How to Make Realistic Faces From Polymer Clay
Polymer clay is a type of clay that is designed to bake in the oven. For anyone who sculpts human figures or dolls, it has several properties that make it ideal for this purpose. Polymer clay does not dry out and remains workable for an indefinite amount of time. It does not need any grog or filler to avoid severe shrinking, which means that the texture is typically much finer than that of real clay. Some types of polymer clay also have a translucent quality, creating the look of real skin. Sculpting a realistic face from polymer clay requires practice.
Instructions
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Break off a piece of polymer clay from the block and warm it up in your hands, rolling and squeezing until it is soft and workable.
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Create an egg-shaped form for the head from aluminum foil. You can use Styrofoam instead if you are making a very large face. Cover the form with clay and smooth it with your fingers or a clay roller. The clay should be at most 1/4-inch thick; thick polymer clay does not bake well. Determine which end will be the forehead and which will be the chin; pinch the chin slightly to give it more of a point.
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Smooth the clay upward toward the forehead. Form a brow ridge; the eyeballs will be underneath this ridge. The ridge will be most prominent on a male face, more subtle on a female face and very subtle on a child's face.
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Use a thin tool to mark the face lightly. Make a line that divides the face vertically. Then divide the face horizontally. Moving toward the chin, divide the face horizontally again. These help mark the proportions of the head.
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Roll a thin cone of clay. Press it between the top of the first line dividing the face horizontally and the second one, covering the line that divides the face vertically. This is the nose. Smooth the clay into the face with a tool or your hands.
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Hollow out eye sockets on either side of the nose below the brow ridge using a blunt or rounded tool.
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Place a flat, circular piece of clay below the nose. Smooth it in place, then use a flat tool, such as a knife, to cut a horizontal line into this piece. Smooth the top of the cut upward and the bottom of the cut downward. This forms lips. For a large face, add two flat ovals of clay pressed together to form lips instead.
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Roll two equally-sized pieces of clay into balls. Place each into an eye socket and add more clay or remove clay from the balls until they are a size that you find suitable for your particular face. Fill in the area around the eyes with a little more clay to hold them in place.
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Roll two thin pieces of clay into cylinders and put each on the bottom of the eyes, smoothing and flattening into place to form the lower eyelid. Repeat for the top lids.
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Form two small, flat ovals. Place these on either side of the head, with the tops level with the corners of the eyes. These are the ears. Smooth them onto the head, then press a small, round tool into their centers and hollow out the ears slightly, forming cuplike shapes.
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Refine the features. Use small tools to define the corners of the mouth and eyes and to add nostrils. Add more clay to fill out the chin or cheeks. Use a needle to make wrinkles.
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Bake according to the manufacturer's instructions for your particular clay. Baking temperatures vary slightly. Use acrylic paint or water-based oils to add details and paint in eyes if you wish.
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Tips & Warnings
Refer to photos of faces like the one you want to sculpt. Try to get a variety of angles for reference.
You may want to create eyes and bake them before baking the rest of the doll so that the eyeballs are rigid and you do not accidentally damage them during the sculpting process. You can safely bake polymer clay more than once. You can also bake doll eyes into polymer clay; however, acrylic eyes may melt in the oven, so choose glass eyes.
References
- "Creating Lifelike Figures in Polymer Clay"; Katherine Dewey; 2008
- HunnyBuns Reborn Nursery: Sculpting Tutorial
- Photo Credit Photos.com/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images
