tiny clay hands

by Ashlee
(Georgia)

Hi, my husband is in the navy and was deployed several months ago. Being a stay at home mom I have been looking for a hobby that I can share with my young daughter. I started sculpting a mermaid last week with air dry clay. I am really enjoying it, but I can't seem to sculpt hands that look appropriate. I would appreciate any advice.

Ashlee

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Hi Ashley

Good for you! You have the drive & patience, now you need to just pick up the skills from all over this site and other places and just carry on regardless.

Hands are the second most tricky things to sculpt after faces.

Here's how I do hands.

I take a photo of hands but make sure the model puts their hand flat on a table or other flat surface, and that there is no space between their fingers or thumb (in other words, the fingers are not spread out at all and the hand is on one plane).

I then take the photo and scale it down on a photocopier or computer to the size of the model. I then photocopy the small image a few times.

Then I roll out some of my clay to the about the depth of a hand and cut around the shape of the hand.

I then have a cut out of a hand in clay which is the correct scale.

This gives a great head start. I carefully mark lines in between the fingers paying attention to how long the fingers are.

Depending on how I want the hand to be doing in the sculpt, I cut lines in between the fingers and roughly shape the hand and position the fingers.

At this point you need to study your own hand carefully ( don't do this in public otherwise men in white coats might come for you).

Observe what your hand can do naturally and what it can't do. What shapes can it make? What shapes can't it make without being forced to do so.

Look particularly at the thumb and the angles it makes. The 'rules of thumb' mean that the thumb is hinged and acts rather like a door opening and closing. Watch it closely and see.

Once you start really looking in this way you are going into a different frame of mind. A sculptor has to be a minute observer of life, the universe and everything. This is the main, possibly the ONLY true skill of a sculptor.

The Chinese call this skill "Ting Jing" which loosely translates as "Listening Energy". However, listening is not quite the right word as it applies to all the senses.

I also teach martial arts. Guess what? 'Ting Jing' is the main skill there too!

The secret is not to hurry. Slow down , become the tortoise in order to win the race.

The rest of it is rather mundane 'a b c' stuff, no more difficult than learning how to stack a dishwasher.

There you are, in a couple of sentences I have blown away all the mystique, mystery and artistry. Goods job too. Sculpting is just sheer hard work - but VERY fulfilling.

As you go on from this phase you will make sure your sculpted hand starts to obey all the rules. Only if it breaks the rules will it start to look odd.

Stay by the rules and start to gently caress your hand into shape.

Good luck.

Peter