Producing a finished sculpture is a complex process, assuming that your finished product is a sculpture that has been cast in bronze or another similar medium.  The total process, including casting the sculpture, can add up to 60-70 steps, can require dealing with up to 3-4 separate vendors
and may take an elapse time of up to several months.

90% of the time, I work from live models.  When I start a sculpture, I generally do not start with a preconceived idea.  Instead, I wait until the model takes his/her pose, then let the pose inspire the style and theme of my piece.  Once that is decided, I choose the scale of my piece (e.g. small or large) and the medium I want to work with for the project.  The mediums I work with most often are clay (water-based clay, oil-based clay), sculpting wax, or plaster.  There are other choices that I experiment with occasionally, but these are my favorites.

Depending on the medium that I choose, there are different steps involved in reaching a finished sculpture. The advantages to working in water-based clay is speed, and the fact that, once it is fired, you can have a finished product by simply adding a painted patina.  I like water-based clay because
I can work very fast in this type of clay.  I also use it when I want to produce a piece with a looser, more organic finish.  I will also use this clay when I want a piece with less fine detail.  I use oil-based clay when I want to create a sculpture with more fine detail.  The advantage of oil-based clay is that it never dries, so you can work on the piece for as long as you want, even years.  The disadvantage of oil-based clay is that you must spend the money to make mold and cast it in bronze (or other medium) in order
to get to a finished product.

If I choose to work in water-base clay (terra cotta), the steps to a finished piece include:

1. Start with a wood base with a length of pipe inserted that is the long enough to support the size piece I plan to produce. The purpose of the pipe is to serve as an armature for the sculpture.

2. Add the clay and sculpt from the model.  If your piece takes multiple days to produce, you can spray the piece lightly with water and cover it with plastic to prevent it from drying out.  When you finish sculpting, you punch holes in the plastic
to allow the piece to dry slowly to prevent cracking.

3. The sculpture will take a few weeks to dry thoroughly, depending on its size. Once the sculpture is bone dry, you can sand it to smooth it or carve it to make changes.  When you're done, the  sculpture is ready to be fired in a kiln.

4. After the sculpture has been fired, there are always repairs to make, such as filling cracks with plaster, replacing broken parts, and making sure the piece sits level.  And, there is usually a lot of sanding required, especially if you want the finished sculpture to have a smooth finish.

5. The last step in finishing the sculpture is adding a patina.  For water-base clay, that involves  applying acrylic paint to create the desired finished look.  For terra cotta, this could be the final step.  However, since I don't sell my originals, my next step is to get a mold made so that I can have the sculpture cast in bronze or other material.  I describe this process in more detail later.

If I choose to work in oil-base clay, the steps are slightly different:

1. For oil-based clay, you have to start with a wire armature in the size piece and shape of the sculpture you plan to produce.

2. You can add clay to the armature and work on the design of the sculpture for as long as you want. 

3. Unlike water-based clay which is softened by adding water, oil-based clay is softened with either heat or solvent.  Another difference between working with water-based clay and oil-based clay is that I find it better to work water-based clay with wood tools and oil-based clay with metal tools.

The final phase in the completion of a sculpture is the casting phase.  For me, this entire part of the process involves working with various outside vendors, since I do not have the facilities to perform these steps on my own. The steps in this phase are
described below.

1. First I get a mold made of the original sculpture (regardless of the medium in which the original was sculpted).  there are different types of molds that can be produced, some that are design to produce only one copy and others that are intended to produce multiple copies.  I usually opt for the latter.

2. Once I have a mold, I take the mold to my foundary contact who produces a wax copy of my sculpture using the mold.  Since wax copies always have flaws (air bubbles, seams, etc)   that have to be fixed before the sculpture can be cast, I pick up the wax copy from my vendor so that I can make the repairs.  It is better that I make the repairs because I  know how the sculpture should look, while my vendor doesn't and he could make errors. I could also use this opportunity to make custom changes requested by my client, if any. Once the repairs are made, I return the wax copy to my vendor.  He then adds wax channels   to the piece that will be used to channel the molten metal into all parts of the sculpture.

3. My vendor then takes the wax copy to the foundary for casting.  This part of the process  alone takes around 60 steps, which include making a fine cement mold around the wax copy. The casting process is referred to a "wax replacement" because the molten metal is poured  into the cement mold and "replaces" the wax copy which is evaporated in the process.

4. Once the metal has been poured and then cooled, the whole thing goes back to my foundary contact where he removes the cement mold and  the channel that were used to pour in the meta.  He then cleans up any flaws and, if required, polishes the metal sculpture.

5. The last foundary related step involves applying a patina to the piece. I usually like to be present for this step, so that I can be sure the end result is what I want to piece to look like.

6. The final step in producing the finished sculpture is finding a base and mounting it.  A  common base that is used is marble.  I have another vendor that I go to in order to select the right marble, have it cut to order, and have the sculpture mounted.

Not all of the sculptures that I start, turn into a finished product.  There are many reasons for this, but the two most common reasons are that either my original idea or vision isn't working, or I simply lose my inspiration. When this happens, I generally put the unfinished sculpture on the shelf until, sometime in the future, I get new inspiration that takes me in a new direction that helps me finish the piece.