Hyper-Realist Sculpture (John De Andrea and Duane Hanson)

There was a time when Hanson's work was compared to the statues found in wax museums,which is ridiculous.
Wax museums have highly idealized portraits of people from history,heads of state,and---especially in the last half-century---artists of stage and screen.
Hanson's work is like the three-dimensional equivalant of candid photography.

Here it is in terms which you should not have trouble with....only very few people in the entire world can sculpt and then finish their creations to the degree that the artists that I've listsed can....The proof is right here on Youtube...Watch them work in videos and you'll see that it's not in "Elaborate techniques" which they know and other don't...It's in their amazing ability to observe and replicate exactly what they see...Not everyone can do that...

True, true

You're a funny guy....
I can teach you everything that I know, but It doesn't mean that you could actually do it...
I see that you're completely off, and not grasping what I'm saying, when you write that they are using "elaborate techniques".
Here is the difference: I can teach you to take a lifecast, and I guarantee that you can do it...
The difference is that the artists that I've listed start with a ball of clay, and then turn it into an exact representation of the human form in any scale...

Right, they create every pore by hand...With tools...
I think that you're almost getting what I'm saying, but you're missing certain points...
I never said it wasn't art, or that painting things to look real doesn't require skill...
I'm pointing out the difference between what some "artists" do, by lifecasting and then detailing, and what only a handful of people in the entire world can do....There is a huge difference, but you'd have to know what I know to completely understand it.

well.. its imposible to know all you know..
but.. where is your point? yes, there are couple of people that can do that.. but thre is so much things only couple of people can do.. (like drink milk with eyes)..

my point is.. you cannot call someone actual sculptor, just because he is using some more elaborate techniques, the difference is in something other

and i dont think the artists that you mention below are making every pore by hand, they use tools...

you cannot tell any painting is not art because the painter used brush, not his fingers

another thing is, artists often work for commercial use (even old ones, classical) and lot of their work cannot be called art, but this does not mean they are less artists

well some people think that true artist has to be little weird, working only on his art, poor, alcoholic and die young

and dont get me wrong, i love all those artists mentioned above and below:]