What kind of material?

[Calle_Sandell]

I though it would be fun to try to make some of my own sculpts...:o
Never to late to...
But don't know what kind of material you use...

Any suggestion? maby someone could tell me where you can buy that stuff "scotty" is using!
My goal is to become half as good as scott., then I will be pretty good!!:rolleyes:

Well, have a nice day:o

[Scotty]

HEY! Glad to hear that you wanna give 'er a go. I would say that the best medium to start in would be Super Sculpey.

http://www.hiekoo-creations.nl/shop/IMAGE%5CSuperSculpey%5Css1-a.jpg

The stuff stays malible until you harden it in an oven, and holds detail well. I suggest that you mix some black and white sculpey 3 into the 1 pound of Super Sculpey to make it grey. (Makes it easier to see what your doing) You should be able to find this stuff at you local arts and crafts store. NEXT...you must make an armature of some kind out of wire and foil. (because sculpey doesn't stand well without a skeleton) Take the wire and bend and twist it into the shape you want, and use the foil to bulk up the areas tightly where you would normally need to use lots of clay. (Like the chest area, head, thick thighs...whatever) Then, take a thinner guage of wire and wrap the whole thing tightly with that. This will hold the thing together and make the clay "hold" better. You should "anchor" it to a base like a piece of wood so that it stay relatively still for you. Here's an example of the one I made for my Lizard Rider sculpt to help you visualize what I mean. (Note that the feet loops go right into the holes I made in the base)

http://www.brainbug.ca/albums/album23/Reptile_Armature_WEB.jpg

Then start adding your clay and practice...Practice, PRACTICE! I know it's a lot to take in, but take your time. Be patient and take as long as you need to get it looking right. Look up lots of reference pictures online to go by. (they are invaluable)

Good luck, and feel free to e-mail me with any questions.:woo

SCOTTY
BRAINBUG.CA

[Calle_Sandell]

Hey Scotty!!
Thanks alot for the info!:D

I will sure give it a go! Do you have a suggestion on what to start to sculpt? I mean, Should I start sculpting animals, human.. or What?

And I suppose you start adding clay from the bottom and up?

[Scotty]

No problem. Try picking out an animal that you like first maybe. There's lots of references online if you google the specific animal you want to sculpt. I usually start with the torso, and work my way out. #1 thing is...make sure you block in your shapes first, and just get the whole thing covered in clay. Then you start to detail.....add/subtract where you need to...and so on.:)

[Calle_Sandell]

Heard that "Sculpey" will crack after 5 years!?!?:confused:

Is that true?

Can anyone say what doesn' crack?

[Arannz]

Give it a bake in the oven....

Super Sculpey can be cooked nice and hard at fairly low temperatures in a conventional home oven - the instructions are on the box. Should last much longer that way.

The only way to get something to last a reeeeeeeaaaaaaallllllly long time is to make a mold of it and cast it in resin or something else that is equally 'long lived'!

[Mookeylama]

great info! i'm thinking of trying my hand at this too. maybe do some head sculpts for 1/6 figures and the like. anyway, how easy/hard is it to make molds and cast finished pieces in resin?


and i thought i heard of a clay/material that hardens without being baked?

[Arannz]

There are definitely air-hardening clays around, but I have no experience with them myself. The vast majority of sculptors doing small scale stuff like 1/6th or 1/8th scale, use super sculpey or a wax based product called castilene. Super sculpey is easier to learn to use than castilene and doesn't require the same specialised equipment. Super sculpey is definitely the best medium to start with in my opinion. You can shape it with practically anything you can find from knitting needles to rocks! No need to get expensive sculpting tools, although dental tools are great if you can get hold of some old ones.

[Arannz]

There are a lot of different ways to mold and cast copies of a sculpt. The choice really depends on a number of factors such as the size and complexity of the original piece, how much time and money you want to invest in the process, how many copies you want to make, what you want the copies to be made from, and how perfect you want the end result to be.

I've only made one mold myself and around 20 castings from it, so I'm certainly no expert, but there is a great tutorial for making two-part molds on Dan Perez' website (along with tutorials about clay and sculpting):

http://www.danperezstudios.com/workshop.htm

The method he describes there for making a two part mold doesn't require any fancy equipment to remove airbubbles from the mold rubber, which makes it a great technique for beginners (like me) and those on a tight budget (me again!)! I used it with great success for making my first mold.

The best place to learn a ton of stuff is the Clubhouse forum:

www.theclubhouse1.net

You need to register to read anything, but numerous pro sculptors (including Sideshow's own Andy Bergholtz) post there regularly with stuff they are working on and answer many questions.

[Scotty]

I concur...man, if you are looking for an online sculpting home...the Clubhouse is it. It's been mine for years now...great place...guys like Andy Bergholtz, Tony Cipriano, and Ray Villafane....etc...are always willing to help. I use Castilene myself a LOT, but I do recommend you stick to Super Sculpey at first as I initially stated. Above all...HAVE FUN!:joy