Table of Contents
Welcome to the Journey of Sculpting Clay Figures
What is Sculpting Clay Figures?
In this guide to sculpting clay figures with air dry clay, we've mentioned sculpting clay figures several times, so what do we mean by sculpting clay figures?
Sculpting clay figures is one of the most popular arts and crafts in recent years, and there are more and more people creating their favourite clay figures by learning to sculpt clay figures, which can be based on characters from anime, manga, games, original characters or even people in the real world.
The two most popular ways to sculpt clay figures are using air dry clay and polymer clay as the material; if you are a beginner, then I suggest you choose to use air dry clay; it is not only affordable but also simple to use and easy to practise, the examples in this guide are also using air dry clay as the primary material, you can learn all kinds of details and techniques of sculpting clay figures in this comprehensive guide.
Why Teach How to Sculpting Clay Figures?
PicoDIY Studio was founded in September 2018, and over the years, we have trained many skilled clay artists who excel in air dry and polymer clay arts. You can see more of our work on our social media.
In sharing and promoting clay art, we have learned that many people are very interested in clay art and want to learn clay sculpting techniques to sculpt their clay figures. For this reason, we have compiled a comprehensive beginner's guide for beginners, which we hope will help those who want to try their hand at clay art to get started quickly; where you will learn the nuts and bolts of sculpting clay figures in different scales and styles.
This guide includes five different character designs, from easy to difficult, from simple to complex, showcasing various techniques and skills, if you have strong execution ability, you will gain the most from this guide.
Overview
This guide is for beginners sculpting with air dry clay and clay artists looking to improve their sculpting skills; the content of each of our chapters has been planned so that if you are an experienced clay artist, you can skip some of the previous basic chapters.
Chapters 1-2 introduce clay materials, tools, and basic knowledge, while Chapters 3-7 showcase five selected clay figure sculpture examples.
The guide analyses the difficult points in case-making, explains the small techniques, and provides clear, graphic step-by-step instructions.
With this guide, you can learn:
- Introduction and use of clay materials and tools
- Color Mixing Techniques for Clay
- Sculpting Basic Shapes with Clay
- Points for Sculpting Clay Figures with Different Head-to-body Ratios
- Painting with Acrylics on Clay (faces, clothing patterns, etc.)
- Sculpting Body Parts
- Sculpting Costumes
- Sculptural Jewelry & Props
We'll spend time on each of these areas throughout this guide, but we wanted to introduce it here because it offers a look at how we structured the guide as a whole.
Explore the chapters:
Chapter 1: The Complete Guide to Beginner Clay Sculpting Tools and Their Usage
In this chapter, I will explore clay sculpting tools and their usage with you; whether you're an experienced clay artist or a beginner just starting, I'm sure that after you read this article, you'll have more new perspectives and takeaways on clay sculpting tools and their usage, so let's get started!
Chapter 2: Clay Sculpting for Beginners: Quick Start Guide (with Step-by-step Pictures)
I will share some knowledge about air dry clay sculpting for beginners in this chapter. You'll learn how to mix your desired color, craft commonly seen shapes, and design the head-to-body proportion of your clay figure. These are essential skills for beginners.
Chapter 3: A Quick Guide to Sculpting Chibi Boy Figures with Air Dry Clay
This chapter highlights the use of air dry clay in sculptingchibiboy figures, explicitly emphasizing the head-to-body ratio characteristics and sculpting of chibi figures. The anthropomorphized male cat in this example stands at the height of three heads, with his head, torso, and legs measuring nearly the same length.
Chapter 4: A Quick Guide to Sculpting Chibi Girl Figures with Air Dry Clay
This chapter will focus onchibigirl head-to-body proportions, the use of acrylic paints, and clay flower decoration. This chibi girl is characterized by a modified Chinese Tang suit and lotus flower hair ornament, which gives her an ancient charm. Lotus flowers are used as the pattern decoration for the costume, and lotus flowers and tassels for the hair ornament and costume.
Chapter 5: How to Sculpt Little Scale Anime Figures with Air Dry Clay
This chapter teaches you how to sculpt little scale anime figures with air dry clay. The prototype of the character is a cute high school girl; this character is about five heads tall.
The chibi figures are different in that the scale figures are larger, and the details of the characters tend to be more complex, so that the sculpture will be more difficult; you can learn the main points of sculpting a five head figure and sculpting the skirt folds with a sense of movement, as long as you have mastered these skills, you will find clay craft is fascinating, I bet you will be immersed in the clay world you created.
Chapter 6: How to Sculpt Scale Figures for Summer-Themed
The previous difference is that this chapter on the figure height is 7-head tall, pose using a naughty and cute kneeling. Her skirt has a lot of beautiful lace, which is also the content of this chapter of the sculpture focuses on mastering these sculpture skills. I believe you will be able to sculpt most of the scale figures.
Chapter 7: A Quick Guide to Sculpting Scale Figures with Air Dry Clay
In this chapter, we'll continue sculpting a 7-head tallscale figureand focus on the sculpting details of this character's curly hair and dress; after studying this chapter, I'm sure you'll be able to master the essentials of sculpting the vast majority of anime scale figures.
Summary
Congratulations! You have found this guide on sculpting clay figures. We want to make more people aware of clay art, and those who love clay art can learn more clay sculpting techniques through this guide; we encourage those who have encountered difficulties to ask questions below the post and more people to share their sculpting tips below the post, if you find the contents of this guide valuable, please share them with more people and let more people know about it.
