So this was just a test recording to see how well I could record me sculpting and it didn't turn out too well but I didn't want to just delete all this footage and the video I had planned got delayed for various reasons so I thought I'd post this anyway.

I have tried to cut out the parts where the head wasn't in frame. The camera also ran out of battery several times so I've lost bits here and there. And then there's parts of the head I redid a couple times which I didn't include because I had about 15 hours of footage in total and even that as a time-lapse would have made a huge video and I didn't want to speed it up more than it was. 

This is at 1FPS btw.

Now I calculate the head actually took me about 20 hours but I think with some more practice I can cut that time by more than half. I'm just a bit rusty. It's been a few years since I've done any sculpting and even then I was only really interested in small figures before. I've never attempted a head this big.

Things that worked well on a small scale like shaping the hair as one solid mass did not translate well to this scale. Also the stand I'm using wasn't designed for something so big. I'd specifically bought it for it's magnifying glass to do details. I'm currently looking into ways to make my own stand.

This isn't such a problem for a full body figure because you can just thread it's feet through a piece of wood. I have one ready which I never finished which I'll probably get back to one of these days.

But with a head like this it's a bit different. I want to move it around, but that just makes you dizzy when you're watching the time-lapse so I have to figure out how to fix that.

The good thing though is I'll probably redo this sculpt at some point in the future because it has a few mistakes, and hopefully by then I'll have a proper stand. For now though it's good enough for what I want to do with it which is mostly just use it to practice different lighting situations. I was going to make just the planes of the face but I couldn't help myself. The face is based off a character I have in mind for my book. So I might also use it to try and finish his portrait which I've been attempting for ages.

If possible I want to have at least two more heads for reference. One with just the planes, and then a detailed female head.

I have tried to use 3d models in the past but there's always something about the free 3d models available that feel off to me. I am currently working on my own, but it's still in the works, I keep having problems with the head looking off when I zoom out because I sculpt so close (because the focal length of the view is wrong for being so close to an object). I also have a hard time making the lighting look natural, so I'm still learning that.

After reading the Imaginative Realism book I thought I'd go ahead and try making a physical sculpt and although it took a while, it was way less time than what I've worked on the 3d model.

The other advantage compared to a 3d model is that I can have the physical model and then I can also scan it and turn it into a 3d model. It (photogrammetry) is something I've looked into before but never really attempted so I'll be trying that. All you need is a bunch of photos of the objects and the proper software so it should be something anybody can do. The problem is figuring out the software.

So then hopefully I can also use the scan to figure out at what the camera focal length should actually be when I'm sculpting so I can finish the 3d model as well.

Anyways if you have any questions about polymer clay, I want to do a sort of intro video on the basics, so leave a comment and I'll see about including them in that video.

Otherwise I hope you enjoy the video despite it's problems.

Here are the pictures as well if you want to see them more in detail.

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