Tips for Sculpting

[Carcharodontosaurus]

I have seen a lot of people sculpting dinosaur models on the forum, and I wanted to give it a shot myself. However, I couldn't find any topic on the forum that explained to newbies generally how to go about it. (i.e. what type of clay to use, what tools, how to make the armatures, etc) I would appreciate it if anyone who has experience sculpting prehistoric creatures could give tips and help to budding sculptors, like myself.

[Jetoar]

Hi  Carcharodontosaurus. For my scultures I use a Epoxy putty of two components. I use as armature a wire with foil to add mass. The tools I  use are carving/sculpting tools. With a small details i use a toothpick too  .

[tyrantqueen]

You can find lots of good tutorials on DeviantART. Not many are for sculpting dinosaurs specifically, but just for general sculpting techniques, they're very useful. I always found dragon tutorials useful, because some of the techniques discussed there can be adapted for dinosaurs (scales).

Some of my favourites:
http://www.deviantart.com/art/sculpting-tut-part1-armature-base-300127778
http://www.deviantart.com/art/Making-figurine-hairs-animal-fur-tutorial-part-2-436539674
http://www.deviantart.com/art/Making-dragon-dinosaur-creature-monster-or-420530687

I'm sure there are plenty more.

[Carcharodontosaurus]

Thank you for the help. I am hoping to start work on a mononykus/shuvuuia sculpyt in the coming weeks.

[Archinto]

If you use suoer sculpey to work with its pretty easy to use. Your hands are one ofthe best smoothing tools. Get the whole thing looking somewhat how you like by hand before resorting to tools. Looking at pictures of the dinosaur when sculpting will help you when sculpting finer details.

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

I tend to bake one part at a time, legs, etc. and build piece by piece on the armature. It helps as I don't really have to be careful when I'm doing other parts. Good references also help. 

[Carcharodontosaurus]

Pachyrhinosaurus, how do you attach the separately baked parts to the armarure- do you leave a hole in it and the slide it into the wire?

[Viergacht]

I prefer boiling Sculpey to baking it, it keeps the small pieces from turning brown and is less likely to damage plastic if you're adding to a figure.

[Newt]

Hi, Carcharodontosaurus, you've gotten some great advice already but I'll throw my two cents in anyways. Sculpting is a lot of fun, but it can be frustrating, especially if you start off too ambitious. My advice is geared towards saving you a few early headaches.

First, think about what size you want your sculpture to be. It's tempting to start out very small. Sculpting miniatures isn't easy; I suggest trying something larger at first. For me, hamster- to guinea-pig-sized sculptures are most comfortable.

Also, a bulky, stable quadruped will be much easier to start with than a slim biped - if I were you, I would wait a while on trying an alvarezsaurid. It will require some good armature engineering, and that takes a bit of experience to figure out.

Third, I like to keep some non-hardening modeling clay on hand for "sketching"; it's much quicker to work with than polymer clay or epoxy and lets you figure out tough problems without committing your expensive hardening medium. I use Monster Clay, but any oil-based clay would work.

Some thoughts on armatures
Of course there are many ways to go, these are just my preferences. I'm assuming you will use polymer clay (such as Sculpey), but most of this will apply to other kinds of clay as well.

For armatures, I tend to stick with the tried-and-true wire armature. "Armature wire" that you can buy at art stores is a dead soft aluminum alloy. It's great stuff - bends easily, stays where you put it, and can be easily shaped by hammering or grinding if needed. Its biggest drawbacks are its price and its inability to hold much weight (that's one reason I suggest holding off on Mononykus; you would need a stiffer wire in order to make an armature that could support the model without slumping, while still being small enough to keep the legs well-proportioned).

If you're a cheapskate like me, you can use wire from the hardware store, but none of it will be as soft and dead (i.e., not springy) as the armature wire. Aluminum and copper are usually softest, then brass, and steel is stiffest.  These are just generalizations; there is much overlap depending on the alloy composition and heat treatment of the wire - for example, tie wire is much softer than music wire, while lock wire is somewhere in between, though all are made of steel. If you need a really stiff wire, you can use thin metal rod. Avoid wires with plastic coatings.

Curves can be made in most kinds of wire with your hands; sharper bends can be made with pliers. You can cut wire with wire cutters, or just get the kind of pliers that have a wire cutter built in.

Don't rush through the armature. Make sure you get the proportions right and the structure strong; it's hard to fix the armature once there's clay on it! I like to make the armature in a neutral standing pose, then, once I'm satisfied with the proportions, shape it into the sculpture's final pose. You can always tweak the pose as you sculpt. Also be sure you don't get the armature too close to where the sculpture's surface will be; it will get in your way and can negatively affect the way the clay cures.

There are various ways to attach different parts of the armature together (for example, where the limb armatures join the body-axis armature). You can simply tie them together with more wire, glue them with superglue or epoxy glue, or mold epoxy putty around the joint. Thicker parts of the sculpture can be bulked out with wadded aluminum foil to save clay/weight. Use thin wire to wrap the foil onto the armature. Use more of that thin wire to wrap all around the armature - even the parts without foil - to give the clay something to cling to.

