Polymer Clay Fan

In a few of the older sculpting tutorials on this site I briefly talked about using an armature for supporting the sculpture. From time to time I receive emails from some of the newer members of the sculpting community asking exactly what an armature or armature wire is. So for the newer members to the sculpting family I thought I would go ahead and put together a brief explanation on what an armature is and why it is needed.

Basically the armature makes up the support system of the sculpture. A good analogy is to think of an armature as the skeleton for your artwork. In the human body the skeletal system is designed to support and hold up the body. The armature basically has the same type of role for your sculpture.

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I’m going to use wax for this tutorial but the same effects can be achieved with polymer clay.

Tools needed:

• Polymer clay or wax
• Mechanical pencil
• Dental Tools
  
• Soft brush

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Attaching the arm

All right, so we have rebuilt the arm and now it is finally time to reattach it back to the sculpture. I went ahead and baked the existing arm so that I did not mess up any of the details. In hindsight this method could be improved if you planned to use the polymer clay sculpture as a final piece.

Even though the arm did attach relatively well there are a few weak points which I will point out in a minute. If I had to do it all over again I would want to do a better job of anchoring the arm into the shoulder instead of relying on a thin piece of clay as the support (probably would use wire, some form of bondo or superglue – however make sure whatever you use is not toxic if you have to heat it up in an oven or with a heat gun).

1. Apply a thin layer of Vaseline to the base of the arm and the shoulder where the arm is missing.
2. Add a layer of fresh clay to the arm
3. Attach the arm and blend the clay from the shoulder to the upper arm
4. Bake the sculpture (or heat the area with a heat gun)

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Starting to sculpt the arm

OK, we have a good start on the face, made pretty good progress on the torso and sculpted the fiddle and a hand.  Now it is time to start making the Fiddler look like an actual fiddler.  I’ve been wanting to attach the fiddle to my sculpture for some time now but in order to do so I need to first build out the arm.

Now I started the beginning stages of the arm some time ago so the torso in some of the images isn’t as far along as it is in some of the more recent tutorials.  The first two images in this tutorial were taken quite awhile back while the rest of the images were taken recently.  I had plans to do the arm earlier in this series but decided it would be best to put it together after the fiddle was completed.

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I’m going to put the tutorial for this series together a little differently than the other tutorials.  Since I am doing a series I want to show the entire sculpting process.  I’m aware that some of the tutorials will be a little redundant but I think it takes away from the series if I do not show the entire sculpting process from beginning to end.

So to give you an example of what I am talking about I went into detail on how to sculpt a face in the Fiddler sculpting series.  Instead of reinventing the wheel for this series, I will just show a series of pictures that give step-by-step visual instructions of the sculpting process.  Just read the photos like you would a book from left to right.  I will switch to my regular format if there is anything that I feel needs additional instructions. Read the rest of this entry »

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Blocking Out the Dog Portrait

The first step to sculpting a dog portrait is to block out the face. If you have been following the Fiddler sculpting series then you are already probably familiar with some of these steps. The goal here is to get a rough shape of our dog. We will start adding and refining details in the later steps. Tools Needed

1. Armature wire
2. Aluminum foil
3. Polymer Clay (Super Sculpey in this example)
4. Sculpting tools
5. Lots of patience

Time to begin…… Read the rest of this entry »

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The Fiddler Stage One – Blocking out the Face

A couple of key points before we begin. The polymer clay that I use is called Super Sculpey but you can use just about any polymer clay to do these lessons (however regular Sculpey would probably present itself as a challenge). I’m a huge fan of Super Sculpey and it is predominantly the main clay that I use. Super Sculpey is just one of those clays that I feel comfortable with.

Second of all don’t judge a book by its cover. This sculpture will probably look like a third grader made it for awhile. As the lessons progress you should be able to see the sculpture advance. Everyone’s skill level is at different stages so put forth your best effort when you start sculpting and with time you should be able to knock out some really impressive art.

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How to sculpt a unique rocky seascape base

In the following tutorial I am going to show you how you can quickly and easily sculpt a cool looking rocky base for your sculptures. The entire process for the base took me around 30 minutes to an hour to complete. As of this writing I just finished a sculpture of a sea dragon. I wanted to add a unique base to my dragon sculpture but I didn’t want anything that I felt was taking away from the sculpture.

** The pictures below will show you step-by-step how I created a base that I think compliments the sculpture. Note that the pictures are thumbnails so click on the individual images for a larger view.

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Polymer Clay tools that I use and recommend
Bookmark this page and check back frequently since the list of polymer clay tools will grow as I get a chance to write about the different tools that I use.
	Alcohol – Great for blending and smoothing out the clay Vaseline – Used to add non-baked clay to baked clay. Pasta machine - Great for mixing and conditioning clay. You can get by without out one but trust me if you do buy one your hands will thank you for it. Dental Tools – A set of 18 different dental tools is one of the best investments that I have ever made. Heat gun – Heat guns are great for baking small detail, especially if you don’t want to bake the entire sculpture. Q-Tips – Cool little tool that can help you smooth out and sculpt those hard to reach areas. Polymer Clay Books – List of polymer clay books that I recommend Lazy Susan – great tool for quickly looking at all sides of the sculpture Armature Wire

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