Simon Lee Workshop - Week 4,5 & 6

I found after doing the 2" skull that the much smaller head on my character was easier and I am getting a better feel for handling the clay.  After roughing in the head I then went back to adjusting the pose and also thinking of the overall composition placing my character so he has just landed on a rocky ledge causing a rock slide.

Feeling quite happy with this roughed in stage I now need to work on the anatomy. In Week 4 videos Simon showed his tools and also how you can make your own loop tools from thin armature wire or guitar strings attached to wooden dowels or anything that would make a handle.

Week 5 videos went over further refinement using loop and ball stylus tools along with isopropyl alcohol to smooth out hard edges and tool marks. In Week 6 videos Simon also discussed the more advanced stages of moving into multiple character compositions and also adding other characters and props to reinforce your main character.  He also showed some very cool examples of his own sculptures which were amazing and very inspiring. One of this weeks videos showed how to approach sculpting hands and he does this without any armature wire as he feels the use of wire would stiffen the gesture.

For me the next step is to see how far I can take my anatomy knowledge with this character and then I shall move onto the next one and keep practising these stages of Simon's process. I do not have the skills yet to design like this from my imagination with drawing so it is pretty exciting to have got to this stage so quickly. I guess that is the beauty of Simon Lee's design approach and I highly recommend his online course.