Sculpting an Original Character from Polymer Clay

This video is sponsored by Squarespace. From websites and online stores to marketing tools and analytics, build your online presence with Squarespace. Hey everyone, Ace of Clay here, welcome back to my channel and welcome to another sculpting video. Today we're going back in time and I'm re-sculpting this guy. Now he is my first serious sculpture and what I mean by first serious sculpture is that he is the first sculpture that I really sat down and thought about and really put some time into and he's kind of the reason why I'm here today. If I didn't sculpt him, I never would have realized that I loved sculpting so much. So anyway, long story short, there is a reason why he looks the way that he does and you'll find out later in the video. I just remember having so much fun making him. I made him so big that I had to lay him down in the oven and that was extremely nerve-wracking and he's made out of 100% Sculpey original. This was before I even discovered Super Sculpey. That's how old this guy is and we're going to remake him today. So if that sounds like something you'd like to watch, then hit like, hit subscribe, sit back and relax. Let's get started. All right, let's get this guy started with the armature. I'm using 12 gauge aluminum wire and I shaped out the torso and legs and now I'm attaching another piece of wire for the arms with some floral wire. And as always, all of the materials that I use in this video are listed in the description box below along with my affiliate links if you want to purchase anything. Now I'm just going to bulk out the torso with some Super Sculpey ultralight. And once that's roughed out, we're going to bake this and then once it's baked and completely hardened, I'm going to cover the entire thing in some Super Sculpey original. Now using a relatively thick snake of clay, we're going to go and start creating the legs. Okay, now just to give you a little bit of background on this guy while we're doing that, he is actually inspired by the font Times New Roman. I know that sounds random, but like inspiration can strike from anywhere and he's actually part of a school project from back in college. So all of his features and details don't just come out of thin air like my projects normally do. He is heavily influenced by the history of Times New Roman. And as we keep going throughout this video, I'll explain the Easter eggs as I'm them. So stay tuned for the rest. Now we're just capping off the bottom of his pants with a little flattened snake of clay. Now we're going to go in with a bunch of snakes of clay to create some button up shirt. So I'm just using this rectangular flat sheet of clay, adding it around his neck, and then I'm going to fold it over to create the collar. Now we're going to go ahead and add his vest that I cut out from a sheet of clay. And I'm, of course, not doing the entire vest because he's going to have a jacket over it and I don't want this to bulk out that jacket too much. So I'm just going to blend it in, use my explorer tool to add some details here. Then we're going to add the bottom part of the jacket like so, and then blend the top edge in and voila, he's almost wearing a jacket. Now let's just add those lapels, cut them to size, add the little notches, or I believe this is called a fish mouth, correct me if I'm wrong, and then finish up some details with that explorer tool again. Then here we go, more snakes of clay to create some folds and wrinkles. I have these directed towards the middle of the jacket so that it looks like the buttons are pulling a little bit, the future buttons that I haven't added yet. And this guy's outfit is inspired by 1930s men's fashion as the Times New Roman typeface was created in the early 1930s. So we've got this nice three-piece suit with the vest, jacket, and of course the pants. Now for some pockets and buttons. Now instead of just painting on the edging like I did in the original, I'm going to go ahead and add some piping instead to give it a little more dimension and another level of detail. And as you can see in the original, he is holding a pocket watch, and this is because they were extremely popular in the 30s. So I'm going ahead, and I'm using this snake chain to create the chain for the watch. And I just poked a hole into the figure, and then I fed the chain through after adding a little bit of bake and bond. Just securing everything, and then adding some buttons to his little vest. And then we're going to brush the entire surface with clay softener to remove fingerprints and get this thing baked. And the pocket watch also alludes to the word time. Times New Roman, time, pocket watch, get it? Alright. Now I'm going to go ahead and shape out his arms with some more clay. And once his arms and sleeves are done, we're going to start his hands. I'm using Super Sculpey Firm for these. And once the first hand is done, I'm just going to slide it onto the wire with some bake and bond, and then position it like he's holding that pocket watch. Now to make the pocket watch, I just took this piece of clay, flattened it with my fingertips, and then I'm using this nice Sculpey mini cookie cutter type thing to create the perfect circle for it. Super easy and super effective. And I'm going to feed the other end of the snake chain into that, of course with a little bit of bake and bond. Add a little trim around the face of the watch, and then I'm going to place it in his hand with some bake and bond. But before I do that, I have to finish off his sleeve. And now I can place it in his hand. Now to create the newspaper that he's holding, I've rolled the clay through my pasta roller on the 5 or 6 setting, I believe, and I'm just folding it over to create the different sheets of paper. And the reason I included the newspaper is because Times New Roman was actually created for the British newspaper, The Times, back in 1931. And if you're wondering why I chose Times New Roman to inspire me for this figure, it is because Times New Roman is one of the most popular typefaces, if not the most popular typeface in the world, and it's also installed on your computer. Like, you've probably written many papers with Times New Roman. And it's actually one of the preferred fonts for MLA format. Now for the fun part, and the hardest part for me personally on this project, the head. After shaping out the core from aluminum foil and covering it in some Super Sculpey Firm, I'm going to add some pre-baked balls of clay for the eyes. And of course, throughout this entire process, I tried so hard to keep it as close to the original as possible because I love, love how I did the face on the original one. I think it's my favorite character in sculpt that I have ever made, ever. And it was literally like my first serious sculpture. Alright, now let's keep going with those facial features. And normally I wouldn't pre-bake eyes, I just like to sculpt them into the face. I did it this time just because, well, one, I did it the first time around, and two, because I wanted the eyes to maintain a very round shape, and this is just an easier way to do it. You can always make your eyes this way if you want, it's just totally up to your personal preference. the facial hair. We're going to give him this nice curly mustache. This was just a teardrop shape that