Need Help with Sculpting Balls

aerofool · Need Help with Sculpting Balls

Title says it all. I've been trying to sculpt footballs for a few days now and not getting any of the results I like. Any tips?

Ewan

Can you post pics please? Sometimes it's easier to give advice when we can see where any mistakes are taking place.

aerofool

I would, but I trashed my failed attempts. I have a couple of issues that keep giving me fits...

First is roundness. I tried rolling balls of greenstuff to the proper shape and I just can't get the desired shape even all around (I keep getting bulges). Maybe that is something only practice can offer. Any techniques other than rolling a piece of greenstuff on a table with your hand?

Also I'm wondering how to get extra fine stitching, spikes and such before I attempt those.

Thanks for the quick response

Ewan

No problem mate - sometimes it's easier to take things in stages, rather than trying to sculpt the whole thing in one go. Make the basic shape and let it harden before moving on to build up the detail more. Having it attached to a small piece of wire inserted in a cork (or something similar) will free up your hands to work on it better.

I know it seems like just me answering the questions but a few other sculptors visit here so maybe they can help out when they log in...

Bodhi

All I can say is: Faces? No problem. Hands? nothing to worry about.
But getting a perfectly round and simple even ball to me seems like an almost impossible task.
The seemingly simple can sometimes be the hardest thing to pull of. Only suggestion I'd have is to use some kind of ballshape (perhaps a plastic pearl or similar?) as an "armature".

Justin Kase

I've only made 2 so far - but held in hand, allowing me to build off the hand itself, allowing me to manipulate the miniature to get at the different sides of the ball. I was also able to use part of the closed fist as the base of the ball and sculpted a new hand around the finished ball at the end.

The most important thing that I discovered (and as Ewan said) was to take it in steps. Every time I tried to do it in 1 go, it was a horrible failure:P So, form a basic core of a ball, then add extra GS to the exterior, this will allow you to make the ball a bit more symmetrical :)

Another option might be to make a mould of an appropriate sized football and make that your base.

Gobbo

If your getting bumps when rolling into a ball, you may not have the greenstuff mixed well enough, or it could be a particle of something you picked up from your work surface while rolling it.

Dark Lord

Okay this is what I do...albeit for larger spheres usually but it seems to work okay for small ones too.

I start out with it fresh and soft.
Get the right amount of putty into a a cube shape by pinching it. Then start pinching the corners to get a roughly round shape.

Then lay it on the table, and using your palm (stretched as tightly as you can get it) or a hard and flat piece of whatever that is about the size of your hand big doing either a "wax on" or a "wax off" using very little pressure...very little. Check it often to make sure you aren't overdoing it.

Now you should have a nearly perfectly round ball. From there you can use your thumb and forefinger to "booger roll" it on the ends. Grab it between your thumb and forefinger in an off center fashion and roll it back and forth until the end cones out.

From this point I let it stiffen up a little and use my sculpting tools (or a toothpick) to make the seams. For the laces I usually let the ball dry, roll out a flat piece and just cut them out and stick them on.

fen

You don't need to do that much, if you use both hands instead of a table and change the way you move your hands from a circular to an elipical/oval motion the ball will come out the correct rugby ball shape instead of being round.

You can then add whatever details are relevant, but normally it's worth letting the GS cure a little so it can hold it's shape better.

Hooray for physics!