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I've been looking for good tutorials on this subject forever; I can approximate human anatomy, but I'm not particularly good at it, and since the Skitarii I'm working on all have bare and 'roid-bulked arms I'd like to improve. Most sculpting tutorials for minis don't bother doing muscle, just a vague body shape and then on to the armour/clothing, and google is nob-all help.

Videos would be ideal, but I'll take what I can get at the moment.

EDIT: Oh aye, I forgot to ask this; I read a discussion on a more general modelling/sculpting forum in which one person said they mix a small amount of Super Sculpy polymer clay into their ProCreate to extend the working time and make it even more pliable - would such a mixture still need to be baked do you think, or would the ProCreate still cure and fix the polymer along with it?

What might be a good idea is to get some drawing books on anatomy. It would be a great visual reference for you to see the general human body and see how muscles are placed. Some sketch books also have some great little descriptives such as illustrating how muscles work based on the movement of limbs and such. Even if you don't draw yourself, having those reference books could come in handy for something like sculpting.

 itsacoyote wrote:
What might be a good idea is to get some drawing books on anatomy. It would be a great visual reference for you to see the general human body and see how muscles are placed. Some sketch books also have some great little descriptives such as illustrating how muscles work based on the movement of limbs and such. Even if you don't draw yourself, having those reference books could come in handy for something like sculpting.

Got those, they're what enabled me to begin judging proportions and at least approximate the human form, but they're not a substitute for a proper tutorial -especially a video tutorial- which relates to the proper scale, and uses the proper materials and tools.

I haven't seen any explicit "this is how you do human anatomy" video tutorials, but I know that there are e-books and online tutorials out there for miniature sculpting that cover the topic. Try broadening your search terms (you did at least spend a minute on Google before asking, right? ) a bit for more general miniature sculpting tutorials - those tend to focus on humans anyway and I believe that's where I found most of my start-to-finish examples.

Traditional sculpting wisdom dictates that you build your model like a human, from the inside out: wire armature skeleton, followed by approximated (putty/clay) muscle slabs, followed by skin and surface details, finally ending with clothing and gear/accessories. As long as you have your anatomical reference material and apply that concept, it's mostly a matter of practice. What the tutorials mostly provide are shortcuts - you'll still need to practice, but at least it saves you a bit of time and experimentation.

 oadie wrote:
I haven't seen any explicit "this is how you do human anatomy" video tutorials, but I know that there are e-books and online tutorials out there for miniature sculpting that cover the topic. Try broadening your search terms (you did at least spend a minute on Google before asking, right? ) a bit for more general miniature sculpting tutorials - those tend to focus on humans anyway and I believe that's where I found most of my start-to-finish examples.

Traditional sculpting wisdom dictates that you build your model like a human, from the inside out: wire armature skeleton, followed by approximated (putty/clay) muscle slabs, followed by skin and surface details, finally ending with clothing and gear/accessories. As long as you have your anatomical reference material and apply that concept, it's mostly a matter of practice. What the tutorials mostly provide are shortcuts - you'll still need to practice, but at least it saves you a bit of time and experimentation.

Naaaaw, really? What's this google thingumajig then?!

As it turns out, Miniature Mentor offers exactly what I was after, someone over on CMoN linked me, but thanks for the advice. I actually have tried following similar advice before, but I function best using "observational learning"; something that would take me months to pick up by reading and practicing I can grasp in a couple of days if I can watch someone explain it as they do it, which is great when there's videos available, and fairly pish when there isn't, heh.

Or look at some of Tre Manors work for inspiration. His latest updates from his Kickstarter are incredible.

Profile:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/user/profile/23932.page

Website:
http://red-box-games.com/

Does some of the best anatomy in the business IMHO.

Keep in mind, the task of sculpting muscles is really the same if it is 1" tall or 1 foot tall. There are a lot of good sculpting videos on YouTube as well as tutorials on other sites.

Just adjust your sizes and tools downward in scale. That is more or less what I ended up doing to sharpen my figure skills.

Also, while practicing (and even later on) don't be afraid of polymer clays in general. I actually like them a lot for sculpting in, and the only real downside to them is that they are not as easy to make molds from.