Faces - Part Ii
More on faces:
Once you have some oval shapes on the end of a pin or wire, you have the makings of a head for a miniature. The next step is to create a face. Add some putty to your cured roll and start shaping. It is OK to rough out the shape and then let it cure again, although many sculptors recommend against that. They feel strongly that the best faces are done in one sitting because everything stays in proportion and you don’t end up with out of balance features.
Speaking of proportions, keeping faces in proportion is probably the most difficult. It isn’t so much keeping the face in proportion to itself (eyes, nose and ears the right size for the head you have created, it is keeping the head in 30mm). Working in 28-30mm scale means keeping things pretty small. You’ll find that you often make something look really good, only to find it is 2-3 times bigger than it should be.
Also… You don’t need very much putty (green stuff) for a face. A very small bit for a nose, a little ball for each ear, etc.
It is best to put fresh putty on the face where you want it for maximum adhesion and then work it on the face into the shape you want.
Always start with a basic shape of the face, square for a human male, more heartshape for a human female (I’m not that good at females, personally). Other shapes for non-humans. Once that is in the right shape and size, start adding details.
Eyes are the most important. These should definitely be done at the same time. You can’t match them up in separate sittings. At least I have never seen that done successfully.
Press in the brow and eye socket and then add a little more putty into each socket to be the eyeball and eyelid. You can make a simple eye just by flattening a small ball into the standard ‘oval-like’ shape of an eye and lid. If you are a good painter you can turn this into a quality look.
If you are more adventurous, you can create a lid for your eyes. This is obviously the most dramatic, but also the least visible on the tabletop. It depends on what you want to accomplish with your sculpt.
The nose can be a simple roll of putty, or you can add nostrils and shape the bridge to meet the needs of your Roman aristocrat, etc. It depends on your skill level and how adventurous you are. Remember that a woman’s nose should be understated, unless you are looking to make a crone of some kind. When doing women’s faces it is probably even more important to stick with the standards of proportion and Classical norms than in a man’s face.
Ears are simple a ball that you press into with rounded tool to create the internal shape of the ear. You’ll find that they become too big very quickly. Always look at the ears from the front to insure that you have them even.
It is OK to skip the ears entirely if hair, hood, hat or helmet will cover it.
Same goes for hair. I usually wait to do hair until I have more of the mini done, because armor and clothing often cover parts of the head.
