For this sculpt I used ProSculpt Professional Polymer. Now let me preface by saying that this is how *I* sculpt a head. I don’t know if it’s right or wrong, if there is such a thing, but it’s how I feel comfortable. You have to get in there and get hands on with the clay and see what feels right for you.
The reference pictures I had for Kiranjeet were a photoshop mash-up of other photos because the client didn’t have a picture of her “lost” childhood love, so we came close using photos that reminded her of him.
Please CLICK on the images to enlarge.
KIRANJEET – “Ray of Light”KIRANJEET – “Ray of Light” ProfileTools of the Trade for Portrait Sculpting. I have over 60 sculpting tools collected over the years, but when working at small scale, like 1:4, these seem to be the simple tools I gravitate to time and again. See that divider at the top… that is the most valuable tool in the box when going for a likeness!! I can’t begin to stress the importance of getting ratios and spacing correctly to achieve a portrait likeness. For other tools, look around the house, the kitchen, the bathroom, in the sofa cushions, under the bed for anything small to use as a tool, and remember the best tool is the one you always have handy, your fingers! My first step is to create a neck area and a kind of tube of clay that will fit the neck of the doll body I am using. There is a hole in the neck “cup” to accept the ball or button on the accompanying body. As you can see in the background, I have made scale picture reproductions of the subject, and added key distance lines in the computer for referencing with that holy divider! I’ve used the divider and pencil to set up initial reference points on the tube of cured clay.No, it’s not a surprised Simpson (kinda looks like Beaker from Sesame Street too)… Every thing has to start out ugly,… really ugly, but just look toward the goal! I’ve placed two pieces of uncured clay onto the tube and again referenced the picture with the dividers to set center points for the eyes. Notice that I’ve extended the central “cross” pencil lines up and out on the tube to help place the divider correctly. Meanwhile, back at the oven, I prepared two clay balls and baked them. A 1:4 scale doll has approximately 1/4 inch (6mm) diameter eyeballs. The human eye is approximately 24 mm in diameter, so 1/4 scale (divide by 4) would be 6mm. Use this formula to determine any size eyeball once you know the scale you are working in.I’ve pulled those raw clay disks up and around the cured eyeballs to hold them in place. Notice that the reference picture behind the right image shows me how far forward the front of the eyeball should be on the facial plane. Use more raw clay, if necessary, to bring the eyeballs forward to get that plane correct. If the eyeballs are out too far, then CAREFULLY cut away some of the cured clay with the Exacto blade knife from the back of the eyeball. This knife is a razor, so NO bloodletting please! This also illustrates how I used the picture to make the clay tube that will sit inside the head. You want to make sure that the tube is more or less centered so that you have plenty of room to add your clay for sculpting, or in other words, you don’t want that cured tube close to the surface. By the way, the rubber band on the stick is to keep my thumb, and therefore my thumbnail from wandering into the chin, which it will do with abandon if unchecked!!Now here is where it gets tricky and hard to explain. You have to block in the facial area, all the while using the dividers to set and reset reference points. You can see the slashes and points I’ve made in the clay. Keep checking the reference pix and grid lines you set up to get the width and length of the face, the nose, eyelids, lips. You are not going for a likeness at this point, just getting clay on in a semblance of the head you’re copying. Make sure that you push your clay on and don’t let air pockets form behind the clay which might bulge out during the baking process due to expansion of the trapped air. Pretty he’s not!Again, constantly (and incessantly) referencing your portrait picture, keep adding disks and ovals of clay to get the bulk in the facial planes correct.Roughly smooth as you go so you can see what is needed.Keep at it. Add Smooth. Check. Repeat-repeat-repeat!!!! The Exacto blade comes in handy if you add too much bulk in an area because you can smoothly shave off the clay and re-smooth.The forward mouth plane is very important. I see the mistake often of neglecting bulk in this area, which results in a kind of “duck” mouth. Again, check your profile pictures to get an idea of how much to add. So at this point we have the face pretty well blocked in. The features are no where near being refined or completely accurate yet, but the bulk is there so you can start carving and adding to get closer to the subject’s face.Now I start to get more serious about smoothing the face. I use my fingers first to push and flatten out the clay, then I use Sculpey diluent/clay softener on a soft clean brush and smooth some more. Now I start to refine the eye area. That’s just my preference, and I usually do one eye at a time, but do this however you feel comfortable. Always remember this one point, if going for a likeness, you must create things as you actually see them, not as you think they are. A face, as in all things when drawing or sculpting, is just a bunch of angles and the spaces between. Check the relationship of the length of the nose to its width, the space between the eyes in relation to the width of the mouth, the space above the mouth to the nose as opposed to the space below the mouth to the chin. This is something that the dividers make easy and the technique “by eye” can be learned! I recommend the book, “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” by Betty Edwards. She can help you learn the trick to drawing, or in this case sculpting, what you actually see by using the more mathematical/spatial relations side of the brain!!Compare how much more refined this pair of head shots are to the ones previously.At this point the additions (or subtractions) of clay become much smaller and precise as you get closer to the finish.Keep checking your reference to see where more “fat” is needed to create the likeness. Keep smoothing and refining. Those tiny little tools, like the pin will help define the smaller details of the face like the eye folds. Though I didn’t photograph it, those slight rolls/bags under the eyes were added clay ovals as well.YAY!! We have arrived at the first baking session!! Up until this point, my worst fear is dropping that head and damaging all that work!! I use the divider again to mark where the earhole will be before baking. Make sure they are lined up from the top and sides. Nothing worse than an Alfred E. Newman ear job!!After the first baking I use the reference photo again to add the back of the head bulk. After I bake the back of the head, I add a dome of clay to the top and smooth it into place. After baking the head again, I added teeth as seen in the inset.I’ve made two methods to attach the head. The double hole is for tying the head to a neck bob, the single, larger hole is for using elastic to string the head to the neck.THE EARS, or how I wished everyone was Van Gogh!! This is my LEAST favorite part of sculpting because the ear is such a fidgety looking little appendage and you can’t see one, while working on the other!!…but then, neither can anyone else, so get as close as you can! I start with two roughly shaped ear blobs. I do this so that I have the same amount clay for each to start.Score the surface of the cured clay for better adhesion of the raw clay. I also brush some Sculpey clay softener onto the raw clay as it acts like an adhesive.Push into the clay blob to establish the ear canal previously set up.Start to establish some ear features. Here’s where the exacto comes in handy to cut away some of the excess bulk. The ear generally starts at the eyebrow height and the lobe ends at the bottom of the nose. That’s a general rule of thumb, but we all know how that can vary! Use pictures of ears from the internet, or books or magazines to get all the little nuances right if you don’t have a picture of your subject’s ears.Again, just keep eliminating and smoothing the ear. It should eventually look like it is growing out of the head and NOT attached to the outside of the head. Make sure the little front tab over the canal is pretty flat to the side of the head.1. Get that little divet on that bulge inside the ear. 2. the front of the ear kind of folds into the canal a bit.Smoothed out and ready to be baked. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT try to do both ears at once. You will, and I speak from experience, smoosh the one you are not working on!!!Second ear pretty well matched and baked. When working on the second ear, constantly check its relative position to the first ear.So there you have it!
