of sculpting practice.

His typical approach for creating a sculpture using 3D printing involves sketching and producing an artistic plan, followed by modeling in the 3D modeling software named Blender. The model is then printed in parts on a 3D printer farm right in his studio and bonded together, and then receives a surface treatment. This is his process for statues ranging in size from several centimeters to several meters.

Another approach in the creative process is to involve a 3D scanner. When Adam is producing his statues, he may work for example from the face and features of a real-world person—but then is able to supplement and adjust them. Besides the use of 3D prints as a direct part of a statue, Adam also uses a TRILAB DeltiX printer to produce molds for casting—mainly from plaster.

Today, producing statues using 3D printers is similar in cost to traditional sculpting: “As the availability and accessibility of plastics for 3D printing grows, this printing type itself becomes more accessible, and so it can even compete with the traditional approach,” Adam notes.

For Adam, the largest advantage of 3D printing is its creative freedom: “You don’t have to think in advance of what’s possible or what limitations you have. In 3D printing, you’re not at all limited by your mold. You can concentrate on the result alone, and you know you have a tool to create it.”

He also praises the stability and reliability of the five TRILAB DeltiX printers that he’s currently using—for him, they’re reliable workhorses that let him focus on the sculpture he’s creating.  For him, the ability to first print a reduced-size copy of a sculpture to get a chance to verify how it looks using a real model is also an advantage. Naturally that helps to bring further savings of time and money.