sculpting without a wire armature

[frank h]

Hi
This is my current project trying to get a
convincing head

Having talked to Alan Ball about sculpting
he told me he did not use a wire armature
and that he carved into a blob of cured putty
leaving a tail on it for holding purposes

well i tried it ...and found i could not carve but still wanted to work
without the armature so before the putty Magicsculp hardened
I rolled out some sticks and after over night drying
sculpted the head on to one of them...i intend to refine it ..when dry by scraping ...and adding more putty here and there

Then to continue by adding a torso followed by arms and legs ....all without
having a wire to worry about showing through as often happened in the past
the scale is 75/80 mm
the first pic ...shows the sticks of putty ..beside the head in its currnet state

All advice and critique gratefully accepted

Frank

 

[frank h]

Here is another view ...got to fix that chin ....

 

[frank h]

and the other profile this head took about two hours to get
to this stage

 

[Roy]

Frank...Hi mate..I reckon you're doing a great job..I know how you love to get going with the putty .
I think what you have so far is a couple of hours well spent. A head is very challenging, no doubt about that, are you working from a set of specific pictures..? good reference is a great help, and it's handy if you are lucky enough to have several different views of the same face.

Carry on sculpting..you know you love it..

All the best.

Roy.

 

[Dan Morton]

Interesting looking head you got there Frank!

I'll tune in now and again and see what develops.

Although I've modified several existing heads, I've yet to try sculpting one from start. Probably I should do that soon...gulp.

What mix of putties are you using? That's not all Magicsculpt, is it? Looks pretty green.

All the best,
Dan

 

[frank h]

Roy,
Thanks for the encouragement
yes i do like to play with the putty I have a
book on drawing cartoons ....gives exagerated expressions
but for me a good starting point seems to simplify shapes

Will bring this to Euro let you have a look at it ....
Always appreciate your help and advice thanks again

Dan,
The putty is magicsculpt nothing added, think the photograpy
makes it look green thanks for the interest i got no subject in mind yet
though an ancient seems to be where i want to go ........edged weapons being
a bit easier to sculpt than any firearm

will post more as it goes

Frank

 

[Colin_Fraser]

Interesting approach Frank - I tried this once but everytime I pushed in one side the other pushed out! Just curious - Why are you sculpting on a stick? I find Alan's approach easier as you can just lop off the handhold when you are done.

Believe it or not - I find sculpting books in the series below useful and inspiring even if they are geared toward producing caricatured faces in polymer clay:

You can get a look inside at these links:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0891349278...136#reader-page

And:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0891347216...136#reader-link

Cheers

Colin