Sculpting techniques: building the basic form

1Big to small

Beginners often start with an eye and end with one beautiful eye in a lopsided head. Sculptors work the other way round: first the big masses, then the broad planes, then the features, turning the work all the time. In this lesson you build the whole head to the stage where it is the right size and shape from every side, ready for the features.

2Key vocabulary

• Additive method: building a form by adding clay.
• Subtractive method: shaping a form by taking clay away, for example with a loop tool.
• Modelling: pushing and shaping soft clay with fingers and tools.
• Blocking out: setting up the big masses before any detail.
• Plane: a broad, fairly flat area of a form, such as the front of the forehead or the side of the cheek. Planes turn where light meets shadow.
• Score and slip: the way to join clay. Slip is clay mixed with water to a thick cream.

3Tools you can make

• Modelling tool: a strip of bamboo or hardwood about 20 cm long, one end shaped into a flat blade and the other into a rounded point, sanded smooth.
• Loop tool: a loop of stiff wire bound tightly to a stick with string, for scooping clay out.
• Needle tool: a large nail or darning needle pushed into a cork or a small piece of wood, for scratching lines and scoring.
• Cutting wire: about 40 cm of thin wire with a short stick tied to each end.
• Turntable: a round board resting on an upturned plate, so you can turn the head without touching it.
• Also: a sponge, a bowl of water or a spray bottle, an old spoon, a fork, a damp cloth and plastic bags.

4Joining clay: score and slip

1. Scratch criss-cross lines on both surfaces with a fork or needle tool.
2. Brush slip onto both scratched areas.
3. Press the pieces firmly together with a slight wiggle.
4. Blend the seam with a tool until no line shows.

Pieces pressed together without scoring and slip look joined while wet, but they crack apart as the clay dries.

5The four stages

1. Block the mass. Press clay firmly round the post to make a thick neck that leans slightly forward. Then press pellets and handfuls of clay onto the core, leaving no air gaps, to build the egg: broad at the skull and narrower at the jaw. Check the height, width and depth with calipers and hold the profile template against the side.
2. Scratch the guide lines. With the needle tool, draw a centre line from the top to the chin, the eye line halfway down, the line for the base of the nose and the mouth line. From the side, mark where the ear will go, just behind the middle.
3. Cut and add the big planes. Scoop two broad, shallow eye sockets under a ridge for the brow (subtractive). Add a wedge of clay for the nose, and build up the cheekbones and the chin (additive). Keep the front of the face fairly flat and let the sides turn back. Add simple blocks for the ears, and build out the back of the skull.
4. Model the features. This is the next lesson. Do not start it until the first three stages are right from every side.

6Work all over, and keep checking

• Turn the head a quarter turn at a time and compare all four views with your plan and your model. Look down from above to check that both sides match.
• Step back every few minutes. Mistakes that are invisible from 20 cm are obvious from 2 m.
• Keep the whole head at the same stage: never finish one part while another is still rough.
• Between sessions, mist the clay with water, cover it with a damp cloth, and tie a plastic bag loosely over it.

Worked example: fixing a flat, staring head

Habimana's head looks flat from the side, and its eyes look like two holes. He checks the side view with his template: the back of the skull is 3 cm short, so he adds clay there with score and slip until the head fits the template. His eye sockets are deep, narrow holes; real sockets are broad, shallow hollows under the brow, as wide as the eyes themselves, with room for an eyeball. He fills the holes, scoops wider, shallower sockets, and leaves the eyes themselves for the next stage.

Practice