OT/General How did you learn to sculpt?

Somehow, this was a duplicate post, so I am editing it.

Traditionally, sculpture students were given assignments to sculpt the basic forms:
Cube, Cylinder, Cone, Sphere, and maybe even combinations of those forms.
The forms are supposed to be built up from scratch, using pieces of clay.
Large pieces are used first, to rough-out the general shape of the form.
As the final surface of the form is approached, smaller and smaller bits of clay are used.
The small pellets of clay are pressed into place. There is no 'smearing' of the clay.

Medium grade (#2) oil-clay is a very good material to work with.
It has an amazing response to your touch. It does not dry out.
It does not harden. It can be used over and over again (for the rest of your sculpting life.)

Moving on from the basic forms, try your hand at the various features of the head:
eye, nose, mouth, ears...

Next model several heads. Always work from large to small.
Rough-in the general shape, paying attention to the underlying structure (the skull).
Pay attention to the planes of each form, and so on.

Most traditional sculpture books will help you learn the basics of sculpture.
Modeling the figure in clay is one of the traditional sculpture skills.

(^_^)

 

Thanks for the link to the Human Proportion Calculator.

You can follow tutorials, read books, watch DVDs, and so forth about how to sculpt,
but you will not learn to sculpt until you get some clay and actually make sculpture.

That is the secret. The only way to learn how to sculpt is by sculpting.
When you are just beginning, you may consider using a reusable material?
That way, you are not afraid to make mistakes. Learn is spelled F-A-I-L.

Oil-clay (aka Plastilina) is a non-hardening traditional sculpture material
that does not dry out, and is reusable. Oil-clay is very beginner-friendly.

That said....
Here is a video about sculpting a head in clay (streams from China):
Philippe Faraut Sculpts (110 minutes)
Philippe Faraut's webpage

List of Links to BJD-making tutorials.
Make sure you go and get a free copy of twigling's Zen booklet.

Book posts at Atelier de Poupée blog.

Hopefully helpful?
(^_^)

 

I started sculpting because I wanted to better understand the shapes and mechanics of the human figure. I was primarily a 2D artist then and my background in that probably helped me a lot-- in fact the two skill sets fed off of each other, and when I got better at one, I got better at the other. Did a lot of portrait busts of my favorite historical figures and branched out from there. Then I discovered BJDs and started doing those. Learned on my own for a few years before I finally took an intro sculpting class in college, but that's all the outside help I got-- no books or tutorials, just a lot of trial and error. Mostly error. Believe me, if I had the opportunity to take more classes I would. I learned a lot of bad habits from doing it on my own.

As for tips... the wonderful kwmelvin covered a lot already so I'll just say this, if you're having trouble with the shapes and things, you will get much better much faster if you sculpt a LOT rather than just doing one sculpt and trying to get it right in one go. Each time you make a new doll you take everything you learned from your past dolls, and make a better doll. Also, we here are more than happy to give constructive criticism and encouragement, so post your stuff if you're stuck!

 

I just kind of learned by doing, and like sailor, with trial and error. I would've loved to take some classes or learn from books. I did look up some online tutorials, and there are some decent ones out there, but when you're actually sitting there with a lump of clay and your own two hands (and a very clear mental image of what you want to make that lump of clay into), it really comes down to just figuring it out. I've since switched from clay to polygons, but there was a good year or so I was playing with clay. You may also find it helpful to try a few different types of clay - if you're finding polymer clay tricky to work with, try a good paperclay like Premier, or an epoxy clay like Apoxie Sculpt.

I think the most important thing is to have a good grasp of human anatomy. If you understand the way the proportions of the face and body work, where the muscles and bones are, etc., then you'll have a much greater chance of at least getting a doll that doesn't look inexplicably "wrong." That's all stuff you can find online for free quite easily. I also found it very helpful, once adding the joints, to know the actual range of motion (in degrees) of the human body.

 

Traditional Sculpture

Martha Armstrong-Hand (1920-2004) recommended to her students that they
learn traditional figure sculpture, not doll-making.
The reason for this is that the principles of sculpture can be applied to making sculpture, as well as dolls.
Traditional sculpture asks that you learn the basics of form, volume, and mass, as well as some design, and human anatomy.
You may apply those basic sculpture principles to any 3D design project.

One thing to remember is that when you attempt figurative sculpture (of any kind), you are starting at one of the most difficult art forms to make.

Finally, I would like to add that one of the BEST ways to learn sculpture is to draw.
Drawing is the basis of all the visual arts.

(^_^)

 

I think that if you want to start simple, easiest would be doing a very stylized doll with single joints, and don't worry too much about the details. I think something like aroa's kitty - not necessarily making a cat, but something along those lines - simplified and stylized forms, very basic jointing. I've seen a lot of fairly simple, stylized anthro dolls that look like a great thing for beginners to work on, as it gets your feet wet and you can make something really cute and fun to play with fairly quickly, without needing a lot of detail and without running into... not sure how to say this right, but... without ending up with a doll that looks "weird" or "wrong" because of a lack of a proper grasp of human anatomy and basic sculpting skills, because a non-human doll, the mind tends to be a little bit more forgiving of things that are a bit "off." And then you have a cute little character to sit there and watch you while you work on the doll you really want to make, having proved to yourself that you can finish a doll and having some of the beginner mistakes and bumbles out of the way.

