Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Child face

Before I work on the armature for the set of figures, I want to get my child's face roughed in as well to be sure my finished sizes of child and demon will work together.
Once again I will start with a smaller skull than my normal 12" figure uses and cut down the lower jaw to make it more child-like.
The child's skull is on the right. Notice the smaller lower jaw and increased cranium.















 The child's face follows the same steps as the demon.
Add a layer of clay to the forehead.
Cover the sides of the face with conditioned clay keeping the nose area thinner than the cheeks.















Wrap any extra clay around the bottom of the jaw.
 A small pyramid-shaped piece of clay is added to the nose area and seamed into the facial plane.
 The mouth indent is made below the nose.
On the child's face, the eyes are located about halfway down the face from the top of the head. The nose and mouth separate the lower half of the face from the eyes to the chin into thirds.

This is all the detailing we need for now. More will follow as the figure progresses and tells me what the finished face should look like.
Have a great day!
Mark

7 comments:

  1. Hello,
    I found your blog a few weeks ago. Thank you so much for posting this stuff. A question: How long, typically, to finish a face/head? Do you cure it right away? I've been working on faces and hands. After a few days, they get dried and cracked, and I have to start over.
    Thank you, again,
    Fran

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  2. Fran, what kind of clay are you using? Mark uses polymer clay. Also, if you leave polymer clay on wood or on baked clay, it will tend to dry out the fresh (uncured) clay. This has been my experience with polymer. Maybe someone else can help or has other advice. Hope this helps.

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  3. Fran, are you using pottery clay, if so you need to keep it in air tight container wrapped with a damp cloth until you are finished, and then let it dry slowly.

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  4. Hello,
    Thank you both for the response. I've been using Polymer clay. Trying different types. I wasn't happy with Sculpey Three or Premo. As I worked on the pieces, it seemed the clay wanted to get back to it's original shape. It would lose the detail. Super Sculpey and Prosculpt have a better response. I can only work on things one or two hours, a few days a week. So, it takes a few days to complete a head. I know Mr. Johnson recommends curing in about 12 hours. I was wondering if you extend that, or is there another product with better 'table' life. Thank you, so much.
    Fran

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  5. Hi Fran,
    that's exactly my experience as well. The only advice I can give you is to put the unfinished piece in an airtight zipper bag or wrap it in "see through film" to keep edibles fresh (sorry don't now the English name for it).

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  6. Fran, the other answers are correct. I sculpt a figure from start to finish in about two days so I cure right away. The clay loses oils as it sits out in the open so keep it sealed and still cure ASAP or you will get cracks. I will post a little thing on head cracking right now.

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  7. Thank you so much for letting us know some of your precious tips. I am a beginner, and I am happy I found your website. Actually I follow you through Facebook but never visited your site. Glad I did. I think I'll come back when I will sculpt again. Mhhh, tomorrow maybe ;D I'm sure I'll learn more. Thank you thank you and keep the great work;

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