I couldn't find a thread addressing this topic so here we go. Like everyone else here, I dream of sofubi. The last few years I've been trying to hone my sculpting skills and while I've amassed a ton of books and videos, the work of Ryu Oyama has influenced my techniques the most. There aren't a lot of videos of him working but they're all worth watching. This is just one of them.
The jp mook Sculptors has its own yt channel here: https://youtube.com/channel/UCRNkNlezdv0EgjpoRoS9MfQ Fair number of videos of the current super star sculptors in Japan. Def worth checking out and taking notes. The mook itself also worth picking up.
I've recently been diving into Japanese media for sofubi sculpting/production methods and there's a lot out there. This series specifically is really nice and shows the ins an outs of wax sculpting with a pen and how to get consistent results. The first videos don't have much as far as sculpting but the series is interesting as a whole I think, documents a figure being sculpted in wax start to finish. I personally use paper clay like Ladoll or premier, really helps with chunky doll sculpting that vintage sofubi loves
Oh this gold! I'm fascinated by the traditional reductive sculpting style in Japan. I've got a few books where the artist just makes big clumps of apoxie sculpt or bondo and magically finds the figure inside. Thank you for sharing!
The solid design wax also has a line of sofubi toys and the dude behind it, osamura33 on Instagram, posts crazy wax work.
Though he's stopped posting videos (for now), I still go back and watch Cyril Roquelaine work in monster clay. I've worked with a few materials and monster clay seems the best suited to me. It's easy to block in shapes, easy to sculpt, and very solvent/ heat friendly.
Positive reinforcement is just as important as skill building. This is for the secret artists on the board and those who feel like they're in a slump.
Short break down on a bit of my own personal sculpting process. I'm by no means a pro but this has worked for me. Might work for you. View this post on Instagram
Sooooo it's been a while. My bad. Stuff happened and I'm in a better place now. That means more knowledge sharing!
Down and dirty review of the recently dropped Chavant Alien Clay Hard (AC). I've been using Monster Clay Hard (MC) for a minute now so the review will primarily be a comparison between the two. The last 2 tubs on MC I bought have been pretty bad. Both manufactured in the last 6 months and marked as hard. However the actual product has been between soft and medium. It takes sculpting just fine but it's nearly impossible to handle without smooshing. The stuff I got a year + ago has been excellent. So, frustrated, I picked up the AC to see if it's a good replacement. First off the packaging for AC is stellar. Stout, hard plastic container that microwave safe and has pour spouts if you melt your clay in it. The clay itself is cut into 10 wedges. This is super convenient. MH is just in a tub as a solid block and you have to melt it with a hairdryer or in a microwave/oven to start scooping it out. As for the quality of the clay, AC is quite waxy and hard. It cuts very easily and smoothly, but if broken, it becomes crumbly like Super Sculpey Hard. It becomes malleable to touch quickly, but has to be quite warm in order to blend separate chunks together. The raw adhesive nature of the clay is noticeably inferior to MC. Even after melting pieces together, there's a good chance the seam will break while sculpting. The crumblyness unfortunately carries over while sculpting. This causes a lot more flaking when using wooden tools to blend. Metal smoothing tools fare better and rakes do a great job shaving light layers of material. Compared to the newer tubs of MC, AC is denser and holds shape significantly better when handling. The details hold well and aren't easily smashed. It's still a clay, of course, so some care should be taken, but you don't have to walk on eggshells. The material is very alcohol torch friendly and the dense nature allows me to be fairly aggressive. The current tubs of MC is too soft and even a hairdryer can be too much before I lose detail and liquefy the clay. Again the prior MC I bought from over a year ago is stellar stuff and behaves much better than the new tubs. Solvents work just like you would expect for any clay. I use mineral spirits and have had no problems with AC turning to crap and being unworkable. The newer MC tends to liquefy quicker and take a lot longer to evaporate from the material. I think this should cover it. If I have any more observations, I'll edit this post. Hope this helps!
https://instagram.com/kerf_loss?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== For some weird reason all of my previous instagram links aren't working either. Maybe some glitch in the matrix?
Just popping in to say how awesome it is that you’re posting this info and keeping up with it. I haven’t made the plunge into sculpting other than a few failed attempts about a decade ago, but when I go back to it, I’ll be checking these posts out in more detail. But for now, I salute you!
Oh man, thanks for sharing this, I’m definitely going to print out that Turnaround Template from his Linktree. I’m pretty sucky at humanoid proportions so this is going to be a big help.
