Sculpting a Japanese Stone Lantern in Nomad Sculpt: My Reflections
When I set out to sculpt a Japanese stone lantern—an Ishidoro—in Nomad Sculpt, I had one main goal: keep it simple, but make it look like something you’d find in a serene temple garden. As with most of my modeling adventures, this one turned into more than just a technical exercise. It became a meditative process—a kind of digital stone-carving ritual.
If you’re coming here from the YouTube tutorial, welcome! This post isn’t a step-by-step (that’s what the video’s for), but more of a reflection on what went into the build, what I learned, and a few things I think are worth highlighting if you’re planning to try it yourself. By the way, here is the Image I used as a Reference to sculpt this.
The Roof: Where All the Challenge (and Fun) Begins
I started with the roof, which ended up being the most complex and rewarding part of the lantern. Getting that traditional, slightly flared Japanese curve was tricky. I used a combination of spheres and boxes to form the base shape—but the real magic came from using the lathe tool to make little dish-like shapes, then duplicating them with the radial array.
Here's a key insight: don’t rush the boolean subtractions when cutting those curves into the roof corners. Doing them one at a time keeps things clean. I learned the hard way that applying too many booleans at once can turn your object inside out (literally), and that’s a headache you don’t want.
Once the cuts were in, I used local symmetry with the move tool to finesse the curvature—lifting, pulling, and massaging those edges until it looked like it belonged in a Zen garden.
Sculpting by Subtraction: Finding Form in the Lantern Body
The midsection—the lantern’s body—was more about function and subtle design. Boxes did the heavy lifting, but what stood out here was a clever use of the mask + rectangle tool to create trapezoidal forms. Nomad doesn’t offer trapezoids as primitives, so this little workaround felt like unlocking a hidden feature.
I found myself getting into a rhythm: clone, resize, remesh, smooth. There’s something deeply satisfying about refining each blocky shape into something that feels hand-carved. A lot of the realism comes from restraint—light smoothing, careful proportions, and not overdoing detail.
Carving the Inside: Lantern Light and Boolean Patience
One of the coolest moments was when I carved out the inside of the lantern. Using the X-ray tool and radial arrays again, I managed to hollow it out and give it some interior detail.
What made it work was the same principle as before: do your boolean subtractions one at a time. I can’t stress this enough. Rushing this step leads to messy geometry that’s hard to fix. When done right, though, the result is incredibly rewarding—a clean, believable space for your light source to shine through.
Adding Light: Where the Lantern Comes Alive
Adding the light source was the finishing touch that made the whole piece feel real. I inserted a small cube inside the lantern, tweaked the material to be refractive with a yellow tint, and then added a point light to create a soft, glowing core.
There was a moment when I switched to render mode and saw the light cast from inside the lantern—and it honestly felt magical. After hours of sculpting and refining, seeing it "light up" gave me the payoff I didn’t know I was waiting for.
Lessons Learned and Tips to Share
If I had to sum up what made this sculpt work, it would come down to three ideas:
- Break it down – Even something as intricate as a stone lantern can be built from basic shapes. Let Nomad’s tools do the heavy lifting.
- Work clean – Validate, remesh, smooth. Often. The more you keep things tidy as you go, the easier it is to make bold changes later.
- Be patient – Sculpting isn’t about speed. It’s about decisions. Every time you pull a shape, or subtract a plate, you’re making a creative choice. Respect that process.
Final Thoughts
This lantern was a joy to sculpt—not just because of the end result, but because of what it taught me about form, detail, and restraint. In many ways, it mimicked the real-world artistry of stone carving: slow, deliberate, and deeply satisfying.
I hope the video gives you a helpful roadmap, but more importantly, I hope it inspires you to try making your own version—tweaked, personalized, maybe even a little bit snazzier. Whether you follow the steps or go off-book, just enjoy the sculpting journey.
Thanks for reading, and happy modeling!