That does look like an interesting tutorial, but there are free resources that would get you to that point just as well, and perhaps even better (especially if you're wanting to focus on the body anatomy a little more - that's a cute doll but I think it's meant to always be dressed as the body is very very simple). The fact that it's all in one place seems useful, but, then, so's the info in kwmelvin's links.

 

There's no way to judge the quality of the tutorial without seeing a sample, but there isn't anything listed in the description that's not already available for free on the net. Also, if the doll pictured is a sample of the author's work, she doesn't seem competent enough to teach others.

Here are some resources not mentioned in the sticky:

http://madsculptor.blogspot.com/2012/01/sculpting-ears.html
http://www.fineart.sk/photo-references/josef-zrzavy-anatomy (I can upload the whole book if necessary, but it isn't that hard to find.)
http://deskleaves.deviantart.com/art/Ball-jointed-doll-tutorial-part-1-303710466 (Some of the tips are questionable, particularly the section about materials.)

 

Also: loads of great sculpting tutorials here: http://pinterest.com/sallyemmert/sculpting-tutorials-videos-instructions/

 

I second the recommendation of Philippe Faraut's videos and books. The videos are available on DVD from Amazon. Not cheap, but so worth it. His two books on portraiture are great resources for head sculpting.

 

Why in the world would you even consider spending $65.00 USD on a BJD-making tutorial when there are SO many free BJD-making tutorials on the Internet? Do you have ANY idea at all how much clay you can buy with $65.00 USD? I spent less than $65.00 for my copy of Ryo Yoshida's Yoshida Style Ball Jointed Doll Making Guide, and amongst BJD-makers, it is a much more highly regarded tutorial than the one you link to.

IF you spend $65.00 USD on a BJD-making tutorial, then you will still have to go out and buy materials in order to make your BJD.

What if you get half-way through making a BJD, and decide that sculpting just isn't the art/craft that you want to do?

I would suggest to ANYONE who has never made a BJD before,
but they think they want to make a BJD from scratch:
Start out small to medium in size, and work from a free BJD-making tutorial.

The free Japanese language Aimi BJD-making tutorial is one of the best ones on the Internet.
Use Google to translate it into your native tongue.

If you are really not sure what to do, make a small six-piece, five-point articulated doll:
Head is jointed on top of neck, arms have ball joints at shoulders, legs have ball joints at hips.
So the head would have a socket, and the torso would have a neck ball, two arm sockets, and two leg sockets.
The arms and legs would NOT be jointed at the elbows and knees, wrists and ankles.
Here is an example of what I am talking about.

IF you can make a small, simple BJD like that, then raise your level of difficulty,
and make a more complex second doll.

Or, just model heads in clay, just heads, until you feel like you have gained some competency working with clay.

Of course, if you are flush with cash (rich), please disregard all the above advice, and spend your money on whatever makes you feel good.

Ik wou dat ik was gelijk met contant geld (rijk).

If I were rich, and lived in the Netherlands, I would sign-up for a doll-making workshop with Claudine Roelens.
YouTube video: Sculpting a balljointed doll.

(^_^)

 

Well, people here have already said some very intelligent things, so I'll just add how I started out.

When I saw my first BJD I instantly knew that I wanted to make my own. Only one problem though: I never had any sculpting classes and never touched a pack of clay. I also knew that if I would start out simple (doing all these assignments kwmelvin mentioned like sculpting an egg) I'd soon loose interest. That's the way I work: when I have something in mind that I want to make, I don't want to do something that would lead up to this project, but I'd rather learn while working on that project.

So, I did the following things:
1. I started collecting pictures of sculptures and paintings I admire. In my case, it involved loads of pictures done by Da Vinci, because his sketches often involve anatomy lessons. Only works of the best of the best out there I collected, because I wanted to learn from what they created.
I studied their sculptures, tried to figure out why the artist made the artistic decisions he made, really looked how he sculped a hand, a foot, an arm etc.

2. Together with pictures of art, I also collected anatomy pictures (pictures of muscles and skelettons). And I studied the book "Anatomy for the Artist" vigorously.

3. While I was doing this, I took some time to discover what kind of clay works for me. Air-drying clays and oil based clays both have their pros and cons and both require a different way of sculpting. For me, I pretty soon found out that I was an air-dry clay sculptor.

4. Next I just started. I drew a blue-print of the doll, including the joints. And then I started sculpting. Just took a ball of Play-Doh as a core, wrapped my first piece of clay around it and started working on a head. From there on I worked on the body and I learned as I went.
Everytime I encountered a problem, I'd either look up more information about anatomy, or I let the great masters from the past speak to me (really, you can learn about a TON just looking at their work).

Most importantly though: I didn't give myself a deadline. I figured my doll would be done once I was happy with the result. This gave me the opportunity to be very critical of my work. I still am. If there is something I don't like about a doll I'm working on, I cut it off and start over. Don't be afraid to do the same. If you've sculpted a nose before, you can do it again and probably better.

