Likeness Portrait Sculpture

My first attempt on sculpting done during my course of study at 3dsense Media School. Below are the whole process of my journey from finding references, sculpting, moulding, casting to painting. This sculpting project was done in 10 weeks concurrently with another electronic project, where I did a remote-controlled Wall-E.

airbrush casting clay figure likeness molding painting portrait sculpting sculpture

Likeness Portrait Sculpture of Chinese Singer/ Actor, Jackson Yee 易烊千玺.

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My Journey Begins...

I prepared five concepts that I would like to create and consulted my lecturer on the feasibility, taking note of my skill level and project timeline. I felt that stylised cute character would be more manageable to make, therefore I sketched 3 characters. The other 2 concept will be a full body sculpt or a portrait sculpt. In my mind, I was like just let the lecturer pick either 1 out of the 3 characters.

After consulting with my lecturer, he suggested that I should try out a likeness portrait sculpt. It will be a lot more challenging but remembering why I started taking up this course was because I am drawn to likeness sculpture. Other than learning to sculpt, I need to study the skull and facial anatomy. Giving myself the mental preparation that my sculpt would not be 100% likeness, and is fine. I decided to take up the challenge.

Preparing reference images and scale...

Find as many images of different angles, but the most important will be the front, 3/4 side, profile, and back view. Black and white photos give you clearer shadows and highlights, which helps you identify the depth better.

Sculpting Process & Wig making - 6 weeks...

Starting from a wire armature to blocking out the shape. Using aluminium foil to bulk up the sculpt to make it lighter and reduce the use of clay material. We used oil-based clay for this. The property of the clay was challenging to handle for fine detailing as it hardens too fast before I could knead it to the shape and size. We have to work with a heat gun and lighter to soften the clay to a workable consistency.

I realized my mistakes after going through the process of sculpting. I started working on the facial feature details too soon before I get the face shape structure right. I was unfamiliar with the face anatomy, and I took a random skull as my reference instead of studying my model's skull structure. The bottom eyelids were protruding more than the upper eyelids, which leads to the superciliary notch being more defined. The lower lips protruded more than the upper lips as well, and the philtrum is weird. I am only satisfied with the nose and ears.

Making a wig out of a dark grey carpet rug. This is not the most ideal material for making short hair wig because is too dense. It tends to stick out and looks puffy after I cut it short. The photo above was my first attempt of experimentation. The second one I kept it longer but it still looks puffy. I ended up sewing a headband to s̶o̶l̶v̶e̶ cover up this issue.

Moulding & Casting - 2 weeks

Part A & B moulding. We used plasticine to create a proxy mould first, then use two-part silicon rubber to make the part A mould. After the silicone is cured, we remove the plasticine and proceed with making the part B silicon mould. Remember to use a sulphur-free clay and plasticine because of its reaction with silicone. You do not want to destroy your clay sculpt. A simple rectangle shaped mould is good, I did a irregular shape because of limited materials available.

If you run out of silicone and desperately need it at that moment, you can submerge unwanted cured silicone in to add volume.

Jacket mould is a method that saves on materials and is better if you have a huge and detailed sculpt to mould. The plasticine wall at the bottom is to avoid silicone from spilling all over. A few drops of thickener were added to the silicone to make it harder and form its shape. The white cage is done using epoxy. The purpose of the cage and the pink silicone plugs are to hold the silicone in place when casting.

The resin cast was done without a vacuum chamber, so micro-bubbles are inevitable. We filled the imperfections using epoxy, then sand and grind it to a smooth finish.

Finishing & Painting - 2 weeks

The text and font are edited using Adobe Illustrator and imported to Adobe Fusion 360 to design this base stand. The base stand is 3D printed using Cura software.

I used zenithal priming techniques to locate the shadows and highlights before painting. This skin colour was a mix of many colours in a different ratios.