Adding volume and hair

 Today is Friday, and I am again working at my bust. I am enjoying the process very much, and can't wait to work on her hair. I am worried about carving the volume out to make her hollow, but... one step at a time.

I started by finishing her left eye. I always make my eyes by putting on the lower eyelid and then the upped eyelid, so there is a little overlap and the eye looks more natural; it is a different experience working at this scale!

After adding the lids, I smooth them to blend to the skin.

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The first thing I realized when I looked at her today was how round her head was; this is because her head was built around a round ball of newspaper. My first step to correct this was adding more volume to her chin, nose and forehead.

I made a large, flat flap of clay and cut off the shape of the eyes, so that it builds an eyebrow bone around her eye, accentuating the eye cavity.

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The forehead is starting to look better, but still a little flat; the chin addition was a huge improvement to her profile, however.

before

after

She is starting to look more human!

I added even more to her forehead to make her a little more human, and looked for some photographs as sources in order to make her ear. Below, a picture of her with a very flat, rudimentary ear...

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...and below, you can see how the ear starter was made: a small slice of a circle works to separate the ear from her head, just like in real humans!

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The ear is a tricky beast, so I figured I'd make step-by-step of how I made it right below. This also makes me think I should have smaller step-by-steps on building the nose, eyes and mouth; I'll do this in the end, when the bust is completed.

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First, I added the two starting lines: one for the upper lobe, and one near the ear canal. Then, I started carving the ear, switching between round carving tools and sharper ones, depending on how sharp I wanted the edges to look.

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After I carved the valleys of the ear, I also added the ridges and peaks back where needed. One thing I have been using is a wet paintbrush, which I touch on areas I need to stay moist so that they don't dry too quickly. Things that dry too quickly tend to separate and crack off! The horror.

Adding a little moisture.

Starting to look really good!

I started adding more rudimentary hair, but wanted to see how it would look like if I added a curl near the earlobe. This is what I have so far!

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I also noticed the back of her head was missing volume. It looked like her cranium was too short, which made her look unrealistic. I started adding clumps of clay to the back, as well as more hair. To add the hair, I made long, thick coils, and added them by pressing and twisting as I went, a lucky technique I came up with which ended up giving my sculpture a somewhat Rastafarian look. I am not sure how much of the original dreadlocks I will cover in the end!

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This is what I have in the end of the day. I feel this was a very productive day!

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