CREATING A FIGURE ARMATURE FOR SCULPTURE

Step 6 FINAL STEPS

If you were using a different armature wire, like 3/16", then you would use a 3/16th drill bit. Don't try to use the wrong bit (go out and buy one if you don't have it already) or the armature wire won't fit snug and will wobble and give you problems later on! Another reason you want the wire to fit snug is to avoid gluing it down since you want to be able to remove your sculpture once its done to then place it onto a more permanent base for displaying or for molding purposes.

Using my reference I can continue posing the wire until I'm satisfied (or close enough) the pose I'm after. It is normal to tweak the pose during the clay stages as well, which is why you want to use an armature that is sturdy, yet flexible enough, to allow tweaks as during the clay stage.
Optional step:

Using Apoxie Sculpt putty (non-toxic epoxy putty made for artists: cures to a rock hard surface in a few hours!) to make bones can be beneficial for sculptors that want to make sure they bend their armature only at specific points (such as a joint).

By locking down the armature with Apoxie Sculpt (or similar putty) your armature will behave much like a real body would and not make spaghetti bends in your work.

I proceed to place it on the wire to act like "bones". I make sure I leave the joints free though because I want to be able to freely tweak the pose during sculpting.

Remember this putty cures to a rock hard finish so there won't be any flexibility where it is placed! This is good because when you are sculpting, and you want to tweak the pose, you will only be able to bend the armature according to the joints (like a real skeleton) because they were left exposed. The last thing you would want to do is to use pliers when you have clay on your piece. The putty takes care of this, as it will only bend at predetermined points!

I continue to putty the figure making sure I don't bulk her up too much (keep it skinny!) or I may find myself with areas of putty poking through the clay. This is true especially for smaller scale female figures (like this one). At 1/4 scale you have a bit more "meat" to work with. As you can see (left) I also made a small ball of putty to serve as a head support. In some cases it may be ideal to make the head removable. All you would have to do is use a piece of brass tubing that fits over the 1/8th wires snugly (but not too tight!). Instead of making the ball of putty on the actual armature wire, you would make it on the brass tube (still following your initial guide of course) and you would keep the centre armature wire straight. This way you can simply remove the head with ease (just make sure the tubing isn't too tight!).

Once you are done puttying all that is left to do is let the material sit and cure (usually a couple of hours depending on the temperature/climate).

If you don't want to wait you can use a heat gun or hair dryer on a LOW setting to speed up the process (a high setting would cause it to bubble and expand or burn!).

One thing to note is that the putty will become soft when heated and could tend to sag (it gets harder as it cools) so I tend to heat it up in waves allowing it to cool a bit in between...

Well that's about it! Of course this isn't the only way of making an armature, every artist has their own method, but this has worked for me. Of course please feel free to tweak the process so that it works best for you!

Comments

[Xombie Doll]

what is the name of the book in the background?

[SharonBugs]

Thank you for your tutorial. I have now learnt what's an amarture, how to start, and what to do for my Indian Dancer figurine. You are so much more helpful and informative than my scultpture class instructor!!

[pumpkinman]

amazing musculature. And the face is astounding, for how long have you been doing this?

[kiwi_soccer_maniac]

Agreed