How I Study Sculpting

Hey everyone, welcome back to my channel. So this week I wanted to share how I study with you all in hopes of showing a bit more of my process to maybe help somebody else out there. Because there's so many things I want to work on, it's impossible to learn them all in one go. So every time I do a study, I start with step one. Make a study goal. This week I wanted to focus on likeness while also tackling different textures like hair and clothing. And I also wanted to figure out how to smooth clay because last week using my fingers and a silicone tool didn't give me the finish I wanted exactly. Before I start, I also make a list of things I want to improve on. While I was sculpting Pennywise, I noticed I had trouble getting depth in the eyes and eye sockets. So that's something I want to keep in mind during this one. Since this week is strictly a study, I'm going to use plasticine clay so that I can break it down and reuse it. And since this is a study on sculpting and not the character design portion, I decided to just use one I found online. I chose this photo in particular because there were pictures of the sculpt in progress. So I had more help figuring it out as I went along. So I began. And as I did with my last sculpt, I focused on the overall shape when building the base. I referred back to the knowledge I got from Proko, different courses I've taken, and different YouTube videos, along with practice over the years on how to form a basic head. Next time, I think I'll start with the Loomis method, especially since I want to try to get likeness down. And it really helps with proportions when you're sculpting, same as it does when you draw. But for this, I just made a basic egg shape for the head and scooped out the eyes, keeping in mind that I want to achieve more depth in the eyes, learning from last week. So I really went for it this time. Step two. Be mindful. Meaning, I pay attention to what I'm doing and I try to be as intentional as possible with everything I'm doing. I take notes of things I notice and I am constantly looking at my reference photo. I'm distilling the sculpture down to its most basic forms and starting with almost a skull underneath and envisioning the shapes on top of it. For this, I used pearl beads I had on hand for the eyes because I was too lazy to make my own. And I constantly spin the sculpt around, as you can see in the video, checking from all angles. Tip I have is using a mirror that you have on hand. Look at the sculpt through the mirror at different angles. Similar to the way artists flip their canvas for digital drawing or drawing in general, you tend to see mistakes a little bit easier and places where the proportion isn't quite right when you see it through a mirror. I don't know why our brain kind of notices things when things are flipped. Another tip with studies. Try to go faster than normal with doing a study. Really don't be precious with it. I don't like to take too much time on studies because I think the point of studying is to mileage as opposed to finished pieces. Something I noticed immediately actually was sculpting also requires gesture the same way drawing does. You'll see later that my end product doesn't compare to the original because I didn't pay attention to the gesture. If you look at the reference, the face, even though it's looking on, has that character because there's an s-curve gesture inside it. Or at least there's a flow moving down like a wave. While I did tilt the head of my sculpt slightly so that it wouldn't be straight on, I should have exaggerated it more and really paid attention to the overall gesture. I started working on the hair and this was a struggle for me. I tried to understand what I wasn't understanding and I think I got it. I think that when I lay hair down, I'm laying pieces down that are way too small that are not contributing to the overall shape of the hair. Hair looks to be sculpted in clumps, then refined, then supplemented with small pieces on top. I think I lacked focusing on the overall shape that the hair made. It's easier when you work in sections that are bigger and then end in sections that are smaller. I also had trouble describing plane changes or showing the direction of something. For example, when the hair is twisting upon itself, this is something that I have trouble with when I draw as well. I noticed it when I had to do a ribbon drawing exercise for class. It's difficult for me to show the direction the ribbon is moving and in this case, which direction the hair on his mustache was moving. Step three when studying, use every resource available. Not only do I have my reference close by, but as soon as I feel stumped on something, I immediately run to YouTube and try to find a solution. For smoothing the clay, when I realized my finger and my tools weren't enough to smooth it the way I wanted, I looked up other techniques artists use. I've seen some using a heat gun or a torch to smooth the surface since plasticine is oil-based and it should melt and create a smooth texture. Since I didn't have a heat gun or a torch, I tried out my blow dryer and this really helped, but then I was able to learn how quickly things can go wrong if I'm not paying attention. I also used reference photos of other sculptures that had similar features of what I was trying to do and just utilized the internet in general. The clothes ended up being pretty fun for me and straightforward as well. If I spent more time, I would have probably tried to find different things around the house that I could imprint on the clay to give it some texture to mimic fabric, but that's something I can do later and I wanted to finish this because it was a quick study. Step four, the step I overkill sometimes, the critique. I found that critique is definitely a balance. I can easily get too self-deprecating and I'm sure artists out there could relate. We are our worst critics sometimes and we can discourage ourselves too much where it's no longer helpful and hinders us to progress. So every time I make something I keep it at three critiques and three critiques only. For this, I noticed that my gesture would have very much elevated the entire sculpt. Sculpting the eyelids and the eyes is still something that I need to work on. And of course as I mentioned describing plane changes and making overall shapes better and clearer next time is something that I should definitely focus on. Step five, and this one is very important for me and for artists out there who lack confidence within themselves as an artist. I list three things I like about my piece. Me in particular, I need to build better confidence as an artist. I like that this is another thing that I finished because it's more evidence that I am actually a person that finishes things. I like how the hair turned out. I think some of the hair turned out pretty cool and I like how when I look at it, it is not that it is not extremely far off to what the original reference was. So my goal for likeness, I think I got pretty close to. So that is how I study. I hope this helps some of you out there. If anything, I hope you just enjoyed watching the process. Thank you for watching and I will see you in the next video.