How to Sculpt the Figure in 4 Steps

I'm Andrew Joseph Keith and this is the figure sculpting fundamentals course and we're finally going to bring everything all together and sculpt a one-third scale sculpture [Music] I'm going to be breaking the process into four steps prepping beginning modeling and finishing in this lesson I'm going to try to touch on a lot of the different principles that we've talked about throughout the course if you have any questions on specific Concepts or principles that I talk about go back and watch the lessons on those Concepts this course has focused primarily on sculpting from photo references but if possible I highly recommend finding a way to sculpt from life you might try to get a group of artists together and then split the cost for a location and model if you have 5 to 10 people that can make the cost of hiring a model much more reasonable there's really no perfect substitute for sculpting from life though I'll be working for photos for this sculpture I'll try to give you suggestions and things to think about for if you were sculpting from a live model prepping the goal of the prepping stage is to get everything ready so that you can jump right into sculpting prepping is especially important if you're working from a live model so that you don't have to waste any of that valuable modeling time we'll want to know what type of pose that we're going to sculpt will it be a seated pose or lying down or a standing pose if we're sculpting a standing pose then we'll probably want a stand to support the Armature if the pose is lying down we might be able to get away with a simple board or a board with a block for a seated pose will we be sculpting a man or a woman if we know this ahead of time then we can make an Armature that has more masculine features like slightly broader shoulders and narrower hips or more feminine features with narrower shoulders wider hips and a smaller rib cage building the Armature ahead of time and placing it on the stand will be a huge Time Saver it's good to have a wire Armature even if the pose is seated or lying down remember that the Armature serves as an internal measuring system for gesture studies I like to use small armatures say 2 12 inches or less for larger studies from Life 22 to 24 inches is a common medium-sized study which is about one-third life-size scale and 32 to 38 inches is about half life size small sculptures come together quicker and use less material working on a smaller scale also forces you to be more precise if you have more time and more materials than working on a large scale can be a fun challenge once we have the Armature and the stand we can start preparing the medium if you're using chavant medium NSP clay or other types of oil and wax based Clays you might want to warm them up to make sure that they're soft and malleable this is especially helpful at the beginning of the sculpture if the clay is too hard and makes it much more difficult and time consuming to build up the mass and shape the clay if you have access to a sculpture stand that can be very useful I prefer to stand if possible when sculpting if you don't have a stand or you just prefer to sit that's fine just make sure to move around the sculpture regularly and step back away from it from time to time once we have our Armature and our stand the clay our tools and a pose then we're ready to begin beginning okay it's time to get started once we have the pose we'll want to capture the gesture with the wire Armature if you need a refresher on how to capture gesture with a wire Armature just go back and watch that lesson on gesture take the time to really study the pose from all angles A good rule of thumb when working from a live model or from photos is to look at your references just as much as or more than you look at your sculpture your eyes should be bouncing back and forth every few seconds a common mistake is working on the sculpture from one angle and then observing the model from a different angle let's make sure that we're observing the model and our sculpture from the same angle when working from a live model we can line the wire Armature up with the model and look directly through the Armature at the model this is a great way to check ourselves and see if we've correctly captured the angles gesture balance and proportions with the wire Armature we can adjust the Armature during any step of the sculpting process but it's easier and quicker to make adjustments at the beginning big adjustments become more difficult and time consuming as we add clay push the gesture at the beginning so that it isn't lost later on if we're not careful as we begin adding clay the gesture will become stiff okay it's time to start adding clay for a standing pose I like to start at the feet and work my way up so that the sculpture is stable start by adding a thin layer of clay over the entire wire Armature once you've covered the wire with Clay check the pose again from all angles let's build a simple skeleton-like figure with the box of the pelvis the Egg of the rib cage and the Loomis head we'll want these primary forms to be thinner than reality but the height of the forms should be very close to Accurate this is because it's easier to change the width of the elements of the figure than it is to change the height of those elements starting this way will help us get a better sense of the angles of each of these primary masses of the body and how they relate to one another keep a center line that will help you check the symmetry of the sculpture throughout the process redraw the center line as often as you need focus on the Bony structures first and make sure that they are designed well and symmetrical these bony structures will become the scaffolding that we can use to build out the softer forms of the muscles and fat fill the safe areas first once we've got the head the rib cage and the pelvis in place there are certain areas that will obviously need to be filled with Clay areas like between the top of the pelvis and the bottom of the rib cage we still want to build thin but we know that this area will need to be filled eventually if we start with the safe areas we are less likely to get stuck or overwhelmed in this way we will start to solidify the primary forms of the body so that we can build the secondary forms and the surface details on top if these structures are off then the sculpture will not look right once these three main structures of the body are worked out we can continue to add clay to build out the mass of the sculpture I like to take little pieces of clay and coil them to create cylinders and then add these to the sculpture slowly to build out the mass I find this to be more effective than adding huge Globs of clay because it forces me to be