January 2, 2010 - 4:15pm — Moogie4
Hmmm... Returning here has made me rethink an old hobby...
A few years ago I became interested in learning clay modelling, so that I could maybe commission custom little figurines for people here, and maybe even build up a business of sorts around it if I eventually became skilled enough. I'm artistic by nature, but I've never been good enough to become professional in any medium of art. I'm good at drawing, but not fantastic. It's my biggest flaw; I can do lots of things great, but nothing *amazing* that would set me apart and make me actually employable for those skills.
But I had never tried modelling before and knew I was capable of learning how, and the interest and enthusiasm was there. TEF was the inspiration for this. That Christmas, I asked for (and received) a rudimentary set of clays and paints to experiment with.
I made and finished one figure; a deer, which ironically wasn't TEF related at all. By this time I was already drifting away from the Forest and doing other things. The deer was actually something from a game I was playing at the time.
It was difficult. It didn't turn out well. And unfortunately, the combination of leaving the Forest and having such a hard time with the clays (more than I had expected due to their poor quality), I was more than unhappy with the result. I gave up then and there.
But looking at it now, sitting on my shelf as it has done for years after I abandoned the hobby... for a first try, it's actually... not that bad. In fact, considering I followed no tutorials, had no help, no training, no experience, no tips and horrible air-hardening clay that was a nightmare to work with, it's actually... pretty good!
This has only just hit me. Returning here has made me realise that perhaps I was wrong to abandon it so quickly. I could be good at this, if only I worked at it, took it seriously. Hmm...
I'm going to need encouragement and help. I think I'll go find some places to ask for tips, and then try this out again.
Oh I think this is a
I wish you luck hun! This is something I also hope to do <3
You should upload a picture
The wireframe was this: I
The wireframe was this:
I quickly discovered that I should have bulked it up before applying the clay, as 1) I was using way too much clay for such a tiny thing, and 2) I couldn't define the shape of the body without it, no matter how hard I tried.
I also shouldn't have put tape on the legs, because they became too fat, resulting in what you see above. They were meant to be much thinner.
As for the paints, they kept getting absorbed... I went over it several times, but by that time I was already giving up and decided not to waste anymore paint trying to make it stick.
Anyone guess what this creature is from, btw?
That looks quite good,
I remember that I hated clay before realizing you can make a "skeleton" for it, and then I was on the roll with it for a while. You´re right about that that you shouldn´t expect perfection on first try, and you shouldn´t think that you don´t want to "waste" your materials by trying to do something because by NOT doing something, you´ll really be wasting it, right? =)
I don´t know if I can give any good advice, but I´ll try. That "skeleton" you made is a good start, but I would have suggested to do a frame for antlers too, they look a bit fragile. If it´s air-drying clay, you still don´t have to make all of the sculpture at once but you can make some "bottom layers" to harden the skeleton and then work more layers from there when it´s dry again. That way you also won´t be messing up details by mistake if they are dry already, just use water to add on more clay. If the clay is hard to work on, it might help to open the package and put it into a container with a good lid, add some water and keep it there. I don´t know how you work with it, but that´s about how I did it. =P
Oh, and for painting, I would suggest doing a "base painting" on it first if it looked bad. Just paint it solid white (or other colour), let it dry out and then add "real" colours. That way the colour of the clay won´t show through so much. Did you use acrylics for it?
Good luck with future sculpting! =)
Looks good Air drying clay
Air drying clay is hard to work with, and i've never tried sculpy though I made a dragon at collage out of normal clay because they had a kiln - http://kovah.deviantart.com/art/Finally-Finnished-Frank-33509131 http://kovah.deviantart.com/art/Frank-closeups-33600634
Try and draw/sketch what you are trying to make before you start so you can match up the anatomy/proportions. It makes things easier i've also found the information in this next link very useful even though its like professional level sculpting.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=18287
I myself have never used
These are some great tips,
My next attempt will definitely be much improved.
To answer your question Spyrre, they were indeed acrylics, but because I was being waste-conscious I was watering them down. This was probably my problem; the water was getting soaked into the clay and making it too damp for the paint to take.
P.S. Kovah, thank you so much for those links -- I'm reading through the one at conceptart.org right now, it's amazing! I'm learning a lot from just following along with the images.
You guys have been awesomely helpful. Much love. <3
No problem There is a whole
There is a whole section dedicated to the 3D stuff, alot of them are wips and if you feel so inclined as to make an account then you could post pictures of your wip there and im sure you will get some tips as you go along