This part of the forum seems to be more a showcase for sculpted figures .
It would be nice to see some techniques SBS style here .
Painters seem to have no fear of sharing methods but when it comes to sculpting there really is not much covered .

Ron

I'd like to learn some nice sculpting secrets too. I'm trying to do a 1/6 scale head at the minute....and failing miserably so any helpful snippets will be eagerly snapped up.

I can do a nice log though

If you Utube 'dolls head sculpting'

regards Zane

I'm no good at SBS's since I'm lousy at taking photos, but if anyone wants to ask me any questions about sculpting, and I can help, I'll be glad to.
Best wishes, Gary.

First question I have is, how the hell do sculptors work out the scales when doing something from scratch?
Is there some sort of sculpting measuring thingy out there? Always wonder'd about this.

Barrie.

i read somewhere that various body parts are similar in size scale etc, but being useless at sculpting. I think if it looks okay then that will do. I have tried minor sculpting but don't have the confidence or patience to try a complete figure. badger

Thanks Barrie, first question and you've got me stumped! LOL. If you mean working out the exact size of equipment and weapons in various scales (eg. 1/32, 1/20 1/6 etc.) then I don't, I sculpt a figure and size the equipment to look right. On the other hand, if you mean working out the proportions of a figure, then I work out the proportions based on a system of dividing the figure into heads. A figure is eight heads high with an overlap of half a head in the middle etc.
Hope this makes some sense, best wishes, Gary.

Gary, thanks for the explanation, had to read a few times to sort of work out what you meant lol but got there in the end
Carl, knew you would be able to come up with something. Cheers for that, got it saved

Barrie.

I've watched all the Creager vids Zane, several times in fact. She makes it look so effortless but when I try to recreate what she does I end up with a John Merrick lookalike. I'm intrigued about how she uses pastels for flesh tones and how realistic the results are (but that's a different subject, we're on about sculpting here).

Billy, the reason she makes it look easy is because she's been doing it all the time for years and to her, it's second nature. A good material to use to practice heads is Plastisceine. It won't ever set, and if you keep a ball of it in your hand while you're working it, what you are adding on will be warmer,(and therefore softer) than what you are adding it to, and the new stuff won't push the old stuff out of shape.
Best wishes, Gary.

I think I will just stick to buying figures / badger

This makes things a lot clearer SCULPTING 101 STEP BY STEP, 1/16 FIGURE and its the right scale as well

It would would be great to see more sculpting SBS threads - I think the lack of them is down the fact that they are very time consuming to produce (both the construction and article). Other factors to consider are the ratio of painters to sculptors (your more likely to see a painting SBS than a sculpting tutorial on this forum). Lastly - most of the really talented sculptors are producing work commercially and simply don't have the time to produce an article as they are working to a deadline. There are already some really great tutorials on this forum (the above work is proof of this) but you have to dig deep in the websites archive to find them.

Got to say it would be nice to produce an SBS myself (I have done them on my own website, but not here) perhaps after my current project I could record the progress of my next sculpt? Relief sculpting is not to everyone's taste but it would give insight into the process...

-Rich

I will try to show you how I do it,,,its my way,,,it works for me its not THE way to do it

The problem is it will be slow. It will also be in 120mm which is not everybodies cup of tea but its mine.

I will try start it soon ,,,its something I was considering doing but not as a Kind of SBS thing. If I find what I do is copied by another company it wont go any further.

Stuart

Suggestion for the moderators - Could you make the Sculpting 101 postings a sticky that always remains on top of the Sculpting forum?

All the best,
Dan

Excellent news

Working out the scale is just basic maths. Imperial scales such as 1/32nd are just fractions of the original size. So 1/32nd is thirty two times smaller than the original or 1/12th is twelve times smaller etc. So take a calculator and divide the original measurement. I prefer to use metric measurement, so 1" = 30.45cm divide by 32 = 0.951 or divide by 12 =2.53 . Personally I prefer this to the equivalent metric scales such as 54mm or 150mm because there's less debate! When I started I had to use graph paper to make a scale drawing, now I used a reducing printer!

Martin - I agree with the approach, however, a more basic question.

What standard or actual height of man are you using to begin the scaling process?

Recently I've bought three different 1/16th scale figures which, working backwards mathematically, (rough estimation) portray a 6 foot 3 inch [about 191 cm] man, a 6 foot 6 inch man [about 198 cm] and a 5 foot 11 inch man [about 180]. Each of these were 'portraying' a First World War period man. According to the data I collected from demographics information and papers on the like, from the web and from local university libraries, the typical European male ca. 1914-1918 was 5 foot 8 inch or thereabouts with American and Australian males being a few inches taller on average. Sure - SOME soldiers of the combatant nations were 180 to 198 cm, but the median or most typical height was much shorter. The figure portraying the 6 foot 6 inch man is probably more nearly 135 to 150mm 'scale' not 1/16th or 120mm as it was advertised. All of the weapons and equipment with this figure was just increased in size to fit. ???? That part I really don't understand! Maybe artistic license extends to making the figures of the soldiers taller, but not to SMLE rifles or Lebel bayonets.

Obviously if you are sculpting a Napoleonic figure, Roman gladiator, etc., etc., the 1:1 starting point would be different - probably a shorter height for the typical male of those periods.

All other things being equal, probably taller figures are more attractive to the buyer, but... FYI, I try to start with 5 foot 8 inch to 5 foot 11 inch as my 1:1 figure size.

My tuppence.

All the best,
Dan

Dan,
I agree about the average height being 5' 8" which equals 173 cm divide by thirty two is 5.40625 cm. Or 54 mm. If the figures you bought were truly 1/16th there shouldn't be any problems.
If you stick to a scale then whether you're sculpting a foot guard or a Gurkha the rifle should be the same size. (scale of equipment is more important than the height of the figure, in my opinion. Unless you know that the figure you're making had an set height.) Their heads will also be a very similar size.
As a matter of interest I was contracted to make some figures for the Mary Rose museum when it first opened, as well as correcting one particular figure that "just didn't look right". The figures was based on the famous 6' 8" archer that was found on the ship. Now this figure had been passed around lots of non sculptors for their opinion, and it was clearly not right but they couldn't work out why. It was actually quite a simple solution. 6' 8"= 203 cm divided by 32 = 6.34 mm. The original sculptor had been told to make a 65 mm figure! That's exactly what he did but based on the anatomy of an "average" man, so it was simply out of scale. My quick fix was to replace the head with a smaller one! If you look around I think you'll see that human heads are roughly the same size ( of course there are variations) this give the basic impression thattall people have small heads and short people large. That's one of the reasons that you can judge some ones height from a distance. We do it all the time with out thinking.