[spooge demon]

By chance I found myself in a sculpture class. Don�t ask how I got there. I have always thought that sculpture would help drawing, but I see that I underestimated how much. So my suggestion is to get some sculpey and some tools, a mirror or an anatomy book and whack away. It will help you so much. (I know you are probably saying "so you are never gonna butcher a nose ever again, eh? I'll be watching and measuring...")

I think this may be for the pros here, though, or if you are very serious and plan to develop your art over a long period of time. If you are really having trouble with basics, maybe your time is best spent on those basics. But the rest of you, you don�t know what you are missing.

[fshock]

I built a wire frame skeleton at work about 2 weeks ago and bought 4 pounds of black modeling clay.
Anyways, turns out the wire frame is now a piece of art on my desk and 2 pounds of the clay are the head and half body of my sci fi creature "Krae".

I think sculpting is great.
As for it helping with my drawing abilities, well lets just say I better go buy another 20 pound block of clay.

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fotoshock

[v1510nAry]

we have had just started sculturing at school, all I can say is u got to work rather quick, and make sure u know what your doing (deatiled Picture) and orthographic projection would do quite good, shame sculpturing isn't 1 of those things u can just go along and do your stuff without thinking

Sculpturing is great allinall hard but great all talented people can do it


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[micke]

I've had this in mind for month. I want to try and sculpt a head and then mold in in a light plastic material, but i'm having a hard time finding out what kind of material i could use to mold it in. Any suggestions?

I used to do this quite often when i was creating rubber-masks. However i'm want to
give it a try again. It's very useful

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Mikael's artwork

[Frost]

Thanks Craig. I guess 3D modeling fits under that category?

[Anthony]

I've been wanting to start sculpting too...I've always done 3d modeling, and my 3d and 2d have helped each other immensely, I can only imagine that real sculpture would too. BTW Craig, I'm probably gonna be moving to Santa Monica late this year. You lucky blighters in Malibu. :]

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-Anthony
Carpe Carpem

[GreenPeach]

Mikael, you might look into marine epoxys. They're toxic but really fun to use.

[Gimbal8]

On somewhat the same subject, I've found that painting miniatures has helped me understand how to paint better. Many of the techniques for painting miniatures, like drybrushing and washes, work because of the detail in the miniature (the high spots that catch the paint when drybrushing and the low spots that the washes sink into).

Since the detail in the miniatures does all the work for me when painting I find it much easier to do then painting 2d. But its good to know that almost all forms of art have something that carries over into another form of art.

[Francis]

That's something that didn't really occur to me, at least not consciously. When I was in architecture school, pretty much every single design project we did involved building many study models (out of paper, mat board, cardboard, basswood, copper flashing, etc.). Thinking about that now, I'm certain that helped me personally in being able to hold a concept of a space or building in my head while trying to draw certain views of it.

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Francis Tsai
TeamGT Studios

Conceptual Design Forum

[Chapel]

Cool Craig. I never really thought about sculpture that way. I always just considered it another medium to play with, but I never thought of the possibility that it would help with drawing. Course now I have no time to get in any classes.

[Pigeon]

Sculpture can also help drawing in the fact that you can make our own models to draw. Sometimes it's hard to conceptualize how an object you're thinking of exists in space. So just take some plasticine, or other quick sculpting material, and model your object, so you can look at it from all sides, and draw it like a still life. Works in a pinch.

-Dean

[micke]

Greenpeah:Thanks alot I'll check it out. I only need to know the Norwegian name for it

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Mikael's artwork

[burn0ut]

hmm thats really cool, i used to build stuff outa this wierd clay when i was a kid, and i accually have it on my shelf still... and it has dust an inch thick on it :O

anyways im goina buy some clay soon and try it out once again!

[fshock]

Micke, try liquid latex.
Its a rubber like substance when it dries.

Thats what they use in movies to make masks,scars,and just about every other deformity...

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fotoshock

[Socar MYLES]

I tried this in my first year of art school, with disastrous (but rather amusing) results.... I had a sculpture teacher I absolutely LOATHED, and she was forever bothering me to work on life-size or larger pieces, rather than the small and (hopefully) tasteful bronze-casts and carvings I had planned to spend the semester doing.

Anyway, I didn't have time or money to use traditional sculpture media on a life-size project, so I ended up just making an enormous wire-sculpture of a standing woman. It was realistic, frightening, and surprisingly heavy. (I note these points for a reason...bear with me, here.)

Well, the semester ended, I got a 'D' in sculpture, and I was left with this infernal...behemoth...of a sculpture-thing. For a while, I had it hanging on my living-room door, dressed in ripped bellbottoms, a shoddy '80s T-shirt, and a horrid blonde wig of mine. But it fell off one day...So I stuck it in my closet, and thought no more of it, until months later, when I was moving to better accommodations. I did not know what to do with this thing. It wouldn't fit in the car; I couldn't take it on the Skytrain, and I sure as HELL wasn't walking around Vancouver with this...THING on my back. So I did what any responsible citizen would do, and tossed it in the alley for the dustmen to pick up.

