Ach! So very discouraging!

[Purple Kitten]

I used to be in to art (painting, drawing, and photography) when I was in highschool. That was like....going on 10 years ago for me.

Recently, I decided to try my hand at sculpture. The idea came up as a suprise Christmas present for my boyfriend. He's a big fan of the game World of Warcraft, so I wanted to make a little statue/figurine of his character for him.

I thought I did an okay job and have been tossing around the idea of trying to make more characters, but after seeing how good the work is here (especially from the people who say "This is my first attempt at sculpting"!!!), I feel totally discouraged! It totally kicked my butt and rattled my brain to do what I did, and compared to the most novice of novice works here, mine still looks like I little kid did it!

Is there any hope for me?

Here's my figure, side-by-side with a screenshot of the character he was based on:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b272/CindyPK79/Fzbitsidebyside.jpg

BTW, I used original Sculpey.

[Jive Turkey]

BTW, I used original Sculpey.


Dont get discouraged, you'll only get better with practise. I'm working on my first one at the moment and have run into a few problems, but keep working them until you get the result you want.....also, switch to super sculpy. you can add tonnes more detail because it doesnt pull like gum when you drag your tools through it. keep at it. Your sculpture isnt bad at all for a first shot especially considering the medium you were using

[Wulvz]

Is there any hope for me?

Yes, I'd say there is. You've definitely got a talent for sculpture. If you build skills on top of that talent, you can go far. There would be much butt-busting involved, granted, but most artists will tell you the personal satisfaction is worth all the blood sweat and tears.

And if you haven't seriously done anything art related in close to a decade, you shouldn't expect that your first piece should look like a Roman bust. Go easy on yourself.

[madplanet]

Just remember that it's like riding a bike; you're not going to forget, you just need to practice more. This isn't bad for a first sculpture, just keep going, I'm curious to see how the next one will come out. And practice drawing too, that's the foundation for sculpting.

[nafa]

If you can tell that your figure is very different from the reference, there is hope for you. The next step is to identify why all the differences, and how to make the proportions and color more accurate.

[timpaatkins]

This ISNT bad for a first sculpture! ANd your next one will be even better, because youll have learned from the last one. And with hard work, bustin out one a week, maybe youll be kickin ass on this board in a years time!
Here is a good link for you:

www.shiflettbrothers.com

amazing dudes, and a forum section similar to this, but devoted to sculpts!

[Purple Kitten]

Okay, I picked up some Super Sculpey for my next piece. I played around with it a little bit last night and I can already tell that it's going to be much more condusive to what I'm trying to do. It's not so....I don't know how to describe it....it doesn't have a mind of its own like Original Sculpey does. It doesn't mush around in weird ways and it doesn't "settle" after you've placed it. Thank you for that suggestion!

Now, aside from the clay not wanting to cooperate with me last time (I think you can see what I mean by saying it has a mind of its own and wants to "settle" if you look at the corners of the epaulets...I didn't turn them down like that...they did that themselves, no matter how many times I fixed them!), the one thing I had a very difficult time with was constructing the base/core of the figure. I used tin foil to do this, and I found that balls of tin foil are NOT easy to shape! That is the major reason why the shape/proportions of the torso are off. I couldn't get the tin foil to cooperate and be the right shape. Can anyone offer suggestions on this?

FWIW, here is the model for my next figure:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b272/CindyPK79/Leeluu.jpg

That isn't the outfit I'm going to have her in, but you get the gist of it.

[BOY1DA]

You should try a wire for the skeleton and use a wood base if possible then you can put foil on it to help to fill it out. you can check out the tutorials at the top of this sculpting section of the message board.
that helped me before I got started.