Our boy is still lacking an identity in the form of a face, so let’s deal with that next.
We have already seen that if the head is too small the whole figure looks wrong. That said, we have to remind ourselves that it’s a work in progress and we are deliberately keeping him on the slim side for now, so it’s important to be constantly comparing to our reference figure., and if anything his head should probably look a little too big at this stage
Faces, hands and feet are the hardest things to sculpt at any scale, so if you want to cheat them no-one will judge you for it. If this SBS just gives you the confidence to change the creases on an arm then that’s brilliant.
But I need to do a head from scratch if he’s going to be marketed, so here’s my method. I have to admit that every face I make is a genuine discovery to me. I don’t have the skills to control how they end up looking, and as long as they don’t look like mutants I’m invariably satisfied. I have occasionally done portraits at small scales (although not as small as this) and they are an absolute killer!
This is a pretty epic and picture-heavy post so I have split it into 3 parts. The actual process shouldn’t take you much more than an hour, though, if that.
Again we need an armature and in this case I am experimenting with using a mapping pin. I’ve put it on to a piece of brass rod rather than use the steel pin itself as it’s longer. Here it is next to the Tommy’s War head I am using for size comparison (and as a ‘gold standard’ to aspire to).
It needs to be small enough so that when we add the putty it doesn't make the head oversized.
I usually make a few ‘skulls’ with any spare Milliput but I used all my stock up recently on these boys.
I started to make these a one at a time while ago at the beginning of the idea, initially trying to do a representation of our Grandad (I gave up on that…)and then just recently I did a whole batch of them in the hope that I could get a rhythm going; and it does help actually. By the last couple I felt like I knew what I was doing! If you really want to get good at this it's a good way of making quick progress. I wasn’t expecting to do a SBS at the time so I didn’t take any WIP pics.
Except this one.
It’s important to find some oven-proof method of holding them while they cook, and crocodile clips was my answer. My first attempt fell over because I used a lump of Bees Putty to stand it in, not realising that the heat makes it soft before it goes hard….My boy had a massive flat on the side of his head like a cartoon character hitting a wall. I will have to use him as a casualty with a big bandage in a future diorama…..
We add the putty to the skull armature in small pieces like before, otherwise our face will move around under our tools and we will give up in despair! I am using TRIPPLE Firm Bees Putty for this, so it’s not too squishy. I’ve deliberately left the back of the cranium area free for now because it helps with defining the lower jaw.
Constantly comparing to the reference head for size
I use a soft cone-shaped silicon clay shaper for this part, just pushing and prodding and rolling the clay into shape.
Then a sharper tool to position the mouth- sometimes I use a scalpel.
So far the nose has just been what’s left behind by pushing in the eye sockets and defining the cheekbones, but it’s not quite enough so I’ve added a tiny bit more clay here.
It’s important to remember that the face is not flat but quite 3 dimensional - the eye sockets especially need to follow back with the curvature of the skull.
Here I am using a chisel-pointed silicon tool to help define the nostrils and the sides of the nose.
Here I have added a tiny bit of clay for the lower lip
I will blend that in with the conical silicon shaper
And back to the reference head to check
I make sure I repeat every operation on the other side of the face immediately to try to maintain symmetry. We know that faces are not precisely symmetrical, but they are generally not lop-sided either, so it’s best to be safe. I’ve never managed perfect symmetry anyway so it’s hardly a worry….
Now for the eyes, always tricky.
I add a tiny ball of clay to the socket
I make the sockets quite deep, in fact you can see the pink of the armature underneath, so I can’t go any deeper without carving.
I blend the clay with a chisel shaper to start with
Define the eyelid with a sharper tool
He’s looking a bit bug-eyed, so I add some clay for his lower lid and cheek
Blend that in with the conical shaper
It’s not there yet but I need to repeat the process on the other side before it gets too far ahead of me
Now at least he has 2 eyes!
I think I’d better start another post, this one’s getting a bit heavy
thanks for watching
Neil