SCULPTING TUTORIAL

PART TWO: WORKSPACE, TOOLS AND MATERIALS

SETTING UP YOUR WORKSPACE

A good chair and a small amount of desk space has you pretty much ready to roll. If working from home, whether you're a professional or hobbyist it is worth dedicating a small area or room, tailored towards your needs with a suitable ambiance to work in.

Take into consideration the light in the room; It is best to work with lots of flat light rather than direct sunlight. North facing windows are ideal as the light from the north is pretty constant during the day. When dark get as much light onto your model as possible. The lamp on top of the TV is not good enough. Do not work on a model in shade, you will damage your eyes!

On your desk you will need sufficient space for a desk lamp and bowl of wax, tools and the model you are working on.

TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT

Sculpting does not require much more than a ball of clay and some patience, but to hone your ability and produce sculpts of the highest standard a small selection of tools will be required. First port of call for Sculptors is www.tiranti.co.uk/. Tiranti supply almost everything you will need. 

I have compiled a list below which more than covers the basic recommended equipment:

• Angle poise lamp (60w bulb required to melt wax efficiently)
• A Pyrex Bowl (one of those rectangular glass pie dishes - for melting wax in)
• Modelling Wax
• Wire (for armature)
• Wooden Board (a base to attach your model)
• Sculpting Tools
• Drill (2mm & 4mm Drill Bits or equal to the gauge of armature wires.)
• Pliers (Long nose pliers are best for working wire)
• Snips (for Heavy Duty wire cutting)
• Verniers

* This list is my own preferred range of items and in no way represents a definitive list... Artists will gravitate to their own preference of tools and have differing working methods, and although it is important to experiment and find a way that suits yourself, you cant go wrong with these recommendations.

SCULPTING TOOLS

Most of what I do is small scale so the tools I use are mostly dental tools. I will dig into some specifics of these below and as I document the work in progress.

A selection of the sculpting tools I own, including Fine Stainless Steel Modelling Tools, Dental Tools, Wire Tools, Scalpel, Ruler, Verniers, Tweezers, 4mm drill bit and blue Pencil. Most are for specific mark making such as the seven similar looking tools in the centre of the lineup. As always; when it comes to artists and tools - You will settle with and use what works for you to get the results you want.

These are the four tools I would advise to invest in first. I could (and mostly probably do) use only these four tools to finish a model to the highest standard. I will go into each in more detail and include the tool's Tiranti product code:

The First tool (top) (203-011) I use to build the model adding 'wet' material quickly to the armature. My aim first is to leave no air bubbles around the armature as these could undermine the model's fixture. This tools is used to spoon wax onto the armature and carve this material into the required form. This tool is mainly used in the blocking stage but also good at cutting into and/or shaping larger forms. I would also recommend the larger version of this tool (203-009). It does the same job but it is better to have a larger tool if working on larger models (no pun intended).

The second tool (103-060) is what I do 90% of the work with. If I could only have one tool this would be my first choice. The two different ends deliver most of the mark making needed in refining the block-in to completion .

The next (103-090) is good for getting into nooks and scraping the surface material and the last tool (bottom) (103-170) provides small ends for for doing finer work such as working around teeth or toenails.

Verniers (above) are extremely useful for taking direct measurements from a drawing and checking against the model. There are three ways of taking measurements using parts (1), (2) & (3) on the illustration.

Wire will be required for use as the Armature, almost any wire can be used, again you will find a preference and I will show a examples of how they are used at the start of the Modelling Chapter. Shown above are a selection including Copper Wire (0.9 & 1.6mm Gauge) Copper rods (1.6mm) and square aluminium wire (4mm).

You will also require some pliers to prepare the wire armature. I have a few shown here (from left to right) firstly small snips for trimming small gauge wire, second we have some long nosed pliers (the most necessary) for bending and manipulating the armature. Next we have larger 'heavy duty' snips for cutting through tough wire or steel rod and lastly some smaller long nosed pliers for finer work.

Anatomy tools have quick overview of their tool set:

MODELLING WAX

The wax I use is named RM Modelling wax, also referred to as 'brown wax'. In my experience I have come to prefer this wax over similar materials such as Roma and Chavant. I find it less 'sticky' and it does not cling to the sculpting tool as they do, It feels 'cleaner'. It is available in three grades; start with the Medium Grade and only migrate to using the Hard when you are confident with the sculpting process.

The wax is softened (or melted) beneath a desk lamp in a Pyrex bowl. A 60w bulb is needed to quickly melt the wax to a good working consistency. I tend to heat the wax so that I get a pool of wet (liquid) wax at one end of the bowl, the other end away from the direct heat of the bulb to give me a range of different states of wax to work with. The wax cools fast once removed from under the bulb, returning to it's solid 'room temperate' state.

I don't tend to use many other sculpting materials, such as Sculpty, but if you want to create a model without delving into the process’ of mould making and casting then these are perfect. They can be oven hardened and ready for painting and/or display on completion. Sculpty has a particular way of working and I find using it like working with chewing gum, and tend to grimace at even the thought of them. Many people swear by them so I would still recommend giving them a try.

I also use an Alcohol Burner which can be filled with methylated spirits and used to warm/heat the sculpting tools to melt or fuse the wax. Lighter Fluid is used with a soft brush to smooth over finished models, which helps rid of small blemishes and minor tool marks.

It should be noted that it should only be applied at the last stage of the sculpt process. The Lighter Fluid eats away at the surface of the wax and sculpting after application can be a mess. You can wait till it dries, but it also dries out the wax so use should be restricted.

Super Glue is also handy for glueing armatures into the base. Any brand of glue will do but make sure the lighter fluid is extra refined.

SUPPLIERS

In the next chapter we discuss gathering reference materials to help inform your sculpture, and some of the resources available out there.

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