Sugggestions for what to sculpt when starting

Hi... I've been a big time lurker here for a long time (recently returned and blown away by the creations). I've finally got myself 2kg of plasticine (simply because it was reasonably cheap and I figure "reusable", so good to start with.
My question is what sort of thing should I start my adventure in sculpting with. I have aspirations (at this point no doubt lofty aspirations) of eventually sculpting busts, but I'm keen to try most things. Would I be best jumping in the deep end and trying a bust, or perhaps a bust with less organic elements (ie Ironman helmet)?
Or am I better off still sculpting something totally different?
Any and all help/advice is appreciated... in the mean time I shall continue to feel very under skilled as I view the hugely impressive works that people keep posting.

DEEP END. JUMP IN THERE!!!

Thats what ive done with Rem - More or less, because thats your current goal just get in there and get it done :

1. You will stay motivated to do it well
2. You are getting first hand experience in what appeals to you
3. Lesser things you do wont have the love and respect from yourself as something you've worked really hard at.

Following from the resource thread, I had felt this way that 'i should start smaller and work upwards' , I did start on some garden gnomes, but I felt I was wasting my time and should just jump onto the main project rather than shelfing it to the side.

When something feels daunting just jump on it and start!- Starting is always the hardest part, and all you have to do is just DO!!!!

elro - Thanks for that! I assume another tip might be "you can always alter it". Ie often when you start something it can take a while before it starts to even slightly resemble your end goal... I presume the mantra should be "never give up, never surrender." (to quote Captain Taggart).

So I guess I now need to have a look through reference images of Ron Perlman (this is where you go... Oops... yeah that's a bit ambitious )

I agree with elro

I threw myself in the deep end with Bob & I'm still enjoying working on him a year later having made many alterations to him as I've progressed.



HTH

Leigh - Have to say I'm stunned by your work... Love the Alien... if you recall the scene where the alien is dripping it's slime from it's mouth... yeah that's kind of me drooling at your work!!!

My first fiddling with modeling was a wire and papier mache Alien head... it was very basic and I didn't get far into it when we moved house so I'm starting from scratch again. I'm kind of between decent jobs at the moment which is why I'm keeping costs down (the plasticine I bought is via PayPal money I received for doing online surveys.).

Looks like I will have to just jump in and see if I sink or swim.

blennus said:

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... Would I be best jumping in the deep end and trying a bust, or perhaps a bust with less organic elements (ie Ironman helmet)?

If you're wanting to sculpt busts, then get yourself some artist's anatomy books or some anatomy reference online. There's tons of it out there for the googling.

Definately would not start out with armours and such (the less organics) as those are actually much harder to do.

Ozymandius - Thanks for that... I think I may have some artist anatomy books around somewhere... if not I have some bodybuilding reference material which is likely to have very similar elements

I presume it's the uniformity of armour and such that makes it harder?

The hardest thing with armour is getting straight lines and sharp edges from clay. On top of that, since metal is smooth, there's nowhere to hide mistakes and fudge things.

With organic shapes you can blend edges smoothly, cover it with textures, and small imperfections often work to your advantage.

To make good armour pieces, I like to sculpt out the piece in clay as best I can and then run a waste mold so I can cast a hard master in resin. With that you can then sharpen all the lines and make it crisp and machined looking. I'll then mold that piece as the final sculpt.

The first small busts I did years ago were in white plasticene. It'll give you a taste of what it's like to push clay around. One of the hardest things about likeness (if you are wanting to do that) is to find consistant reference. Lighting and lenses all serve to distort the image. I usually grab frames from the character's movies to try and get some consistant shots. Anatomy is very important, get the anatomy right and it will still look like a cool bust even if the likeness isn't 100%

So I've found my first "problem". I had created a makeshift form to sculpt around by using some spare wood and then wrapping newspaper around it... well when the amount of plasticine (I'm assuming it's to do with the quantity/thickness) it tends to bend and distort rather than hold any shape. I'm thinking I either needed to really wrap the newspaper on tight so there wasn't any real give... or I needed to use much more plasticine (at least twice as much).
Any thoughts/suggestions? I'm debating whether I should just bight the bullet and look into buying a large amount of clay to sculpt a solid rather than paper cored bust? I don't think I would be looking to fire the sculpt... more to make a cast (which I'm sure will be a steep learning curve) and then re-use the clay for a new sculpt?

Plasticene is an oil clay. It can be infinitely reused, and if you heat it, can be melted and poured into a mold. It cannot be fired. Saw a guy try it once. Hilarity ensued.

And you're on the right track with your armature. But your would be better off with aluminum foil instead of newspaper.

Ozymandius said:

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And you're on the right track with your armature. But your would be better off with aluminum foil instead of newspaper.

Thanks for that tip... is that because Aluminium foil holds it's shape better? I presume it will still be a case of clump it as tight as possible?

I may have to peel off my plasticine "mask" and switch/pad with Aluminium.

It's really more that foil will not absorb the oils in the clay, wheres paper will. Also wadded paper can be a bit spongy, which could distort your sculpt as you work.