Back to Basics (Skull)

 Many of you have asked about details on the skull so here it is.
This skull will be about 1-1/4" high.
Start with a ball of clay about 1" in diameter.
** If you have hot hands you may want to let the clay rest between steps!

 Press the sides of the ball in slightly.

Cut the front off the ball.

 Cut a notch out of the lower back of the ball.

Use a flat tool to round off the front of the ball on both sides where you made the cut.

Form a depression across the face of the ball at the halfway point from top to bottom.

Form the eye sockets with a rounded tool. This is a burnishing tool for applying stencils. The sockets will be on the depression you just made. Press in to the skull and pull slightly down and toward the sides. The socket needs to fit a 6mm bead or your pre-made eye.

Use a sculpting tool, flat blade or burnishing tool to flatten the area under the eye socket. I use the burnishing tool so the bottom of the eye socket will have a rounded ridge.

Work your tool around the outside of the socket to depress the skull and leave a ridge around the socket.

This is the finished side with planes flattened and ridge raised.

Insert the eyes or beads into the skull. The eyes should have one eye width between them. Push out or in depending on which you need to achieve this.
Do not embed them deeply. If you leave them raised from the skull, you can have forward set eyes in the finished sculpture. If you want deep set eyes, it is better to add more clay when you sculpt the face.

 Measure from center to center on the eyes. Use that same measurement to mark the mouth location by measuring down the face from the center of the eye.
Cut the mouth into the clay.
** If you do not want an open mouth, simply score this line across the face.
The head should be stuck on a skewer or similar support at some time during the process so you can hold it without adding heat to the clay and so you can attach it to the armature of the torso later.

Come in halfway from the front of the skull to the notch we cut out earlier and and cut or score a line from the mouth up the jaw to a point about even with the bottom of the eyeball.
Continue the notch we cut earlier (or score along the same line) from the back of the jaw to the vertical line we just made. This will let the lower jaw separate from the skull. If you want a closed mouth do not bother with this step of separating but just score the lower jaw in place.

 Use a sculpting tool or your fingers to gently reshape any distortion which cutting or scoring may have made on  the jaws.
This is what a finished skull should look like for most of your adult sculptures. You can adjust the skull for Negroid and Mongoloid features if you want. I find it easier to make one type of generic skull then alter the features in the face sculpting stages unless the mouth is open and you need to see the teeth.

 Finished skull from the front.
Teeth can be applied to the front of this skull at any time either before curing, after curing, or even after the face is done if you only see a little bit of the teeth.

 If you want an open mouth the next step is to separate the jaw and shape the oral cavity in the palate and lower jaw. Teeth can be added now, after curing, or even after the face is done if you want.

TEETH: If you are setting teeth into an open mouth before sculpting the face you will need to remove the height of the teeth from the upper and lower jaws. This makes the face shorter as shown in this image.
the skull should be cured before adding teeth or sculpting the face.
Next: Teeth.
Have a great day!