Modeling the Portrait in Clay Part 1: Armature and Measurements

[New Masters Academy]

Join internationally acclaimed artist, David Simon, as he teaches you his approach to modeling a three-quarter life-size portrait in clay.

You will learn how to build your armature, take measurements of your model, block-in the facial features, hair, and neck, and how to build relationships between them. David will also cover the materials and tools he uses, and demonstrate his finishing techniques.

This course is a comprehensive representation of the sculpting process from a few blocks of clay, a pipe, and a wire, to a finished portrait. 

In this first lesson, David introduces his modeling approach, shows how to build an armature, measure a model, and applies measurements to the portrait. He also covers the measuring tools, including calipers, dividers, and nails.

[Robb Bomboy]

How much NSP will I need for this sculpture?

[Keejun Wild]

Hi, I am someone who is preparing to take this course as well. I am not an administrator, so you may want to wait for administrators response. I am guessing it will be two to three 2 lb blocks. I’m going to start with two blocks and if I need a third, order it. I am gathering various clays for multiple courses and it seems like they do not often say the amount of clay that is needed. Two to three 2 lb blocks is just a guess based on my experience sculpting and visual judgement.

[Dusan Pavlicek]

I really liked the methodical approach to placing the nails, that was very educational and extremely useful.

[Terrance Lewis]

is there any documentation on the points of measurement for the head.

[S. van Rijn]

Hi, I’m looking for an online store where I can buy the tools David Simon uses.
Especially the metal tool het uses a lot, for example in lesson 3 / chapter 3 / 18:08 minutes.

[Dusan Pavlicek]

For S. van Rijn:
Sculpting tools are often custom made, it can happen that a particular tool cannot be purchased anywhere.
The specific tool you mentioned almost looks like it could be approximated by one half (one blade) of an old fashioned pair of scissors 🙂
Personally I’d probably just use a dull knife for the same effect.

As for online shops, you can look here
https://www.sculpturehouse.com/s-394-modeling-tools-and-tool-sets.aspx
or here
https://tiranti.co.uk/product-category/modelling-tools/

 

[S. van Rijn]

Hello Dusan, thank you for your advise. I think you are right about the scissors. As fas as I can see, there is really no such tool on the internet, so I will try this trick too. Thanks for the links too.

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