Later that evening, there were policemen ALL over the alley--someone had seen the thing lying face-down with that godawful wig on its head, and they all thought it was some deader....

Oops.

Well.

Sculpey, you say?

[This message has been edited by Socar MYLES (edited April 10, 2001).]

[RoadMaster]

I've been working with clay and such longer than I have been drawing, so it is kinda the opposite for me. Although recently I've almost stopped using clay completely other than when I'm doing claymation using my digital camera.

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The Elves, EVIL sinister elves...

[spooge demon]

Good story Socar!

I agree with others experiences with sculpting. My drawing and painting has helped me start at a higher level than I might have otherwise.

My Mom has gotten into pottery quite a bit, and has a completely set up gas AND electric kiln. If I ever do anything worth keeping, that is a real convenience.

I think most sculptures in the movies use sculpey, as it can be baked and has no wall thickness problems, and will not crack. It is also pretty stiff, and will hold detail well. Oil based clay will never dry, and is pretty soft, in my limited experience.

Armatures are a pain in the ass. I just hada thought, though. Make the armature out of sculpey and bake it... That should work for the easier stuff.

Try sculpey, Micke, might work, but I am not sure what you have in mind.

[RoadMaster]

isn't sculpley a bit... uhh.. shiny? I've noticed they sort of put a sparley kind of stuff into their smaller ones. Fimo is also a popular brand for small pieces. It's similiar to sculpley but a bit harder, so it's tougher to mould but can have more detail. I keep a bag full of tools in my room, even though I only use about 2 of them

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The Elves, EVIL sinister elves...

[Ben Barker]

There's this stuff called 'Roma Plastilina' that is reasonably cheap and sculpts very well. It's like clay that never dries. It comes in various colors, including white.

[Gimbal8]

I use FIMA. You can get it fairly soft after you knead it for a long while. But by then my hands are too tired to deal with deatils. So I usually build the basic shape out of the FIMA, bake it in the oven at 300 degees for about 15 minutes, and after it cools I add whatever else I need to the shape with more FIMA later on. Then for certain details (in miniature scale that is)I prefer Milliput. Usually hard to find though and it isn't something you would want to use for big projects. Nice thing about Milliput is it is a 2 part epoxy that dries at room temp in a couple hours. It has different properties during different periods of its drying time too. Great stuff.

[Wyatt Turner]

I think all this talk of clay is getting me aroused. with that note, I used to create alot of stuff out of clay, from mechs to cars to Skulls. All fun. I still have some of that stuff around after 6 years of not making any. My mom also has a couple of kilns, and I kept riping out fun stuff with my buddies. But as usual all the good ones POPed in the kiln, damn shitty right.

One of the coolest things that I made, was a Car in clay. after modeled I made a mold of it with plaster of paris. Cool stuff!
I then bought the materials to make a Fiberglass body out of it. Later this car body becam a Remote controll car.

Well that's my take on this subject. Maybe it's time to take a step back and play with clay once more.

y@
_____________________ http://eighthdecay.get.to/

[Bradford]

clay is fun.

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icq:3704871

[micke]

fshock: I remember i used textile-glue for my masks(it's cheaper), but it smelled like cat-piss and i almost got high when working with it. Not to be used in a non-ventilated area like your room in your parents house..it will not stretch as much as latex
but it worked ok.

Spooge demon:
Thanks, i'll check it out. sounds great to sculpt with.
For molding i was thinking of something less heavier than ultracal. Something that will not break if it hits the floor.

[burn0ut]

hey micke do you have any pictures of your mask's layin around?

[micke]

No, i'm sorry. They are all long gone and so are the masks. Textile glue does'nt hold it's shape too good and the paint on it cracked so it's all gone. They were'nt good or anything.

[Bugscratch]

spooge,

you say this might be for the pros in here. Well I'm certainly not a pro but I still think this might help. However I'd appreciate a bit of advice from your side (Or anyone else's side, for that matter).

I consider my skills in drawing from life pretty fair, but not perfect. My skills in drawing from my mind need help though.

Do you think that sculpting would be the right approach ? As you suggested with an anatomy book open....
Or would you say that basic drawing would be more appropriate here ?

I did some sculpting in the past months, and my drawing certainly has improved, but I'm not sure whether the sculpting made it, since at the same time I have been taking a life drawing class, so maybe that did it ?

[This message has been edited by Bugscratch (edited April 15, 2001).]

[S4Sb]

Hey Scratch. Thinking about buying some sculpey? If so, let's share shipping cost.