Norajean.comFACE OFF
Picking the Tute to Suit
See we have two new innovations in just making the head before the
features are even made. Eva made the skull and will cover that with a
thin layer of skin-clay. Karen of ClayAlley is building up the foil
with wire and adding clay to the outside of that.
These two ways will need two different approaches to sculpting. But
before we start sculpting that face I want all of you to form the
outline shape of the face. You do this by not only looking at the
front of the face, but turn it side ways. Does your face have a jaw
line? Does it have a chin or does it go from what would be beneath the
nose to the Adam's apple? A NO-Chin look? Forehead, cheekbones,
jawline, all are part of the silhouette, so check in harsh light where
there's a lot of dark shadow, look at the silhouette in a squint. If
you form these outlines before you get to features you won't mash a
nose or knock them eyeballs cockeyed getting the cheekbone at the
elevation you'd like it to be.
At this point we decide, is this a round face? Is it oval? Is it going
to be a rectangle face? Is it going to have a pointy chin? Is it going
to have a heavy prefrontal lobe like a caveman? Before we put in the
fine details of features let's get the basic shape decided. All these
decisions, along with skin color, size of face, all that is on you and
boy am I glad of that. ;-)
When you have the shape of face, checked the silhouette in harsh
light, squinted and decided I'm just too anal retentive you're ready
to decide which sculpting tutorial is going to suit your needs.
With Karen's clay on the foil and wire frame, she'll need to use the
tutorial that starts out with a grid to lay down the locations of the
features.
Sculpt-Face-Man-Grp
With Eva, since she built the form in the shape of a skull she already
has eyesockets built in, has cheek bones and jaw line already built in
the foil. With a thin layer of clay she can simply cover that skull
and it will have a human form.
The difference is do you make the shape of the skull or do you sculpt
that shape in after the clay is put on.
Ok that Sculpt-Face-Man group there uses a blank ball with a grid to
lay out the location of the features.
In this album, Obchan, we can stack clay scraps on a blank ball,
building up the features like Lois Lane in Bizarro World, and then
smooth the features into the shapes we want.
Obachan-grp
These two tutorials are long. I suggest one have time, take that time,
with clay and clayshaper in hand, and give effort to the different
steps. DO NOT RUSH, this ain't a race. Don't make a face like the ones
I made, make the face you want. It's the technique that's important,
what you do with that technique is totally up to you.
Now I know that these faces in the box I'm going to share with you are
hella large. It's OK to start out large if one is comfortable with
that than the smaller size faces. The focus is to make faces, not make
faces of a particular size.
Full-Face-grp This take a large foil and
clay skull and shows that if you use different clay color for skin. If
you look at the different races you'll see how you need to add or
subtract clay mass for features like Asian eyes and African noses,
Caucasian lips. (My grandsons have all that on their faces...now that
I think of it).
What ever size you choose to work in, what ever way you decide to make
the foundation ball to start with, whether you use a grid and build
from there or stack scraps and smooth down... we're all aiming for
faces. Find the size, form, color of skin and race of face you want to
make. Don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain.... LOL
I'm cracking up because that's what someone called James the other
day, "the man behind the curtain". The curtain is only to keep the sun
from landing on his monitor.
So there it is then, the next step in the process. Make a head on a
stick or a wire, make it small or make it large. Do what ever color
human or fantasy for your faces. It's your sculpting time, just make
it fun for yourself.
Now I'll read the posts from the list.
xoxo
NJ