Things You'll Need:
- Armature Wire
- Super Sculpey or regular Sculpey Clay
- Hands and Other Clay-Shaping Tools
- Patience
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Step 1
What you'll be using to sculptGo 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.
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Step 2
Use these to cut the armature wire...you may need a stronger tool depending on the thickness of the wiringMake 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.
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Step 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.
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Step 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 foilTake 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.
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Step 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.
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Step 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.
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Step 7
sometimes sculpting the pieces separately helpsSometimes 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)!
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Step 8
OvenBake 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.
Comments
joner337 said
on 7/21/2009 An alternative would be to use a service like http://www.ThatsMyFace.com that can do color lifelike facemasks and busts from one or two photos of someone. A bit like an affordable Madame Tussauds!
ReLotus said
on 9/26/2008 Excellent article in my opinion. *Thumbsup*
Inspiration can be surely essential. DeviantArt.com Is a good place to look for images for that purpose, I also recommend to others one can input into the search-bar of the site for helpful tutorials as well.
But on another note: one must keep in mind it's a site that's goal is to promotes and encourage the commercial competitive side of art, rather then the craft of it; so with such a competitive atmosphere by generally most of the community, it can be often difficult to find one-on-one help unless someone already knows the right group of individuals their going to want to keep in contact with before signing up; although there's always exceptions depending on current context. :)