How to clay sculpt a human figure?

Building a connection between your eyes, limbs, head, and fingers are one of the most important aspects for creating a realistic human figure. Before getting into the details, for a beginner, it is important to start practicing with clay as much as possible, preferably reusable polymer clay. Choosing the tools for sculpting is as important as the clay itself. For finer and coarser adjustments, different knives and tools are used. For creating a large 3D shaped model, you need the help of an armature. This is the internal foundation that makes a sculpture strong and functional. In order to keep the clay stick together, you’ll need to use water occasionally. Keeping a jar of water and cloth next to your art piece can help you shape the figure as and when needed. Having a balanced sculpture without trying to be symmetrical is the actual measure of success in clay sculpting.

Why sculpting classes from ipassio?

Top sculptors from all around the world offer live lessons at ipassio. Based on the student’s requirements and level of knowledge, our teachers will guide them to sculpt better. Depending on the teacher, you’ll be briefed on various types of sculpting, be it clay, ceramic, marble or stone sculpting. With extensive knowledge on sculpting, teachers will help you understand different types of clay, especially polymer clay which behaves much different from natural water-based clay. You can access classes from renowned sculptors conveniently from the comfort of your home.

Topics to be covered

Students will be taught how to choose the right type of clay. Before beginning to sculpt a model, teachers show how to use the power of observation to identify detailed features of a character. Having proportions and placements marked out for students will be critical to sculpt better. For sculpting human figurines, especially heads, it is important to place smaller features with precision and knowledge of symmetry. Different tools such as dentist and ball stylus tools will help to sculpt finer details to the project.

Types of sculpting materials and tools

Popular types of materials used in sculpting 3-dimensional figures are water-based clay, plastilina and wax. Special types of polymer clay can also be used which are very user-friendly. Plastilina is an oil and wax based clay; self-hardening clay has a ceramic body with natural additives and pottery or ceramic clay is made from clay base and additional components. There are many types of sculpting tools, which can be used for carving, cutting, scraping, shaping, smoothing and detailing. Most common tools used for cutting and scraping are wire end modeling tools and hardwood modeling tools. Size of the tools you choose to sculpt will be determined by the size of the model.