Question about starting a bust

[smeagolthevile]

Ok guys, I want to try my hand at doing another bust. This time I actually want to do it correct, so my question.

How should I start? Should I use wire and create an armature to build off of, or some other starting process?

 

[Pekka]

I´m just a beginner with busts but I start with some metal wire and a ball of aluminium foil from the kitchen. I work the foil to the basic shape of the skull and wound it with the wire. The wire is also a handle to hold the piece. Over this it´s easy start sculpting the face.
Hth,
Pekka N.

 

[gordy]

Pekka has a good method, also I have leftover putty all the time so I lump leftover pieces into a ball (while working other stuff) for future armature parts.

 

[Einion]

I think one good way is to sculpt the head first, get that right as a stand-alone thing then drill for a wire that's in the right position to act as a neck (assuming you're not already using a wire that's positioned correctly) and go from there. Heads/faces are always important of course but a good one is vital to a bust since it's such a large portion of the finished item, so this way if the face doesn't go right you don't lose any time or material on the neck and shoulders.

One other way of looking at "doing it right" is not to do with the construction method but with the overall form the bust will take. And here I think it's a very good idea to look at historical busts as 'the model' to follow. Although there's quite a bit of variation in how deep busts went and how much of the arms were shown below the shoulder etc. if you look at a representative sample of busts from the Roman era up to the 19th century academic pieces you can get an idea of a norm that's safe to work within for an aesthetically-pleasing result.

Einion