Face Exercise

[Einion]

Darko - I tried the metal ball approach time and time again and could never get a natural looking eye.

I think it would be worth persevering with balls bearings given the number of pros that rely on them, and the quality of their results. I don't use them but I certainly would if I had easy access to the right size(s), for the huge improvement in speed they'd offer and for the consistency.

Any idea what your particular difficulty was? Might not be too hard a fix.

...and once You do and make eyelids on top - it is very hard to fix their position.

Still have to do this working in clay a lot of the time. IME the larger the scale the more likely it is that you have to form the eyeball, then add the lids one at a time to get a really decent eye (and importantly, varied eyes).

Einion

 

[pokrad]

Actually I do not how to explain...do not know what to take as a reference to position the balls. Maybe it is wrong to put them early in the sculpting process...as I do not have a good simetry at that time ?
Maybe if I do a whole face with the nose, establish a simetry(vertical and horizontal) and then put them in the end ? I was looking at that first head - with the cigarete- and You are absolutelly right - vertical simetry of the eyes are more or less OK, but somehow I messed up horizontal simetry - the left eye is almost 1 mm more protruding than the right !!! I guess I'll have to check horizontal views (from the top and from the bottom) more often during the process to avoid such mistakes.
Do not know...hope I'll figure it out

 

[pokrad]

As usual, feel free to criticize, no mater how bad crits are

 

[housecarl]

Do you put the bearings in individually Darko?
I know someone that uses them, he glues them to a piece of card first.
Looking good though,
Carl.

 

[pokrad]

Hmm, that could be a good idea !!! That way they should stay aligned, and I could even take them as a reference for the simetry of other parts !!!

 

[pokrad]

Lowered the eyebrows, lot of changes, and not much to see

More pictures - easier to see the errors - some angles are quite bad

 

[housecarl]

The shape of the right differs slightly from the left, or visa versa.
Carl.

 

[pokrad]

I know, think that the right cheekbone is main suspect...but can't tell for sure - been watching it for too long today...

 

[Einion]

Do you put the bearings in individually Darko?
I know someone that uses them, he glues them to a piece of card first.

Since this thread I was thinking that something like that would be a good idea, both to ensure the right spacing and for horizontal alignment. When I have some bearings of the right size I'm going to try a short length of rod glued between the pair.

I know, think that the right cheekbone is main suspect...but can't tell for sure - been watching it for too long today...

Can't really comment on the cheekbones Darko, it's hard to get a proper read on them because of the strong shadowing on the left side.

Most of the facial elements look good to me, although the lips are very full; not implausibly so but atypical for caucasians so you might want to keep an eye out for this tendency in your work unless you want this to become your signature mouth type.

More pictures - easier to see the errors - some angles are quite bad

Not sure if this relates to what you're seeing but wanted to highlight a few things, including something related to my previous point about the throat area:

In addition to the angles, the neck is very full for a woman. Slimming this down will immediately give a more gracile, more typically female appearance.

What I've done on the inset profile view of your bust is slimmed and tilted the neck, slightly rounded just beneath the jaw, a slight tweak to the throat and tilted the head forwards slightly.

If I get the chance I'll try to post some input on the front view tomorrow.

Einion

 

[pokrad]

Thank You Enion for giving me the good input !

 

[pokrad]

I tried to fix some of the things Enion mentioned, neck could still be thinner, face is still not 100% symmetric. Now I have rhetoric question: is it usual to spend so much time in fixing the symmetry ? Is that matter of practice or something else ?
Am I doing something wrong ? All the tutorials I watched newer saw any of the sculptors to take special attention to symmetry, and still there it is - and it comes somehow natural. Sometimes I think that my brain is playing tricks on me.
I am asking this because I see some small progress on anatomy with every sculpt - but I fight the symmetry almost the same way I did it with my first sculpt...the trick with mirror does not help at all, only helpful thing is to take the photo and observe the error and then try to fix.

 

[RKapuaala]

Pokrad,,,, I'm missing your contributions to the digital section but glad to see you are still sculpting. If I can offer some suggestions.
First off,,, real faces are not precisely symmetrical. They are in fact quite different on one side than they are on the other. If you take and graph the front view of your subject you'll concur.
Second, this looks like a very good rough, you just need to start honing in on anatomy.

 

[Einion]

Now I have rhetoric question: is it usual to spend so much time in fixing the symmetry ? Is that matter of practice or something else ?

Unless you're being trained formally I think it's largely a matter of practice* along with the associated observations and comparisons/error checking.

Formal training sidesteps the trial-and-error improvement that you mostly use when you're teaching yourself (for example by putting observation first, execution second - the opposite of how most leisure artists do it) which builds in good mental frameworks from the beginning, but they are still taught plenty of proportional-checking routines, key angles and cardinal points to check, to help avoid problems with feature placement and emphasis.

Working from an anatomy base helps a little with achieving symmetry, but it's mostly of value for getting very believable features in high-realist sculpting.

You could choose not to sweat asymmetry too much though - plenty of working sculptors have made absolute howlers when it comes to symmetry (one eye way too high, ears that don't even remotely match) without getting a tenth of the flak you've gotten for it within this thread!

...the trick with mirror does not help at all...

I find that often helps a lot! This probably indicates the asymmetries in my faces are a lot larger than yours

Einion

*Can you estimate how many heads you've sculpted in total, from your very first attempt to this one?

 

[pokrad]

I find that often helps a lot! This probably indicates the asymmetries in my faces are a lot larger than yours

Or more probably I do not know "how to look"

*Can you estimate how many heads you've sculpted in total, from your very first attempt to this one?

I guess somewhere between 20 and 40 - in period of 3 years...

 

[pokrad]

Pokrad,,,, I'm missing your contributions to the digital section but glad to see you are still sculpting. If I can offer some suggestions.
First off,,, real faces are not precisely symmetrical. They are in fact quite different on one side than they are on the other. If you take and graph the front view of your subject you'll concur.
Second, this looks like a very good rough, you just need to start honing in on anatomy.

I'm doing some excercises with digital too, but waiting decent print service to become available for decent price. I hope it will be soon

 

[RKapuaala]

I've been having some excellent results from Shapeways lately. You have to clean a little, but for the price they are getting to be quite remarkable. Keep at it

 

[Einion]

I guess somewhere between 20 and 40 - in period of 3 years...

So still pretty new to it then This is why I'd often recommend starting smaller, if you want to practice by sculpting through to completion - you could do that many in just a couple of weeks or months.

Einion

 

[pokrad]

 

[pokrad]

Baked and red-primed.
I would like to try to cast this in wax and try to detail it:

 

[1969]

Just been catching up with this thread, some very good work and looks like you are getting the right guidance which helps massively.

Einion have you tried here for ball bearings, I used them previously as they stock a large choice of sizes and are quite reasonable for price.

http://simplybearings.co.uk/shop/index.php?cPath=23

All the best
Steve