Course Description

This workshop will equip you with all the necessary tools to sculpt a lifelike portrait. You will learn all the basics of working from life, from how to set up an armature, take and record measurements, and manage clay. You will learn our approach to the block-in, and progress to finding likeness in skull shape, identifying important structural landmarks along the way. The course will feature demonstration and hands-on instruction on building the features, finding likeness in the character of the nose, mouth, and eyes. We will touch on hair design, gesture, and eye direction as ways to push naturalism and bring the portrait to life. With co-teachers, Maia and Sam, you will be able to witness a portrait demonstration progress from start to finish alongside your own piece.

Schedule

Day 1:

• Sculpture orientation
  • Materials overview (armature, stands, tools)
  • Clay management
  • Basics of working observationally (perspective, movement, working globally, general-to-specific, symmetry)
• Block-in basics
  • How to place the armature
  • Building symmetrically with a centerline
  • Clay handling
• Setting scale/proportions with measurements
  • What/how to measure
  • How to record measurements
• Finish with block-ins at scale with the basic skull shape

Day 2

• Begin to refine skull shape
• Taking more specific measurements (tragal triangulation)
  • Identify the most important anatomical landmarks
  • Place ears
• Block-in neck and cropped shoulders
• Finish with a more developed likeness and refined skull structure featuring anatomical landmarks

Day 3:

• Continue refining skull shape to achieve likeness in structure and proportion
• Block-in hair (demonstration on hair design)
• Determine the placement of the features
• Finish with skull structure locked in, hair blocked in, and features tentatively placed

Day 4:

• Consider the abstract volumes of the features
  • How to sculpt the volumes of the mouth and not just lips
• Demos on how to conceptualize the structure of the features
• Lock-in placement of the features
• Begin to block-in the features

1. Nose
2. Mouth
3. Eyes

• Finish with features blocked-in

Day 5:

• Continue to refine features
• Consider gesture of the portrait/eye direction
• How to use the rake to model the forms of the face
• How to appropriately consider surface/texture
• Group “Critique” where all portraits are observed as a group with discussion about the experience