First Time Self-Portrait: Advice Welcome

pitchforknumb

Sr Member
Hello all. I have recently decided to try a self-portrait sculpt to advance my non-existant sculpting skills. I chose to do one of myself since I'm always around, and always available for a measurement or two. I'm using WED clay for this, for its quickness, and cheapness. I have only gotten to the very basic block out stage, and thought I'd reach out to the community for some advice. Any comments will be greatly appreciated. So far I'm having a hell of a time getting the back of the head even. Any criticism will be greatly appreciated.


Thanks for looking.
 
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Looks like a good start. As my sculpting skills are completely nonexistent I can't give you a lot of pointers on how to even up the back, but I can say A reference photo of yourself would be helpful to use to give you pointers on things like scaling of features, eye width, nose shape, etc. But so far it definitely looks like a head..

Keep going!
 
Looking good so far.
As Weekend Warrior stated, maybe a picture of you would help us help you.
I am just getting back into sculpting and am far from an expert but what I like to do is take plenty of photos of what I'm sculpting and my sculpture throughout the process and I will overlay them in photoshop or a similar program to see how off I am as I continue working.
You can also take a photo of the back of the sculpt and mirror it in PS to see how even it is.
Hope I can help even a little. The important thing is to just keep at it and not get discouraged.
 
Keep it going...looks like a cool start...I'm new here too, I think the hardest part is starting. I have never used wed clay but its on my project list of things...I have used NSP Chavant, and polymers to sculpt miniature heads and bust...I would recommend taking photos of yourself from front, side and back so you have good reference...and if your going for exact measurements get some calipers . Are you going to make shoulders to?
 
You're off to a good start, add more volume to the neck and the base of the skull area. Hold off on details as long as you can and try to work on it from several angles at once rather than just the front or profile for long periods.
 
Hi. This is off to a good start.

My advice would be to get yourself a copy if a skull. It will really help you get the underlying structure locked in.

From what I can see at the moment, you need to bring the cheekbones forward.
Also, when building form, build it up with small balls of clay and I know it's tempting but lay off smoothing you clay till you have the form locked it.

Finally, get some eyes in there as soon as you can as they are the focal point on any face. They will also give to a constant to measure from.
 
Thanks for the comments and encouragement guys.

Looking good so far.
As Weekend Warrior stated, maybe a picture of you would help us help you.
I am just getting back into sculpting and am far from an expert but what I like to do is take plenty of photos of what I'm sculpting and my sculpture throughout the process and I will overlay them in photoshop or a similar program to see how off I am as I continue working.
You can also take a photo of the back of the sculpt and mirror it in PS to see how even it is.
Hope I can help even a little. The important thing is to just keep at it and not get discouraged.
Yeah, I guess a refrence photo would have been a good thing to include eh? :facepalm I've included one in this post, and I'll try to see if I can find a profile photo somewhere. Unfortunately I don't have access to photoshop, but it sounds like something I should definately check into.

gregoriartsRe: First Time Self-Portrait: Advice Welcome
Keep it going...looks like a cool start...I'm new here too, I think the hardest part is starting. I have never used wed clay but its on my project list of things...I have used NSP Chavant, and polymers to sculpt miniature heads and bust...I would recommend taking photos of yourself from front, side and back so you have good reference...and if your going for exact measurements get some calipers . Are you going to make shoulders to?
I would recommend picking up some WED clay. I think it would be really effective for sculpting anything that you want a really smooth finish on, without as much work as needed for oil clay. No, didn't really think about adding shoulders. This thing is all about practice. So even if it comes out looking one iota like me, I'll be happy.

weaselflingerRe: First Time Self-Portrait: Advice Welcome
You're off to a good start, add more volume to the neck and the base of the skull area. Hold off on details as long as you can and try to work on it from several angles at once rather than just the front or profile for long periods.

I will give that a try. Thanks for the input. I've been really trying to work on not sticking on any one spot for a long time.

fettsterRe: First Time Self-Portrait: Advice Welcome
Hi. This is off to a good start.

My advice would be to get yourself a copy if a skull. It will really help you get the underlying structure locked in.

From what I can see at the moment, you need to bring the cheekbones forward.
Also, when building form, build it up with small balls of clay and I know it's tempting but lay off smoothing you clay till you have the form locked it.

Finally, get some eyes in there as soon as you can as they are the focal point on any face. They will also give to a constant to measure from.

Thanks for the comments Fettster. I gotta say I love your work. I've been going off of a skull picture in an anatomy book, but I can see where I'm losing some things by just refrencing a 2-D image. When you say bring the cheekbones forward do you mean closer to my nose, or have them protrude more? Thanks for the tips, I'll go stick some eyes in there the next chance I get to work on it.

Thanks again for all the comments guys. I'm excited to get back to working on this now.
 
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Hey guys. I had an opportunity to do a little work on this over the weekend. I added some eyes, and some ears, and I think I have the head pretty close to being even at the moment. Please let me know what you think, or if there's something I'm not seeing at the moment. I also added some face shots of myself so you guys know what I'm trying to copy.
 
Got some more working time in on this the past week. I'm having some trouble trying to get the right eyelid to look natural. Not sure if I need to curve it more or less at this point. If anyone has any tips and tricks for eyelids, or anything else for that matter, I'd love to hear it. Thanks for looking.
 
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