Depending on your sculpture's pose, you may need to support the armature. There are several ways to do this. You can simply make some or all of the leg wires extra-long and drill holes in a temporary wood base for them to slide into. You may need to make a more elaborate support post, especially for bipeds; I'll post more about that later. On the other hand, if your sculpture is in a very stable pose, you may not need any support and just leave the sculpture free-standing. That's what I did with this armature for a cat sculpture:


Basic armature in neutral standing pose


Same, now placed in approximate final pose


Bulked out with foil and wrapped with copper wire


First clay added. I put clay around some of the immobile elements, leaving the joints free, to make it easier to change the pose without making bends where I didn't want them to be.

I can post more later, if you like.

[btb300]

This is some seriously informative stuff. I really wish I weren't so clumsy when it comes to things like this. By the way how do you get the proportions right, what source information can be used for that? I know that many 2D side view skeletal diagrams are available, but sculpting sure needs more information than that.

[Carcharodontosaurus]

Thank you, Newt! That is seriously helpful information! I would love to keep seeing your steps! By all means, keep posting!

I have decided against doing any spindly theropods for now, and have decided on the Alaskan hadrosaur Ugrunaaluk. I am think of giving him feathers. My plan for that is to make an impression of the feather covering of my Carnegie Dilong and Caudipteryx by pressing a rounded piece of clay over them, and then baking that clay piece with the imprint, so I create a feather "stamp", if you will. Then I can use that stamp to texture the hadrosaur. Do you think that would work?

[Kayakasaurus]

Hello! I can't wait to see your first Dinosaur sculpture! I use a combination of Sculpey and Magic Sculpt (epoxy on Amazon.com), I can't recommend the Magic Sculpt enough for doing detail work, it looks a lot cleaner than Sculpey, and it's an ideal color for viewing details. I make the scales with homemade texture stamps with indents from poking with pen tips, toothpicks etc. that become the negatives of the scales. Here are some pics of my Leptoceratops and Hylaeosaurus progressing.

[Newt]

Carcharodontosaurus - yes, your feather stamp should work! That is a very useful way to create textures. Ugrunaaluk should be fun, I look forward to seeing your progress.

btb300 - you are right, side views are not enough. Sometimes creators of skeletals give you other views and even cross sections as well, which is very helpful. Photos of museum mounts can be useful. Both skeletals and museum mounts must be treated with some caution - they may be outdated or inaccurate! It's also a good idea to review the primary literature pertaining to the osteology of your subject and its close relatives, as well as relevant works on trackways, soft tissues, and other subjects that may contribute to understanding the animal's life appearance. And of course, ask people who are more knowledgeable to help along the way! 

I will have to dig in my files and find some more photos. Also, I'm beginning a Lambeosaurus sculpture; I can do a detailed step-by-step of that one.

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

Pachyrhinosaurus, how do you attach the separately baked parts to the armarure- do you leave a hole in it and the slide it into the wire?

If it hasn't been answered directly already (I don't have a huge amount of time atm), I don't exactly assemble the model. For example, I make an armature and then do the legs first, and bake it. Then I add the torso, bake that, and then add the head, etc. The earlier parts end up being baked for a longer time than the later ones but I haven't experienced any ill effects because of it.

[Carcharodontosaurus]

Here is my first attempt at an armature for Ugrunaaluk. If anyone sees any huge issues in the structure and strength of the armature, I would like to know! 

[Archinto]

Id wrap the limbs in thin wire so the clay has something to grab on to, otherwise it will want to roll offthe armature as you sculpt.

[Newt]

Looking good! I second Archinto's advice. Also, make sure the foil is tightly compressed - otherwise, it will compress as you add clay and you'll end up using much more clay than anticipated.

[btb300]

Carcharodontosaurus - yes, your feather stamp should work! That is a very useful way to create textures. Ugrunaaluk should be fun, I look forward to seeing your progress.

btb300 - you are right, side views are not enough. Sometimes creators of skeletals give you other views and even cross sections as well, which is very helpful. Photos of museum mounts can be useful. Both skeletals and museum mounts must be treated with some caution - they may be outdated or inaccurate! It's also a good idea to review the primary literature pertaining to the osteology of your subject and its close relatives, as well as relevant works on trackways, soft tissues, and other subjects that may contribute to understanding the animal's life appearance. And of course, ask people who are more knowledgeable to help along the way! 

I will have to dig in my files and find some more photos. Also, I'm beginning a Lambeosaurus sculpture; I can do a detailed step-by-step of that one.

Thanks Newt, that's really interesting. And to take it even further what would be a source for the primary literature? Are papers freely available on that? All I know that in my field of work most of the papers can only be purchased or read in the Journal if you subscribe of course. At the moment I am lucky enough to have access to a huge amount of stuff via the university's nettwork, but I'd guess many people interested do not have this option.
I have read on Greg Paul's website that he has - I quote- "The largest skeletal library in existence, includes almost all dinosaur species for which skeletal restoration can be done." I bet he put a lot of effort to build that, and he is doing a lot to protect his intellectual property there. So is this what every paleoartist should do? These copyright issues are very complicated in this field, as what can and what cannot be used.

[Newt]

btb300 - so as not to derail Carcharodontosaurus' thread, I will post my answer in a new thread. I will also suggest that Greg Paul is not necessarily a good model for how paleoartists ought to behave.