sculpting veins

[rychehitman]

Can some of the sculpt masters here give me some advise on show to the best way to sculpt veins when using super sculpey? Is it better to pull them out of existing sculpted arms and legs, or to add them to existing sculpted limbs? (I hope that made sense... )

Thanks in advance!

[William Paquet]

Use a combination of both methods you mentioned.

One thing I don't like is when I see veins on a figure that just stop rather than gradually disappear into the skin as they do in reality. Veins are not difficult to sculpt, but can be time consuming to make them look right.

Start by looking at anatomy books or muscle mags to see the correct direction that the vessles follow. Use small worms of clay to lay out the patterns. Where they sink into the skin, use your sculpting tool to extend the line beyond the "worm" by pressing into the clay. With a gentle hand smooth the worms making sure that they remain rounded on top. Use whatever you like to smooth the clay(I use mineral spirits with a fine bristled brush), and carefully blend the veins into the skin.

It's best to do it all when the clay is soft rather than add them to a baked piece, for the reason I stated before. It's much harder to get a subtle look once the figure is baked. It can be done that way, but I don't reccomend it.

Also consider that you will likely need to sand and polish the figure after baking to smooth out any smaill lines created by smoothing with the brush.

Hope that helps. Sorry, but I don't have any pics to illustrate the process. Trail and error will be your best teacher.

[rychehitman]

Thank you very much for the info.

I have been checking out the anatomy and such, and doing some trial and error, but thus far (to my eye anyway) they still dont look right. I have been adding the small worms of clay, and then trying to smooth them in by hand, but I end up losing the rounded effect.

Practice makes perfect I suppose!

Thanks again!

[William Paquet]

Originally Posted by rychehitman

Practice makes perfect I suppose!

It's like anything else, no substittue for experience. Your eyes need to be trained to see the reality of your work, as opposed to what your mind tells you. I thought my first few sculptures were pretty much dead-on... not true. Understand that if you are new to this, you can expect the results of your work to reflect that. If you have any natural talent at all, your work will improve with every creation, and you will be able to look back at your fledgling efforts and see how far you've come.

Go to it!!

[galactus]

Originally Posted by rychehitman

Thank you very much for the info.

I have been checking out the anatomy and such, and doing some trial and error, but thus far (to my eye anyway) they still dont look right. I have been adding the small worms of clay, and then trying to smooth them in by hand, but I end up losing the rounded effect.

Practice makes perfect I suppose!

Thanks again!

It's those damn rocky THING hands you have, they're just not made for sculpting