Sculpting a Human Head
Senior 2 · Fine Arts
Sculpting a Human Head
Lesson 1 of 4
22 min
More than two thousand years ago, sculptors of the Nok culture, in what is now Nigeria, modelled human heads in clay and fired them. Centuries later, artists at Ife cast heads in brass so lifelike that they are famous around the world. Today sculptors still make portrait heads and busts of leaders, heroes and ordinary people. In this unit you will model a human head in clay over an armature. Like a builder, you start with a plan: accurate proportions, measured and drawn before you touch any clay.
Think of the head as an egg (the skull and face) resting on a cylinder (the neck). The broad end of the egg is at the top, and the jaw narrows towards the chin. From the side, the skull reaches a long way back behind the ears. The most common beginner's mistake is a head with a good face and a flat back, like a mask.
These are averages. Real faces differ, and those differences are what make a portrait look like one person, so always measure your model too.
An adult's head measures roughly 22 to 24 cm from the top of the skull to the chin. A school head of 15 to 20 cm is easier to support and to dry. Mugisha plans a head 18 cm tall.
This head of a king (Ooni) was cast in brass at Ife, in present-day Nigeria, in the 14th or early 15th century, and was found near the palace at Ife in 1939. Heads like this were cast using the lost-wax method: the sculptor first modelled the head in wax, then replaced the wax with metal.
Warning
Safety
Tip
Eyes halfway, ears behind the middle, and more skull behind than you think. Check every head from the side as well as the front: most mistakes hide in the profile.
A clay head is to be 20 cm from the top of the skull to the chin. Find the eye line, the base of the nose, the mouth line and the approximate width.
Solution: eyes 10 cm below the top; nose base halfway between 10 and 20 = 15 cm; mouth one third of the 5 cm nose-to-chin distance below the nose, about 16.7 cm; width about two thirds of 20, about 13.3 cm.
Where does the ear sit in the side view?
Solution: just behind the middle of the head, between the brow line and the base of the nose, with the angle of the jaw below it.
Why is a card profile template useful?
Solution: held against the clay, it shows at once whether the outline of the face, the top and the back of the head matches the plan.
From the side, a classmate's head looks like a mask: the face is good but the back of the head is flat. Which proportion was forgotten?
Solution: the side view fits roughly in a square: the skull reaches far behind the ears, so the head is almost as deep as it is tall.
Remember
Sources and credits
