How To Carve Eyes In Clay

Apply the clay to the armature in quarter inch thick sheets.

How to carve eyes in clay. Roll small balls of clay to place into the eye sockets to act as the eyes. Then repeat the process pushing up towards the top of the head to make a nice divot about 1 deep where the eyes. With your fingers press the clay at the mid-point or slightly above the middle of the face to create eyes.

I begin incising a drawing into the clay with an African porcupine quill or a ball stylus tool. To create the eye sockets and cheekbones push the ruler into the horizontal mark and pull it towards you. Smooth out any seam lines to blend the eyelids into the rest of the face.

Now place the profile photo silhouette on the clay. Roll out a slab of clay to the height of about the width of the subjects nose about the distance between the eyes Allow the slab of clay to dry enough so it doesnt flop about or get finger marked when lifted - but you can still easily cut it with a potters knife. If you want a simpler method for making eyes you can just take a pencil and make two round holes in the head for eyes.

Figure sculptor Melisa Cadell shares two ways to sculpt eyes in clay when you start out with a hollow cylinder for a head. This interesting technique adds volume to your figures and brings them to. This video is excerpted from Precision Throwing and Intricate Carving which is available in the Ceramic Arts Daily Bookstore.

Place this piece between the eyes with two small balls of clay on each side. Take two small cylinders of clay and place them just under the brow bone and into the eye sockets. Theres a series of exercises in which the carver will learn the basics about shaping the face in clay and transferring that knowledge to wood.

Knead a small cone to make the nose and then lengthen it into a long triangle. At this stage the tool cuts easily through the clay but does not gouge it. The quill is often my preference as it has a slight flexibility to it that is fitting for drawing.