I Sculpted Bob Ross! Polymer Clay Sculpting Tutorial

Hey everyone, I'm Ace of Clay. I'm a sculptor and every week I make a new sculpture. Today I'm sculpting the one and only Bob Ross. I'm sure you all are familiar with Bob Ross. He is the beloved American painter, instructor, and television host of The Joy of Painting. It ran from 1983 to 1994. I remember when I was little I used to watch him on PBS all the time and I was just mesmerized by the paintings he was creating. And he made it look so easy. He taught viewers to paint serene landscapes with a calm, gentle tone. His phrases like happy little trees made him a cultural icon and a source of inspiration for creativity and mindfulness. So today this video is dedicated to Bob Ross. I really hope you enjoy my little tribute to him. And before we get started, don't forget to grab your Otto the Raccoon Guide plush. This guy is my original character and he is available right now at aceofclay.com. He is really nice quality. He features embroidered details, real buttons, a real bow tie. He's got his flashlight, fuzzy hair, horns, and he comes with a hang tag with his entire backstory on it. So if you want to grab one of these they are available right now at aceofclay.com. And you can also get them signed by me if you want. And now without further ado, let's sculpt Bob Ross. All right, let's get started. I've got my wooden base here with the pre-drilled holes and I'm shaping out one side of Bob Ross's armature with some 10 gauge wire. And then I mirrored it to create the other side. Then I'm going to tie both sides together with a third piece of wire for his neck. Now it's time for bulking. Before I add my super sculpey ultralight I want to brush on some bake and bond and then press on my clay and shape out the torso. Once everything looks good let's bake it. And once it's baked and cooled down we're going to cover this in our final layer of clay. For this project, for the body, I'm using super sculpey original. Now I'm going to brush on some bake and bond to those legs and get the clay on them as well. Using bake and bond on the wire is just as effective as wire wrapping in my opinion. Once the legs have been shaped out we're going to add some folds and wrinkles to make it look like he's wearing pants. I'm adding snakes of clay to each wrinkle and then I'm blending them in with the rest of the surface. Once the pants are done it's time to pop on his belt and pant loops. Now for the buckle. Now I'm going to use my super poker to press in the pocket shapes and add some seams. The super poker will be available at aceofclay.com very very soon. Now I'm going to add the part of his shirt that hangs over his waist. And once that's on I'm going to blend the top edge in with the rest of him. Before we move on to his collar I gotta add his neck. I cut this shape out of cosplay and then I folded it over and I'm going to wrap it around his neck like so. This is the actual pattern you would use to create a real collar on an actual shirt. Now we're going to blend the visible edges in with the rest of the shirt. Using a flattened snake of clay I'm creating the opening of the shirt. We're just going to press it on and blend that right edge in with the rest of him and then trim off any excess. For some final details we're going to add some more folds and wrinkles to the shirt with more snakes of clay. And let's finish it off with some buttons. Now we're going to take a break from the body and start his head. I covered a ball of aluminum foil with some zupersculpy living doll and then I'm going to start shaping out the eye sockets and eyes. I like to shape out the eye sockets a little bigger than they're supposed to be just so I can fill them in with the correct amount of clay that will match the person I'm trying to sculpt. Now Bob Ross has hooded eyelids so we're going to add the regular eyelid on first and then we're going to add another piece of clay to create the hooded part. When adding clay I'm the type of person that thinks a little goes a long way. I'd rather add not enough than too much and have to take more away later. Now I'm going to map out where his nose and mouth are going to hit. Now I'm going to use the burnishing end of my super poker to press in some indents around his mouth. When sculpting a likeness you really want to make sure everything is in the correct spot first before you start enhancing things and refining. If things are in the wrong spot it's not going to look like the person even if they're just a little bit off. Using this spearhead tool I'm pressing in the teeth. With the clay that's already there I'm going to start bringing out the bridge of his nose and the nasolabial folds. Now I'm going to carve out his teeth. He is going to be showing his top row of teeth with his smile so we're just going to make sure that's all correct looking before we move forward. Once I'm satisfied with how his mouth is looking we're going to pop on the rest of his nose and next we got to bring out his cheeks. Using my cone rubber shaper we're going to press in his dimple and bring out his chin. As you can see I'm just adding a little bit of clay at a time until it looks right. Once the first side of his face is correct we're going to go ahead and move on to the other side repeating all of those steps. There we go. Now we're going to gently refine things a little bit with my super poker and keep going. Now I'm just going to add a couple little snakes of clay to bring out the brow bone. Now it's mustache and beard time. I'm adding all of the beard shapes first before