carving in clay

[medicinedog]

Happy 4th of July everyone. God bless our servicemen and women everywhere.

I have often read where carvers would make a clay model to work out the details of a carving prior to tackling it in wood. I always thought "I have a heck of a time finishing a piece once let alone twice." Well I had some Sculpey clay I had picked up at a clearance hobby store and spent an evening foolin' around with it. Its incredible how much you can accomplish when you are free to make mistakes and quickly correct them. In this example I was able to sculpt/carve the figure, place it in the oven for a few minutes for a harden product, then decided to add the mustache and beard, and heat it again all in a couple of hrs. I think this will help me improve my carving skills and thought I would like to share this with others. Lar

[Robson Valley]

MD: The useful thing about models is that they come in an infinite series.
Did lots of that back in my F/X career days. . .. you just can't "see" how it might look without some scruffy model that gets worked and reworked and critiqued, over and over.

I used to be able to buy some white foam stuff, about the consistency of marshmallows but not sticky. It came in 1 lb plastic bags. You could fool with it, stick hunks together on a coat-hanger armature, etc, carve with a utility knife. Then, set it down and let it dry out. More carving? More wet pieces? More drying, some sanding? Some airbrush painting? All OK.

Now, you know the shapes, you know the "moves."
Have fun.

[pararaptor]

That's a fun looking project there Lar.
Sometimes when I'm attempting to carve a bird or animal for the first time, I make some mistakes, and when I do, I use some Apoxy Sculpt to make it right.
I don't know if this is a word or not, but I call it 'scarving' sculpting and carving, and it saves the day on a piece i might have destroyed in frustration.
Again, great job on your carvings!
Greg

[arfer1943]

I endorse modelling before touching wood.

This is my "Before" and "After". "Before" allows you to make most of the mistakes........

The model is a wood core with twisted 4 ply wire as skeleton for limbs. the coat is a rolled out sheet of material draped and fixed over the body. I used Plasticene, which remains soft always.

I used a wooden framework to hold the body up.

[Dicky]

Arfer you must be reading my mail. LOL. I just finished making the armature for Michigan J. Frog. I want to get all my proportions right using a forgiving product then switch to wood.