I think the pictures in this tutorial explain everything pretty well so just follow the images from left to right. Since my arms will be dangling at the side this method works pretty well.
If you plan to pose the arm or add additional weight to it by placing something in the hand then you would want to build an armature that supports the arm better then what I have shown below.
* This sculpture is created with Super Sculpey.
Starting to sculpt the forearm
I’m still in the bulking stage and it will probably take another lesson or two before the arm looks like anything worth talking about. The bulking stage is probably my least favorite stage in the sculpting process because whatever is being “bulked out” just looks like a big blob of goo. Nothing impressive here but it is important to show these steps before we move onto the detailed sculpting phases.
* This sculpture is created with Super Sculpey.
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.
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.
I’m going to use wax for this tutorial but the same effects can be achieved with polymer clay.
Tools needed:
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).
The Fiddler
Ever hear Charlie Daniels “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” song? Well if you have a pulse and are over the age of twelve then you probably have. To make a long story short I thought I would do a sculpture based off of that song. Not that it is my favorite song in the world or that I’m Charlie Daniels number one fan (although I do think it is a pretty cool song), I just thought it would make an interesting sculpture.
I’m going to put together a series of tutorials for this sculpture where you can see step by step how the sculpture is created. Now keep in mind that at first the sculpture is not going to look like much but over time, as the series progresses, you should be able to see how I turn a block of clay into a unique piece of art. I think this will be a fun lesson for everyone and a great way to see how a sculpture comes to life. I will add links to the different lessons below so bookmark this site and come back frequently to see the latest lessons. It takes me over 100 hours to complete a sculpture so don’t expect this thing to be completed over night 
Stop the press, isn’t this site suppose to be about polymer clay sculpting, after all the name of the site is Polymer Clay Fan! Yes you have read the title to this post correctly, I’ve started playing with wax lately and although I’m still wet behind the ears I thought why not put together a little post to compare the two mediums. I’m sure a few diehard polymer clay artists may snub their nose at this post but I recommend reading through the entire article before jumping to a conclusion. This isn’t an article about discrediting wax or even polymer clay, it is just my observation of the positives and negatives the two different mediums have to offer.
How long have you been sculpting: As of writing this a little over 4 1/2 years (started in late November 2003)
How did you learn to sculpt (any formal education)? Self-taught. Just bought some clay and started playing with it.
Do you make a living as an artist? Nope, went to school to get a BBA in Management Information Systems because I bought into the whole “starving artist” mentality. I’m working on undoing that mentality 😉
Working on the left arm
I think the theme for my latest tutorials is going to be about fixing mistakes. I did not do a very good job with the armature at the beginning of this sculpture and I am now paying for it. Basically the clay is too heavy for the shoulder and arm to support all of the weight. I’m now having issues where the shoulder is splitting in half because of the weight of the arm and the fiddle.
Right now the only way that I see to resolve this issue is to bake the shoulder and arm as one piece and attach it to the Fiddler’s torso at a later time. Most likely I’ll still have a weight issue at the point I attach the arm at so my workaround for that will be to partially bake the entire area where the shoulder attaches to (I’ll cover that in more detail later on)
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Nothing special, just a self-taught sculptor having fun with my art and showing all of you the tips and tricks I use to create my own artwork