I blend them in just so I can make sure it looks right. Using my super poker we're going to start texturing the mustache and beard and of course we can't forget the eyebrows. Now let's pop it on. All right we're going to take a quick break from our video to talk about our sponsor BetterHelp. I always have so much going on with my business and my personal life and it definitely adds up after a while. I feel like I'm doing too much and then I feel like I'm not doing enough and then eventually I just get so overwhelmed that I freeze. And then when that happens that can lead to anxiety, depression, and so on. Talking to a therapist allows me to work through my struggles. With BetterHelp you get a safe space to talk where you can share what's on your mind whether it's stress, sadness, worries, or relationship issues without fear of judgment. The therapist, a trained mental health professional, is there to listen, ask questions, and help you see things from new perspectives. 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Since I didn't bank the body yet, I can easily blend his neck into his new head. Now we're just going to add a little bit of texture with Bake and Bond and clay softener and bake him. Now we're going to give him his iconic props. We got a paint palette that we're out of this sheet of clay and we're going to make him a nice big paintbrush. I reinforced the handle of the paintbrush with a toothpick and we're just shaping out the bristles now. Once the props are done, we're going to go ahead and bake these too. Now to add his hair to his pre-baked head, I'm using some Super Sculpey Ultralight just so it doesn't weigh him down too much and we're just texturing the surface with my Super Poker. And once the hair looks pretty good, we're going to go ahead and finish his arms. Using my Super Poker again, we're going to press in some folds and wrinkles. Now for the hands, I'm making these out of Cosclay and if you want a full detailed hand tutorial, check out the video for that on my channel. Now it's time to give him his paintbrush and let's finish off his sleeve. His other hand is going to be holding the palette so we're going to make it sort of mitten shape for that one. And we're just going to stick the palette on with a little bit of Bake and Bond. And we're going to add his little thumb poking through that hole. For the last sculpting step, we got to give him some shoes. And once those are done, we're going to get him in the oven one final time. And once he's baked and cooled down, it's time for paint. I'm using an assortment of craft acrylics and we're starting with his skin. Once my base color is on, we're going to use a lighter version of that color to add some highlights with a little bit of dry brushing. For the whites of his eyes, I mixed some white in with his skin color just so they're not stark white. Using a fine paintbrush and a dark wash, we're going to go into all the little nooks and crannies on his face. And now with that same brown color, we're going to add his irises. Now let's get those eyebrows painted. Now for the beard. Once all my base colors are on, I'm going to use a brown wash, a very light brown wash, and we're going to go into all the different parts of his face and add some shading and dimension and really just make it look more like him. If you're making a likeness, you want to make sure that you're still looking at your reference photos even when you're painting. Now I'm going to dry brush some lighter brown on his hair just to give it a little bit more dimension. Now let's paint his iconic light blue button up. And here my dog Lucy really wanted to see what I was doing. Hi Lucy. Using a darker blue than the color of his shirt, I'm going to go in and deepen some of those wrinkles. Now for the palette. I want this to look like he's in the process of using it, so we're going add a little blob of paint and then drag it downwards like he's mixing colors and adding to his masterpiece. Now let's paint up his pants with a nice denim dark blue color and then we're going to dry brush a lighter blue to bring out the details. Now throughout this entire painting process, something just looked off on him and it was because I didn't give him bangs. So we're going to do that now. This is illegal, but we're going to add some more clay after this guy is painting. I brushed on some baking bond so that it sticks and then we're going to just texture some bangs and bake them again and cross our fingers and hope everything goes well. And after he's baked again, we're going to paint him up and it's like nothing ever happened and I think he looks way better with the bangs. Now we're going to paint up his ace of clay premium super smooth sculpture base and stick them on. Now say it with me. And he's done. My sculpture of Bob Ross is complete. Let me know how you think I did in the comments. I love how this turned out and I love Bob Ross. I really hope that you enjoyed this video. Bob Ross is such a cultural icon and so many people love him even to this day. He's super famous. His legacy truly lives on in the hearts of artists everywhere, of course mine included. So again, I really hope you enjoyed this sculpting video. As always, thank you so much for watching and being here. Be sure to like, comment, and subscribe. Check me on Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok at Ace of Clay. Join my Facebook group, Snakes of Clay. Check out aceofclay.com to see everything I have to offer like sculpting supplies and more and I will see you in the next video. Thanks for watching.