Any sculpture making furs out there?

[Xris]

I'm not sure this is the right area to post this in (im also new to the forums) But i did not see a place to put this. So i apologize. I kind of took a guess.

Okay so!
I'm looking to get into clay sculpting. Ive been wanting to do it for years. But i just dont have the tome till now.

So here are some questions.
Is there a clay i can use that i dont have to bake?

I'd rather avoid Sculpty. I personally dont like it. But i can use it if i ever had to i guess.

Also i will mainly be doing head sculptures. Is there an easy way to start this? If you know how to do head sculptures can you show me a step by step on how to do it?
I could look for youtube vids. (Believe me i have) and some are just imo difficult to follow.
Anyway for now thats it!
Please if you know how to do these kinds of things can you give me a hand?
Thank you!
- Xris

 

[KiokuChan]

I have a huge chunk of Amaco air dry clay that a friend gave me. I personally find it a little dry and kind of crumbly for making small parts so I'm not huge on it, but I love sculpty so maybe you will like it. You also don't really need to worry much about it drying out when you aren't using it. I haven't had problems with that. I'm not great at making figures or any art but I enjoy doing it. I mostly just look at the picture, approximate big shapes, and add little details to that. I don't have a great process unfortunately.

Here's a video review on various air dry clays:

This is what I have though mine is in gray not white: It's really cheap for a huge box.

Another thing to consider: you can get different colored clays and color your figure with them or you can use a solid color like that and paint your figures. If you paint your figures and have a lot of little grooves that need shading and stuff you can use base paints for the main colors and then washes (watered down paints) to shade in those creases.

Sorry I didn't have a ton to say.

 

[KiokuChan]

I just tested my clay with that flower petal technique mentioned and it cracked, split, and crumbled. Definitely not good for those kind of thin details. Honestly I wouldn't suggest it at all.

Also that shows how to dye white clay to different colors which is kind of cool.

 

[Pompadork]

I use paper clay and usually try to start with a base made of tin foil! Its kind of like drawing a head where you start with a circle and then add on features; basically you start with a tin foil ball and layer clay on top of that. It can hlp you use less clay and its a good way to start! Another technique is kneading a bit of paint into white clay if you want to start with a specific color and not have to paint it all later. I tend to only do that for major parts that need to be one color as a starting base like if you were doing a head and wanted it to be a certain skin tone but it'll work just the same for smaller add ons too!

Paper clay is a sturdy air dry clay I've used for smaller character figures. The only thing I would be aware of is that it may shrink a bit while drying but other than that you should be ok!

 

[KiokuChan]

Okay that was specifically paper clay. Here is explinations of different types of air dry clays:

I'm actually learning a lot from watching it!

 

[Xris]

@KiokuChan & @quietinthepeanutgallery
Thank you! Ill look into these.

Id get sculpty more often but my main problem is my mother doesnt like me useing are oven to bake it. Plus it always seems to break and crumble after i bake it. I dont know why. Maybe its to thick in places.

I had other questions but i cant yet remeberwhat it was. Haha
But mainly ill be attempting dragon and dino busts. So yeah.

Also have you ever mixed clays? And got good results or bad? Etc

 

[KiokuChan]

I've mixed colors before with Sculpty and it was fine. The super light air dry type clay shown first in the second video seems to be good to mix with each other. If you use white paper clay and color it yourself by mixing in paint you won't need to mix clays together, but you may get slightly lighter or a little more pastelish colors than with the super light airdry type or the resin air dry type. Good luck!