I have a Question for the lot of ya?

[Jester1014]

Nothing bad really.
I didn't know where to post this exactly.

I'm going to be entering my graphic arts class here soon and I was curious.

When you guys who clay sculpt, go to make a form, Do you make a paper model first and throw some clay onto it to get your details for molds? Or do you just outright take a chunk of clay and start Carving out your piece?

I'm just curious really, I've seen this done by a few modelers.

No one has to answer this if they don't want to, a mod could move if I didn't post it in the right area.

But if you do answer thank you in advance!
J1014

 

[Varsity]

i just start with a chunk of clay. and clay in graphic arts?

 

[ShadoKat]

From what I gather, it's really up to you how you want to start. Some people can look at a block and see the end result in it, so they start chipping away. Others (myself included) take blobs of clay and build up. One thing I've seen people do recently is pep a piece, harden it, and add clay. From what I've seen, this produces wonderful results, and I look forward to trying this method out myself, but my current project doesn't really have very good pep files available for what I'm going for.

I'm not an experienced sculptor by any means, so YMMV, but this is what I have done thus far... I start with a block of clay, cut it into smaller blocks of clay, mash those smaller blocks into squishy blobs, and then smash the squishy blobs onto a PROPERLY SECURED "form." From there, I rough it out into the general shape, refine the shape a bit, and add some rough detail. As I work, I take off bits of clay, build it up where I've taken it down too far, and repeat as necessary, adding and removing rough detail as I go. Once I'm finally happy with the overall shape and the rough details, I smooth the sculpt as best I can, refine the details, and smooth again. Obviously this may not be the best way to go about it, but it's what I do.

As far as forms go, I started off with a $10.00 styrofoam mannequin head for the helmet, and then built on the helmet sculpt for the shoulder bell, but you can use pretty much anything else of relatively similar size and shape to what you want to sculpt. It saves both time and clay, in the long run. In preparation for some of the other pieces on the agenda I have plaster-bandage-life-casts (check out Sevv's amazing Master Chief sculpt to get an idea of what I mean, but I cut them up into separate chunks for forearm, upper arm, and torso), which I hardened with SmoothCast 300. For the arm cannon I'm using a plastic toy baseball bat as the form. Or, as mentioned above, you could use a hardened pep piece.

I love seeing sculpted projects, and hope you will be able to share your work!! Good luck!!

P.S. Okay, I realized the emphasizing "PROPERLY SECURED" may be a bit hypocritical... I've only done two real sculpts so far (one of which isn't even finished yet) and, since one was built on top of the other, I haven't managed the "properly secured" bit myself yet. However, I have definitely learned that properly securing the form is a necessary step.

 

[Jester1014]

Big time thanks there Shadokat.

I've seen a few others like Nin workinf with clay for his pred bust, and I got pretty jealous and would like to try my hand at it again.
In HS I made a bust of a V.Raptor from JP3 and, it wasn't movie quality but enough to get me first place at the schools art show.
It was straight clay built on top of layers. I was just wanting to scrape the dust off my talents and see what else I can do.

Thanks again for the quick info.

 

[thorn696]

Block of clay. And if I'm doing a project that needs to look like something that someone else designed then allot of pic's. The larger it is tho, it might need supports to keep weight from caving in and/or falling over.

Side note: If doing make up. I use a lifecast of that part IE. face, arm, leg etc. This saves allot on clay and sets the scale to that person. from there it gets real complicated.