In my opinion, a sharp, critical eye is more important than whatever knowledge you have, because it will help you define the things you could improve. And when you know what you need to learn, you can find the information that will help you.

I hope this long post is of use to you a bit. Good luck!

 

I was wondering why i could read this Xd i though google translate where translating this, i didn't expect too see dutch here.
I didn't expect there was a doll sculpting workshop here so close netherlands but that price woeh! Dahm that is a bit too much. The 3 hour workshop sounds great but is not that close too me :arrr

 

Good idea !!!

I am going to add a note here about oil-clay.....
There are two types of oil-clay:
One type contains sulfur, and the other type is sulfur-free.

For example, ROMA Plastilina contains sulfur.

PRIMA Plastilina is sulfur-free.
VAN AKEN Plastilina is sulfur-free.
Chavant NSP is sulfur-free.

It is best to buy the sulfur-free oil-clay because it does not react with silicon rubber.
You may not know now if you are ever going to make any silicone rubber molds, but
to be on the safe side, it is a good idea to get sulfur-free because it is safe to use with
silicone rubbers. Sulfur-free oil-clays may be used to make silicone rubber molds, which
are flexible rubber molds that you can cast polyurethane resins into.

In the above example of using a sulfur-free oil-clay to make silicon rubber molds for casting PU resin,
it does not matter what material the original BJD is made of. You may make your original BJD with
air-dry clay, polymer clay, expoxy clay, or whatever you desire. The oil-clay is used to make
the clay build-up for a multi-piece silicone rubber mold.

Other interesting notes:
Oil-clay is reusable.
Oil-clay does not harden.
Oil-clay does not dry out.
Oil-clay is available in different grades of firmness.
Oil-clay is used by professional sculptors in studios around the world.

Hopefully helpful?
(^_^)

 

I started sculpting tiny little fairies with a book called Fairies, Gnomes & Trolls: Create a Fantasy World in Polymer Clay by Maureen Carlson. They were just little whimsical characters though. Then I discovered OOAK Art Dolls and decided that is what I wanted to do. I followed a lot of Patricia Rose's tutorials. They were great learning references but I had to pay for most of them. Here is a link to four free pages of Sculpting a Pretty face by her.

http://ooakdollmakers.blogspot.com/2011/02/sculpting-pretty-face.html

Then I progressed to BJD's and never looked back. For a beginner sculptor I would suggest starting off with single joints and then progress to double joints. Then, while you are learning to sculpt you can be figuring out the mechanics of a BJD and perfecting them. Also, when ever you have free time have a ball of clay in your hand and practice sculpting faces, even when your just watching TV. Polymer clay never dries out so you can just squish it up and do it again. Practice, practice, practice!

 

I have some experience in drawing and painting, so know some things about proportions, recognising problems and how to tackle hem. Still, working in 3D had its challenges and I'm still learning. I started with some vague sketches and just made a core, slapped some clay on it and that was the start of the body. I don't recommend working that way as it leads to many adjustments and lost clay. It would be better to start with a more smooth and symmetrical core.

However, for me it worked, because the planning stages were holding me back. In the end I couldn't start with perfection, so I just made sure that my start was imperfect, but a start. The body was also the first thing I made, because I found it easier the make sure the head was the right size afterwards.

 

The Yoshida method is easier for a beginner.
1. You have already developed front and side views of a working drawing.
2. The styrofoam cores are 5mm or 6mm smaller than the drawing's profiles, but the profiles are exact after being sanded.
3. You roll out the clay exactly 5mm or 6mm, using a rolling pin. The clay thickness is exact.
4. You 'skin' the cores with the clay.
5. Once dry, you use tools and sandpaper to refine the parts which are almost the finished form.
6. The styrofoam cores are removed, leaving you with hollow parts which may be test-strung after attaching balls and sockets.

Another way of approaching this idea of using profiles from working drawings is to use the profiles as an armature.
There is an example of that method here. (2nd photo.)
I have also used that method in the past. I used cereal box cardboard and brown sculpture wax when I used that method.
Then I made waste molds over the sculpture wax forms, and cast carving wax into the molds, getting hollow castings.

There are many ways to approach making sculpture.
None of them are wrong as long as the result you want is obtained.

(^_^)

 

I'm entirely self-taught, and I seem to have accidentally learned how to sculpt by doing My Little Pony modifications. Sculpting by adding small pieces to an existing item that looks close to what you want is a lot easier than doing it all from scratch, though I've done a few scratch-made things now that I'm pleased with.

 

Yeah, of course !!!
This is how Shiny Doll ABJDs became to be made.
He modified over 50 Volks BJDs for friends before starting to make his first ABJD from scratch.
It took him a year and a half to make the first Shiny Doll.
Amazing !!! Some of the most beautiful resin ABJDs I have ever seen.
Shiny Doll Thassa are some of the best posing ABJDs in existence.
(An ABJD on my Wish List.....)
Don't forget to grab the Zen booklet by twigling.
More BJD-making Links here.

(^_^)