I textured with my pin tool. Now I am rolling up the pointy edge and attaching it to his face with some bake and bond. Now let's do it again on the other side. And I could seriously make mustaches all day like this. It's such a satisfying process for me, I don't know why. Now let's poke out the shape of his ears, and then add his eyebrows before I forget, and then texture those. Now let's brush the entire surface with clay softener to remove fingerprints, and then before I forget, again, I'm going to add some wire to hold up the long wisps of hair that I will sculpt after I pre-bake his head. Then once he is baked and completely cooled down, let's add some bake and bond and then start attaching the hair. I am using Super Sculpey Original for the hair just because I'm running low on Super Sculpey Firm. There is no other reason. And then as you can see, as I start shaping out his hair more and more, his head is kind of shaped like a T. Get it? Time's New Roman starts with T, the time starts with T, his head's just a big T. And once I have the general shape done, let's go in and add some extra details to give the hair some more dimension. And now that I'm done with the shape of the hair, I'm going to go in with my explorer tool to add the texture. And now it's time to add some long crazy sideburns. Just adding some more clay like this, shaping it out with my fingertips, and blending it with my spoon tool. Then we're going to texture this with my explorer tool as well. And once the sideburns are done, we're going attach the head to some bake and bond and add some more clay to blend it together. Get him ready for his final bake. And then once he's baked and completely cooled down, it's time for paint. All of the paints that I use in this video are FolkArt brand matte acrylics. And let's start with his skin. Now I picture this guy being a sort of like guy that works for the newspaper back in the day, so we're going to make him look like he's kind of tired because that seems like it would be a very stressful job. You're always there, you always got to have stories, you always got to be on top of things. So I just darkened around his eyes a little bit just like the original. Now I'm shading his cheeks a little bit and then going in with a fine paintbrush to darken some other areas. And really quick before I forget, this guy's name is Victor. I named him Victor Roman. And the reason I named him Victor Roman is because of course Roman from the font name, but because Victor was the name of one of the guys who designed the font. And the other guy's name was Stanley. I thought he looked more like a Victor than a Stanley. After painting the eyes and his button-up shirt, I'm going to go ahead and start the newspaper. I created this nice gray tone by mixing brown, pure black, and warm white. Adding a little bit of brown to your grays creates a warmer gray as opposed to just doing black and white. If you do that, it's going to be more on the blue side. I want him to be very warm toned. And now I'm going in with a very fine paintbrush to add little reflections to the eyes. These are just tiny little dots. And remember whenever you do these, put them on the same side of each eye. So they're both either going to be on the left side of the iris or the right side. Do not mirror them. If you mirror them, the eyes are going to look like they're looking in two different directions. Always put them on the same side. And I don't know why my voice keeps cracking, but I'm not re-recording that because it came out very smoothly. Now I'm just going ahead with some golden ochre to add a nice little plaid pattern to his vest. And plaid seems to be very popular in the 30s. Now I'm going to go ahead and paint his pants this nice khaki color that I created using warm white, brown, black, and a little bit of that golden ochre. Now for his suit coat, I'm using brown, pure black, and titanium white to create this nice dull brown shade. Then I darkened that base brown color to create the color for some shading. And we're just going into all the nooks and crannies with that. And then we're doing the same thing with his pants. Now we're going to paint that piping. This is the same color of the pants, I just lightened it a little bit more with some more warm white. We're just carefully going around and painting all that. I'm just going to finish off the tie with a little checker pattern. Now let's paint his hair. And then after lightening the hair color a little bit, I'm going to go ahead and dry brush that on the surface to bring out the detail. And then I'm going to bring more of it close to the sides of his face like that, kind of like he's going gray a little bit. And then lighten his eyebrows and his mustache. Paint the face of the watch, I painted the rest of the watch brown, the color of his jacket, and then I go over this with some gold later on. And now I'm just painting some details on the newspaper and writing Ace as the headline. Alright, let's finish off that pocket watch face. Paint his shoes dark brown, add some nice metallic gold to the rest of the watch. And then I'm going to paint his base this nice gray color. I didn't want to go with brown because it would have been way too much brown. And he's done! My character Victor Roman is complete! Let me know what you think of this guy in the comments and how you think I did. And then if you used any of the tips and techniques in this video on your own projects, share them to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and tag me at AceofClay or hashtag AceofClay so I can check them out. Now stay tuned for my final thoughts. And that's a wrap! I really hope you like my new version of my Victor character. I could not be happier with this thing. I think he looks like 10 times better than the original. But there is still something about the original's face that I wasn't really able to capture. I don't know what it is. Maybe if I would have spent a little bit more time. I don't know. But all in all, I think he looks a lot better. He's a way more reasonable scale. And all in all, I just think he looks more polished and better. Let me know what you think in the comments. And then before we wrap up, let's talk about our sponsor Squarespace. Whether you're just getting started or you're an established brand, the Squarespace commerce platform supports the way you do business. Whether you want to sell products directly or even bill for your services, they've got you covered. For me personally, I love Squarespace for their portfolios. I am constantly updating my website with new photos of my work and I love how customizable the galleries are. And I also want to mention their amazing email support team that is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They're an actual team and an office that will typically respond to your questions within an hour. So with all that said, head on over to squarespace.com to start your free trial. And then when you're ready to launch your website, go to squarespace.com slash aceofclay to get 10% off your first purchase. And as always, thank you so much for watching and being here. Be sure to like, comment and subscribe and then follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter at aceofclay. I'm also on TikTok. Check me out there and I will see you in the next video. Thanks for watching.