I neglected to note that I sculpt most of my portraits in super sculpey firm grey clay. This is an oven-dry polymer clay that is much firmer than standard sculpey. While a little more expensive, it has properties I really like. Once baked it can be drilled, cut, sanded, and shaved more effectively than othersculpies. It also results in a much stronger, dense and smoother sculpture, somewhat similar in finish to some epoxy putties like Magic Sculpt. Most important, its strong and will take being dropped without shattering.
Most of my sculpting is done with colour shaper rubber tipped brushes (also known as clay shapers.) These come in 3 different colours/textures and in several different sizes. White is softest, grey is the middle firmness and black is the densest rubber. All have their uses. They can be used to apply oil or acrylic paint to a canvas or to sculpt clays and putties.
The two most useful shapes I find are the round chisel and the cone, at least in my experience. I also use the flat chisel a fair bit. I usually start using the colour shapers as soon as the major planes of the face have been established by carving an orb of wet putty with a # 11 Xacto knife blade.
In additon to the colour shapers, I also use a selection of other sculpting tools I have acquired over the years. I have about 30 cheap wooden tools from Michael's Art Store that come in very handy from time-to-time. The tools look something like those shown to the right.
I also have a large number of relatively inexpensive steel wax sculpting tools, mostly acquired from a major jewellery tool supplier here in Toronto. These tools are useful in certain situations but I use them sparingly. The photo below to the left shows some examples of such tools.
Much of my sculpting, after the basic shape of the face is established, is done with a paint brush and varying amounts of sculpey dilutant. Sculpey dilutant is an oil based substance that softens sculpey and, if enough is used, actually dissolves it, sometimes reducing it to a clay slip. The dilutant also serves as a glue, enabling wet sculpey to be added to the base cured sculpt, When additional sculpey is added, dilutant applied with a brush allowing the added material to be smoothed in with no seams or joins showing. For example, one can add muscles, tendons, hair, brows, nose details etc. to the base face shape. Don't get it in your mouth as its bitter as h**l!
Once the sculpt is done and baked, rough patches and excess material can be removed. The sculpt can be sanded but I prefer to scrape the excess off with Rio Rondo's carbide scrapers. These little known tools are among the most useful I own. They are superb for removing mold flash from resin, plastic or metal castings. They are also excellent for carving cured epoxy putty and sculpey. While major carving is done in the early stages with a dremel motor tool, the carbide scrapers are my detail tools of choice. They remain extremely durable and remain sharp after years of use. These tools are available from: http://www.riorondo.com/
