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I'm rubbish at sculpting, none of my friends are into the hobby, the redshirts near me can't sculpt a damn and there don't seem to be 'general' sculpting tutorials particularly easily locatable. I can find a few "how to sculpt a hand" style tutorials, but would really like someone to sit with me and show me how to sculpt, or a decent video of sculpting techniques would help. I understand that at Adepticon and other big events, there are various hobby classes you can go to, but I live in the UK so can't go to those. Can anyone suggest a way that I haven't thought of so that I can get better at this sculpting malarkey? I've got some ideas I'd just love to do, but I can't find tutorials for the specific weird things in my head! I know that I could just 'have a go until I got it right', but I'm so bad, this could take a lifetime.....

Thanks in advance!

ive only just started with it (a few months now)
just keep trying random things, you start to pick up tricks on how to make certain parts, what works well and what needs to be avoided etc etc.

*pokes my blog in siggy*

thats what ive got so far after a few attempts at random parts, and asking a few questions on dakka (there are some amazing sculpters on here that should be more than happy to help)

Try these out.

http://www.polymerclayfan.com/sculpting-tutorials

http://www.sciborminiatures.com/en_,sculpting.php


that one should also help.

They're a great help. Thanks to both of you!

If anyone else has any ideas, please help too!

There is a little forum from Troll Forged Miniatures which is basically a sculptors community. Besides people sculpting stuff and submitting their material to be cast (and potentially sold) there are also sculpting tutorials and such. There are a whole bunch of tutorials and links on the forum itself, and of course most members are sculptors themselves who could help you out with your problems!

Practice makes perfect is what I hear people say.

But then again no one is perfect so why bother to practice

Its the exact reason I started a Salamanders army, to stretch my skills.

Time and practice!

Time to work on each piece, and practice seeing what you can make green stuff do!

Hmm, some interesting tutorials on here. Thanks for posting, everyone. I'll add one later if I can find it.

Please do Gordino!

I know that I need to practice practice practice, but a few helpful hints can't hurt... I'm always keen to stretch myself, so I may just have to do that now that I am armed with the various links provided so far. Thanks again all.

InyokaMadoda wrote:Please do Gordino!

I know that I need to practice practice practice, but a few helpful hints can't hurt... I'm always keen to stretch myself, so I may just have to do that now that I am armed with the various links provided so far. Thanks again all.

QFT

Practice, and trying difficult projects are the key to improvement.
Yes, tutorials, hints 'n' tips etc are very useful, and the most important thing is not to become demoralised.

Comparing your 1st sculpt to the latest Golden Demon Conversion Winner will make yours look poor.
Not that it is poor, just that there are people with more practice/time/experience.
Rate your models by YOUR standard, not by what someone else can do.

I'm awful at sculpting, but try now and then.
Stick with it, make some nice stuff. Post pics.

I'm getting a lot more comfortable with sculpting now that I've been practising a lot more. My biggest tip for you is get the right tools. I picked up a pack of wooden sculpting tools for a few dollars at my local art supply store, and while I really only use one of the tools, it's the best one I've ever used. You can also pick up some of those dentist scraper tools as well (details with these are key).

Also you need to find the right consistency of GS that you can work with the best. I found that when I sculpt, I can always get better results when using slightly more yellow (instead of using equal amounts of blue and yellow). Just make sure if you do that, you have either a lot of water near you, or saliva (though I couldn't tell you how safe it is to eat tiny bits of putty by accident ).

On a side note, I taught myself how to sculpt... just took a lot of patience, trial and error... (a lot of the latter, hehe).

I just started sculpting a few little things(like the bases for dark minatures bases contest) and my one bit of advice is to try simple things first to build confidence, and work on your familiarity with the materials you are using and the techniques you are learning.

I sugggest a few simple shapes that most people instinctivly know ... leaves, a tree stump, etc. Things you don't even really need reference material to look at and say, "yep it looks like an XYZ". Those will help you figure out what tools you need to shape and smooth, what tools you like for adding fine detail, etc. Your expectations will also be a little lower and easier to critque fairly if you don't start out trying to sculpt full finished figures. I know I judge my project failures rather harshly when I am working on a model that needs the result in order to look good, and i am a little easier and fair on myself if I just did it to see what I could do.

Meph

Just a side idea, take a sculpt your reasonably happy with and either put it to one side or photgraph it.

In a months time, take it out and compare to the work your doing then....

Your mind will play tricks on you that your not improving, but if your practicing you WILL improve, having a back reference can really give your confidence a boost, but put it out of the way for a bit otherwise you will keep looking at it and it will loose the mental impact.

Once you have done that, keep it to hand to remind you how far you have progressed.

The other mental trick is to not worry about what your using up, every mistake is an oportnity to learn but if you berate yourself for "Wasting Greenstuff" or such you will quickly get demoralised and give up, if every piece is a potential success but your not worried if its not, things will flow smoother!

Another tip, we ALWAYS mix more GS then we are going to use, to help with practice, and to help with the not worrying about waste, take any spare and just do silly things with it, make miniture mushrooms or snails, practices flattening it out smoothly, or making thin cables/sausages of it..... the "play" aspect will take away some of the self imposed pressure, plus it will stop you messing with the work you've just put down AND even though your messing arround your still practicing basic skills and you never know, some little thing your messing with could end up on the base of a figure, but as its effectively scrap your not loosing anything, and if anything becomes usefull Bonus!!

Enjoy what your doing, its afterall a hobby, and its not like your packing parachutes! :-)

Druidic's totally correct, folks. Read his text.

This isn't a bad tutorial either. Definitely some useful info in there, especially the face thing.

Thanks. Really. All of you. There is some great help in here and I value and appreciate all of your help.

What I've got in mind is a complete repositioning of a tyranid warrior and the sculpting I need to be able to do is to sculpt the bits to cover the joins plus a few additional details I've got in mind. I think I'm just going to have to brace myself and go for it. I'll certainly do the "playing" bit that druidic suggests! I primarily enjoy painting and modelling rather than gaming, so I am always looking to improve. And I will certainly post piccies on here when I actually manage to find the time to sit down and sculpt some.

Thanks so far. Any more hints are always appreciated!

i do agree that practice is the key

Thanks to everyone that posted the links. This is helpful for me too.