Polymer Clay Fan

Free Sculpting Tutorials

Changing the Torso

Posted by goregt On September - 14 - 2009

There is a magic word that applies to a lot of the elite sculptors and one that I personally believe every artist, sculptor or not, should become familiar with. It is one of those words that could undoubtedly help you become a very talented and skilled artist. For those artist out there that are already very skilled in their craft, it will help you improve your skills that much more.

The magic word that I am talking about is persistence. The reason why persistence is important for artist is because those that sincerely choose to be persistent in perfecting their craft really never give up at improving their skills. For example, if you have a hard time sculpting hands the key is to keep working and improving your skills until you can successfully and easily sculpt hands. No matter how many hours it takes and no matter how many times you have to start over you never quit until you can successfully reach your goal.

So where am I going with all of this? Basically the sculpture in this tutorial has been sitting on a shelf unfinished for over two years now. I’m now working on it again however, as one would expect, my skills over the last couple years have grown and I can now see a lot of things that I need to change with this sculpture. One of the main issues that I have with this piece is the shape and the design of the breast. I never really liked my original design for the breast and although I had spent countless hours on this sculpture I always knew it would be something that I would have to revisit at a later date. The problem is that in the original design they look augmented to me, they almost look as if they have no weight to them.

I’ve been working on resculpting the breast and over the next few tutorials I will walk you through how and why I did the design changes. What is not shown in the pictures in the upcoming tutorials is the amount of time I invested in learning how to sculpt just one breast. Now I have sculpted the female form before but as of this writing Indigenous Allure is my only nude. All of my other female sculptures have something covering their breast and although the design was not easy it was more simplified than sculpting a nude form.

I’m not going to lie, I’ve really struggled sculpting the breast on this figure. I’m not sure what the problem is, it is just a design that I have personally found challenging. I spent over two days on just one of the breast alone and through a lot of persistence have gotten the shape down to something that I am comfortable with. The hours that I have invested in sculpting just the first breast has helped me already improve my skills. The second breast, which will be demonstrated in the next tutorial took a fraction of the time to complete.

Don’t get me wrong, it is awkward for me to write an article on my difficulties for sculpting breast. However a few years ago I could have written the same article about my challenges when trying to sculpt hands or even hair. The point is that this is one of my areas of weaknesses today. However I know this is also an area that I can not only learn to master but also use to improve my overall sculpting skills. The key is to keep working at the design until I get it right. Whether it be two days or two months the key is to keep at the design until it clicks and eventually becomes easy for me. As I already stated my second attempt, although still under construction, was much easier than the first. I still have a long ways to go but my sculpting speed has already improved along with the way that I even look at the design. As much as I wanted to quit I stayed focus on my task and in the end I think that I will end up with a sculpture that I am happy with.

I’ve included some before and after shots of my sculpture (the design is still a work-in-progress and completed pics will be included at a later date). The uncensored pics are included in the link at the bottom of this page. Also the scars were removed to resculpt the torso, they are added back in a later tutorial.