head sculpting practice
polycounter lvl 5
Sooo, I have decided I need to tackle one of my greatest weaknesses head-on (haw haw). And that is sculpting heads. Most specifically human female heads. To do that I plan to make at least one sculpt of a female head every day for at least the next couple of weeks. I am sure I need to do more practice than that to actually get really good at it, but this is just my crash course for the moment; something to get me motivated.
For right now I am going to try and practice sculpting females that are supposed to be at least some form of conventionally attractive, as that seems to be the most challenging thing. While I will be using actresses as reference material, I am not aiming for a likeness. Just getting something that looks human and not too much like a man would be great!
So here we go. Any critiques or resources people want to give me would be very much appreciated, of course.
For right now I am going to try and practice sculpting females that are supposed to be at least some form of conventionally attractive, as that seems to be the most challenging thing. While I will be using actresses as reference material, I am not aiming for a likeness. Just getting something that looks human and not too much like a man would be great!
So here we go. Any critiques or resources people want to give me would be very much appreciated, of course.
Replies
The lips might benefit from some tightening on the edges, so as to look less puffed. You have the anatomy almost down (I'm sure others would be of greater help in that regard). I would suggest bringing the bottom of the tip down a bit, as you can see in the link below.
Work on the ears so that they're a lot thinner. Right now they're under-developed.
Check here: http://cdn-3.howtodrawit.com/img/ears.jpg
I have to ask, what are you looking to get out of this? Do you want to make them more aesthetic/stylized/etc. or do you want advice on anatomy? This will help people give more accurate critiques instead of dilly-dallying (like above!)
So, what am I trying to get out of this... I am looking for critiques mainly on anatomy and proportions of the face. It can be hard for me to "see" my own work well, so I like to have other people tell me what looks off and what needs to be fixed. I am not going for stylized, although the faces won't have the level of detail that a finished sculpt would. I am just hoping to improve my sense of anatomy and proportion and to try to learn how to make pleasing-looking realistic female faces.
I hope that clears things up a little. Here is today's sculpt:
I think there is something I don't understand about the outside corners of the eyes.
You are setting your self up for certain failure. What's going to happen is you're going to keep posting these faces, and then get a bunch of critiques based on other peoples idea of what attractive is, and they will all be very subjective opinions because... females. The same thing happens in studios when you work on females... it's the worst. On top of that your heads will certainly come out generic and boring. Heads are funky as shit, even the most attractive ones have so many subtle asymmetrical forms that give them character, and that's a very important trait you need to convey when doing heads. When it comes to female faces, you never please everyone's aesthetic.
On the other hand, working for a likeness gains you several advantages: Firstly you have context for critique. You can say you're making Jessica Alba, post pictures you are working from, and you wipe subjectivity out of the equation.
Secondly, you're actually learning to make a realistic female face. You're not going to learn this otherwise.
You're going to learn the best way to construct a face. People have been doing it for a very long time and there is an optimal process to this. Grab some books, do some reading and applying.
It's the quickest way from point A to point B.
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Portrait-Sculpting-Anatomy-Expressions-Clay/dp/0975506501"]Portrait Sculpting: Anatomy & Expressions in Clay: Philippe & Charisse Faraut: 9780975506509: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]
The book you linked to looks like a really good one. You are right, I should do more reading on the subject.
Stirls, thanks for the input. I'm glad you think I have a better handle on the lips. They still need some work, though, I think there are some planes I am not quite getting in there. You are right that the medial area of the eye looks pretty squinty.
Obviously this is a huge subject, so what I say is only based on my experiences so far, which I don't think are unsubstantial, but I still have a ton to learn my self.
Maybe a better road is kind of what you're doing, but a little more theoretical, and with 0 emphasis on likeness, or attractiveness. It's very to the point. The sole purpose here is anatomy, and proportion. Really all you would do here is practice placement and size of features to nail proportion, coupled with studies of the literal anatomy of a head, and dressed with studies of the planes of the face (this is in no way an order, they would all be your focus for a while). All you're doing here is training your eye to see the ideal, so that when you are presented with reality, you are seeing slight shifts in that ideal, and executing on them more accurately.
Doing something like this gives you the same advantage I spoke of earlier about doing a likeness. It removes subjectivity from the equation. If you are doing idealized anatomy studies, then there is a clear distinction between what's correct or not, and you'll get lots of useable opinions.
The thing about the face though, and you're only ever going to really get good at this by doing likenesses, is that the theoretical anatomy has so very little to do with how a person looks. Really the only thing you can rely on for facial anatomy is the shape of the skull (very generally). The bony landmarks you typically rely on for the body are almost completely absent between the ears and below the brow. They become soft, wildly varying landmarks, and have so many variables to them that you'll never quite get them down until you do many, many likenesses.