more thoughtful with each piece if we can lay these coils of clay with the anatomy of the body and mind it also helps us to learn as we sculpt avoid the mistake of getting caught up on one angle or area of the sculpture work evenly from top to bottom from all angles every few minutes we should change our position moving around the figure and stepping back often away from the sculpture to compare it with the model at a distance focus on the silhouette by focusing on the outline of the model we won't get as overwhelmed as we would be if we were focusing on all the internal information we can just focus on creating a thin version of The Contours of the figure from one angle once we've built a skinny silhouette from one view we can then move to the side view and repeat the process give special attention to the negative space around the figure between the legs between the arms and the body or wherever and do this from many angles as we work on the silhouette we should keep in mind how the forms curve around the figure from the front plane to the back plane we don't want a silhouette that's basically a cardboard cutout from one angle instead the forms that make up the Contours should have depth as they move around the figure this is why we first focus on capturing the gesture and the primary mass of the body before we focus on the silhouette these elements give us a solid framework on top of which we can then construct The Contours once we're confident in the Contours that we've built from the front view the side views and the back view we can start to observe the Contours from a three-quarters View and other angles take your time and be patient if you're in a rush to get to the details you'll probably sacrifice some of the primary forms the fastest way to work is with your hands and fingers tools help you slow down the process and be more precise with your marks but at this stage you want to get as close to the correct proportions gesture and masses before using any other tools work evenly as the sculpture starts to get closer to the final finished surface you may be tempted to zero in on one particular area at the cost of other areas don't avoid the hard areas like the hands the feet and the face work evenly so you don't leave the hard areas till the end this doesn't mean you have to make these areas super detailed super fast just add the mass where it needs to be use mannequinization to represent the difficult areas with simple planes think of the hands as long simple rectangles that bend and move this will help us establish the forms gesture and proportions before we worry about the complex features like the fingers Toes or facial features don't lose the center line as you sculpt make sure that your Center Line is correct on both the front and back side if we lose the center line the sculpture will look skewed continually check and recheck the center line This is especially important for a gestural pose that has lots of movement or a twisting motion don't be afraid of sculpting too thin or too fat though I always recommend airing on the side of too thin what's really important is to make sure that the gesture and masses are starting to look more and more like your model from every angle okay now we're to the final stage the finishing stage as we start to get closer to the final amount of mass that we're going for we can start to think about how we want to finish the sculpture but before we worry about that let's step back take breaks regularly walk into another room step back look at the sculpture From a Distance by stepping away and then coming back and looking at your sculpture from a few steps back you will help keep yourself from getting tunnel vision something else that might help is to see what our sculpture looks like in a mirror or take pictures of it on your phone this will often help us see the mistakes that we all become blind to as we sculpt now is the time for the right tool for the job tools help us be more precise than we can be with our fingers as we become better at using specific types of tools they become an extension over hand or fingers and can help us shape the clay in ways that would be impossible with our fingers alone tools cause us to slow down as we slow down and work on the details we should still work evenly try not to work on one area for too long now it's time to decide what kind of finish we'd like on our sculpture smooth textured tool marks it's not as important what texture we choose but we should be consistent with the texture throughout the sculpture getting another person's perspective on your sculpture can also be useful they may help you understand what you might be struggling with be aware that it's very easy for anyone to look at a sculpture and see that something feels off but it's difficult to be able to say what you can do to resolve the problem noticing the problem is one thing but knowing how to solve it that's another thing entirely um it doesn't look right that's not helpful if you can find somebody that's not only able to see what's wrong but can give you suggestions on how you might go about fixing it that's somebody that's good to have around hopefully we've checked the sculpture throughout the whole process and there's no huge changes that need to be made if there are changes that need to be made make them don't be afraid to make big changes later on in the process even if it means that you'll have to redo a lot of the work that you've already done finish important details like the face hands and the feet if you're working small these areas may not need to be super detailed but they should be consistent with the level of detail in other areas of the sculpture don't overwork the anatomy it's common to see beginners exaggerate an anime with muscles that look like kernels of corn on the cob in reality the Transitions and surface forms are usually very subtle continue to refine and Define everything often the only difference between an okay sculpture and a great sculpture is simply time and effort okay there we have it one finished sculpture hopefully this gets you motivated to go out and start sculpting I wish I would have had a similar course like this when I first began sculpting in the premium course there are additional lessons demos of the assignments 3D models and more at proco.com sculpture and I'll see you there foreign

Channel: Proko 3D

Views: 54,919

Keywords: Figure sculpture, how to sculpt, anatomy for artists, figure sculpting, artist, artistic anatomy, sculpting people, art tutorial, sculpting tutorial, learn to sculpt, video tutorial, art school, art class, art training, art blog, art vlog, drawing lesson, art lesson, learning art

Id: jCIGcAz0Snk

Length: 13min 19sec (799 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 08 2023