Richard: YES.
At Uni, I talked to two GM sculptures that were visiting.* We asked about making the clay model look like the sketch. They said the clay will always look like the sketch, even if the sketch needs to be redone!
We can imagine forms that can not be made in reality, so it’s a back and forth process.
*Car designers do hot renderings. The sculptures make it in 3D. Both require a design background (understanding of form, line, detail, etc). Both require creativity, just one is macro and one is extremely micro.