Looking for 3-D template?

[ghamilt1]

I wanted to try some sculpting, and wanted to know if anyone knows of a manufacturer who makes head "blanks". I am probably not doing a very good job of describing my needs so allow me explain.

I'd like to sculpt my own faces, or at least try to sculpt my own faces. So I am looking for a featurless "skull" to which one could add facial features. It's kind of like those armatures or manekins that that some sculptors buy and then add musculature and clothing to finish the full figure. Most of these manekins come with a completed head already. I thought this would really help a beginner like me to get the scale and porportions right. Anyway, I hope I've made some sense as to what I'm looking for here, so if anyone knows of such a thing out there on the market, please let me know. I'd prefer something along the lines of 70-75 mm scale.

Cheers;
Glenn

 

[gordy]

I don't know of any, there very well may some off-the-shelf mannequin/armature.. it is not uncommon to use an existing head and carving off the features to make a blank slate/canvas -

HTH,
gordy

 

[Einion]

Here's what I'd suggest Glenn, since I don't think 70/75mm spare heads are easy to come by. Find a figure in this scale that has a head the size you want, and sculpt a bland, pretty featureless head with simple, fairly generic lips (use the commercial head as a guide to size and proportion, working directly from it). Take as many steps as you need so you're not pushing around too much soft putty, I'd often use three: step one, cranium; two, add rough facial area; three, add basic 'pin' neck and generic lips. You can do basic eyes or leave hollows, up to you (better without IMO).

When you're happy with your basic Action Man head, you can make a simple two-part mould with a hard putty (A+B, Milliput, Apoxie Sculpt; MS will work too) and press-cast as many copies as you like, for practically nothing. Let these harden, drill a hole in the neck, mount it on a short bit of wire, grip in your favourite tool and go to town practicing all the fun sculpting that goes into a head - the details.

This is a great way of gaining experience quickly in sculpting facial details and ears without getting too precious about things if something goes wrong, since each head won't take much time to do at all, compared to working up a whole head from scratch each time.

Einion

 

[ghamilt1]

Thanks guys;
I knew it was a long shot, so I'll take your advise and make my own. Cheers.