Polymer Clay Fan

We know how difficult it is to come up with new and yet inexpensive ideas for classroom art projects. Our staff is always on the alert for great new ideas (if you have any, let us know! We are always adding to our library of free downloadable lesson plans). Our art lesson plans are either in PDF format or PowerPoint presentations, and they can be downloaded absolutely free. For elementary school students there are easy-to-follow explanations of lithography; portrait sculpture in clay; dinosaur bone clay relief sculpture; polymer clay bead making; prehistoric cave art; and even making clay skulls to celebrate Mexico’s Day of the Dead. For high school students there are more advanced art projects such as multi-color printing; sculpting insects with polymer clay; relief sculpture; making reproductions of Chinese vessels in bronze; sculpting life sized heads and ceramic self-portraits. There is also an Introduction to Glass in the Classroom; making fused and slumped warm glass objects d’art; glass casting; and glass jewelry making. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 51% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

In the last tutorial I briefly went over how I like to draw out a rough outline of the different muscles. I use this trick on quite a few places on the body and it really helps be understand and build out the individual shapes. For example, I like to draw out the individual muscles when I sculpt muscular arms and very lean abs. The back also has a lot going on so even though my outline is pretty rough it still helps me break down the back into the individual muscles (or shapes).

The first step is to separate my back into two halves. Now you can’t just simply carve a line down the center of the back, otherwise your sculpture will look like it has a canon going down the center of it. To make the back look more natural I will blend the two halves of the large back muscles (latissimus dorsi) into the area of where the spine is located. This task is easily accomplished by carving the center edges of the back until it gently slopes to the spine. I keep working both halves of the back until I get a look that I am happy with. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 31% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Now that the sculpting for the belly button and the stomach are now complete I can move on and start adding back the scars to the front of my torso. Keep in mind that I still need to work on sculpting the back and the sides of the torso but the front part is pretty much complete. Some people may advise that you wait until the entire torso is completed before adding the details like the scars but I like to work a little differently. Adding the scars now helps give me an overall feel for the piece and the patterns that I use for the torso will help me come up with the designs I end up deciding to use o the rest of the body.

Once the scars have been added back I will start working on sculpting the back and then add scars to there as well. From there I’ll move onto finishing the arms and hands. I’ll save the textures for the skin details towards the end since I want it to be consistent over the entire sculpture. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 13% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Caliper

If you ever plan to sculpt anything that is symmetrical in design then a caliper is a must. Calipers are an important sculpting tool because they help you accurately measure of length, width and distance of the different pieces that make up a sculpture. There may be some sculptors out there that can accurately sculpt a symmetrical design by sight alone but for us mere mortals the caliper is a must have tool.

If you have been sculpting for some time and do not own a caliper, there is a very strong chance that at one time or another you still have used a very crude and basic caliper tool. What I’m talking about is your thumb and index finger. Have you ever sculpted an arm on one side of the body and use your thumb and index finger to measure the length so that you could accurately match it to the arm on the other side of the body? How about when you sculpt a face or a torse, are you like me and draw a center line seperating the object into two? Did you ever use a string, a ruler or your fingers to check that both halves of the face or torso were even in both the width, length and thickness?

If you answered yes to any of these questions then you have turned your thumb and index finger into a very crude caliper. The problem with the “homemade” version of caliper is that it doesn’t always provide the most accurate results. A professional caliper eliminates the guessing game and gives the artist the ability to take measurements with ease.  Unlike some of the other tools that are required for sculpting, this is really only a onetime investment.  You wont use it all the time but it is a real gem in those situations when an accurate measurement is needed. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 12% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

This lesson is a continuation from the last one in the sense that I’m still working on adding and subtracting clay here and there to finalize the shape of the breast. The nice thing about sculpting with a polymer clay like Super Sculpey is that you can easily smooth out the clay with just your fingers. I’ve included some pictures below where I show how I shaped and smoothed out my sculpture using my thumb. It is quick and easy to do and I try to use my fingers as much as possible when smoothing out larger areas in the clay (belly, back, arms, etc).

Keep in mind that you if you can get the sculpture perfectly smooth with your fingers you can always use rubbing alcohol and a brush to smooth out the clay even more. The particular sculpture will end up having a texture to it by the time I’m done so my main goal at this point is to just get the shapes down. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

From time to time I plan to write a post highlighting the artists that have had a positive influence on my own artwork. As I have stated many times before I for the most part am a self-taught sculptor. I’ve never taken a formal sculpting class and most of the techniques that I have learned up to now have been through a lot of trial and error (in some cases mostly error) and various forums and tutorials from other websites on the web. I still believe that I have a long ways to go before I become the skilled artist that I want to be, however I have progressed a lot over the past few years. I owe that progress to a lot of tutorials from a handful of sculptors that are out there today.

When I first started sculpting in November of 2003 the only clay that I was familiar with or even knew existed at that time was the water based clays. I had never even heard of polymer clay and naturally when I started my sculpting journey I picked right up from where I left off during my high school art experience. I did a brief two to three week sculpting project back in high school so I was already familiar with some of the basics for sculpting with water based clays (i.e. How to remove the air bubbles, making the sculpture hollow, firing the sculpture in a kiln but nothing on how to sculpt different forms, etc). Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 7% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

OK, first off my apologies. It has been a little over two years since I’ve updated this project so I’m having to go through old pictures to piece it back together. This is still an unfinished sculpture so I will try to schedule time to work on it in-between my current projects. The good news is that it shows the durability of polymer clay. You can set it aside for a couple of years and in most cases pick up from where you left off.

As I commented in a previous post, I initially started out planning only to create a bust for this figure. I ended up changing my mind along the way and decided to do a full figure instead. In order to make this work a makeshift armature was needed to build out the lower half of the sculpture.

Ideally the best case scenario is to build out the armature for the entire figure from the beginning but we do not live in a world of best case scenarios. My designs are usually dynamic in that they change throughout the sculpting process. This tutorial is a good example on how I like to try and figure out how to “make something work” even after the original plans have changed.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 7% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 19% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

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

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 11% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

After the silicone in the second half of our mold box has cured it is time to remove our sculpture from the mold.  I’ll go ahead and warn you ahead of time that in most cases your sculpture, or at least part of it, will get destroyed in the process.  The steps for this lesson is documented below.

1. Remove the mold from the X-acto board mold box.  Carefully separate the two mold halves.
2. If any of the silicone is sticking together (an area that was not covered with Vaseline), use an razor blade to carefully cut the silicone.
3. Remove the sculpture from the mold Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 8% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!