How to Sculpt a Bust/ Immobile Action Figure

Though it isn’t necessary, it helps to design what you want to sculpt out on paper first and erase/draw till you get it right. It often helps if you’re a geek, or at least have access to several Wizard/Toy Fair/other Dork mags that give examples of well-drawn action figures. Any comic book (*preferably one with decent anatomy) will do. If you’re not the greatest drawer in the world, it might help to start out with a more “doughy” or “spherical” cartoon character such as Bone or even the old Disney/Warner Bros.’ characters, which aren’t so much based on Marvel Comics-type anatomy but more loosely-drawn shapes like circles and squares. ALSO MAKE SURE YOU CHECK OUT THE "RESOURCES" LINKS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE AS THEY ARE ALSO VERY HELPFUL!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Armature Wire
• Super Sculpey or regular Sculpey Clay
• Hands and Other Clay-Shaping Tools
• Patience

1. What you'll be using to sculpt Go to your local art store—for instance pearl, Blick, or even Aaron brothers or Michael’s. If you don’t have one of these stores around, it might save you a little time to call ahead and make sure they have sculpting equipment. You’ll need sculpting clay—as mentioned in the materials list, it helps if you’ve got Super Sculpey modeling clay or regular Sculpey; this is the professional brand of modeling clay they use in the movie industry to design characters and/or prosthetics. Also, you’ll probably need a couple packages of the modeling clay; Super Sculpey (green box, pink-colored clay) especially as it rarely contains enough for a bust.
2. Use these to cut the armature wire...you may need a stronger tool depending on the thickness of the wiring Make sure you have a pair of pliers, ones that aren’t so rusted you can’t cut through wire. I say this because I have about 3 pairs of old-ass, rusted pliers lying around my house and maybe about one really workable pair. Depending on the thickness of the armature wire, you’ll want to use a stronger pair; for the smaller busts, thin armature wire is all that’s needed, and you should have no trouble cutting with your average small-sized household pliers.
3. Some of the tools you'll need (toothpicks optional). Make sure you have a fairly decent selection of armature and clay sculpting tools. You can get these also at an art store like the ones mentioned above. They’re usually sold 8-10 different tools in a plastic bag, though a lot of designers I know simply use their hands and a couple of toothpicks (and rarely anything else) to get the desired look.
4. structure the basic wire skeleton first (it can be a stick figure even, as long as the foil/wire can balance the clay) then add foil Take out the armature wire. Cut with pliers and bend it according to the picture you’ve drawn, or at the very least have a picture of in your mind. Sometimes if you get on the Internet and do a search you can find examples to look at. You may have to do “two coats”, i.e., take additional armature wire and wind it around your basic stick-figure outline (sort of in a spiral-like design), to reinforce it. Like the picture,you can also wrap more wire around the tinfoil after you put that on. The more support, the less the clay will weigh it down as you continue to build.
5. Next, grab the tinfoil. The amount you’ll need for the skeleton will depend on how big your skeleton is. If you’re doing a basic bust, one roll of tinfoil will be more than enough. It’s cheap and you should have enough for at least a couple of sculptures. Using the shreds/sheets of tinfoil, wrap it around your armature wire, being careful to cover all of the wiring. When you’re covering the face and the rib cage, you’re gonna want to use a couple sheets to build up thickness: when you put the clay on top of the tinfoil, you’ll want a strong enough backbone (through both wire and tinfoil) to hold that sculpey. Put on enough foil to support the clay and definitely enough to maintain the shape you want.
6. The main instrument(s) you’ll find yourself using for at least the beginning most basic stages are, you guessed it, your hands—more specifically, your thumbs and figures. Using those handy pictures, look at the anatomy of your figure, then start sculpting away. First, don’t get discouraged; even if you’ve drawn a lot in the past sculpting is a (sort of) whole new ballgame—it’s gonna take some time to get things the way you want them to be. Making sure your sculpey /clay is kept out of direct sunlight and/or anything that would dry it or air it out quickly helps keep the clay much more malleable, flexible and easier to work with. Few things suck more in sculpting than trying to bend and fold dry, hardened clay; the stuff merely crumbles off in your hands and winds up all over the place.
7. sometimes sculpting the pieces separately helps Sometimes it helps to take the clay aside and sculpt the basic pieces that you think might be hard to sculpt out on the head or torso. For instance, I’ve sometimes find appendages such as fingers and hands (or even noses, in the case of busts) to be a bit of a pain. It might help therefore to sculpt these separately and then add them on when done. Just make sure that you keep an eye on the main skeleton, so that everything is kept in proportion—you don’t want a nose too big or small for your head (unless that’s what you’re going for)!
8. Oven Bake that thang. Preheat your oven to about 275 degrees for about 15 minutes. Then stick it in. The time you bake for is dependent on the size/thickness of your sculpture. See the really long link below--tells you everything.
   Also: I'm learning how to paint sculptures and will post on it soon hopefully, but for now learn this first. If you're ready to paint it try some of the sites suggested.

Tips & Warnings

• If your clay gets a little dry, don’t worry, just remember to keep your clay in a tight, enclosed container (such as the box it came in—this often works best so you don’t have to go looking for anything). It's not anywhere near necessary, but if you have a heating pad, try removing the wool cover and placing some of the sculpey on top of the pad (for a short period of time).This can help it sog a little bit and become more malleable. I know this involves the dreaded “heat” word, but it's different than exposing the clay to dry or arid air.
• Join art communities online, such as DeviantArt.com. This keeps the competitive juices flowing, and as an artist, it’s essential that you keep an eye on the competition.
• Again, don’t be afraid to look online for additional visual steps. If these don’t help chances are another one will.
• Network. Get to know other sculptors. One of my inspirations was meeting other artists, who through conversations and hanging out garnered me more tips on how to sculpt.
• Make sure you use pliers and ovens with common sense-- i.e., Don't get too self-critical, pinch your little sister's nose with the pliers and then stick your head in the oven