First time sculpting

Hi everyone!

After years of working on faceups, I've finally started sculpting something from scratch. So knowing that I'm a total newbie, I thought I might ask some general opinions, as well as one specific thing.

So here's my head so far:

aspen08 by AirimirOfGondor, on Flickr

aspen09 by AirimirOfGondor, on Flickr

I used a tin foil ball for the center, and I'm using Das terracotta clay (which I just happened to have around :3). So far, I think I'm making nice progress - I think the mouth, nose, chin, and cheek hollows are shaped OK, and relatively even.

But I am wondering - are the nose/mouth too low on the face? I still need to sand some things down to smooth things out, so I think the size will be good, but the eye sockets look way too high up right now.

Do they look too high to anyone else? Do you think adding the eyelids will change how the positioning looks?

Thanks for taking a look!

 

Thanks for your input, ElysionGear! I popped a few wigs on him so far, and I definitely agree that the forehead is a little wimpy. :3

I think my plan will be, to add on the front and top of his forehead, and then see what I can work with after it has a good shape.

I have sanded down the nose and mouth a bit, so that's shaped a little differently now.

aspen11 by AirimirOfGondor, on Flickr

 

Thanks deadish! I was working on the forehead a little more today, and I think it already look much better.

aspen13 by AirimirOfGondor, on Flickr

I think it could still be a little bigger, so I'll probably work on that some more next. And then the back-sides of his head are a little too big, and uneven, so that is also looking strange, since he doesn't have any ears yet. :3 (My fingers are covering that up in that photo, lol)

 

So I've been working on this guy on-and-off for a few months now. After my last post I built up his forehead, hollowed out his head, carved out some eyewells, gave him some eyelids, made a seat for an s-hook inside the head, modified the bridge of his nose, and changed the underside of his neck/chin/etc. And then after a break of a month or so, I finally moved on to his ears. :3

Ears:
IMG_20170419_194413_234 by AirimirOfGondor, on Flickr

IMG_20170419_194413_231 by AirimirOfGondor, on Flickr

They need a little work - I'm hoping that I can smooth them out OK, which will hopefully make them look nicer. But they are both misaligned on his head, so I think I'm going to have to cut them off and position them differently. I think I'll need to shift them both back a little more, and angle the lobe forward/top back to make them look less unnatural. :P

But the break was helpful I think - it gave me some time away, and I came back with fresh eyes. I see a few things that I still need to fix, like his forehead still looks a little short, the areas under his eyes look a little too hollow, his brow is uneven, and I still need to fix those lips, lol, he still kind of looks like he has a mouth guard in. XD
IMG_20170427_174837_896 by AirimirOfGondor, on Flickr

 

^_^;;; I actually watch a lot of TV while working, so I was looking at faces while sculpting the majority of his head, then I looked up real people ears while working on those. I think I'll be cutting those off to reposition them today, then maybe lips a little later. And photos of lips should help me out a lot too - I think they looked better before, but then they got wonky. XD