I started this project with these materials. The base board was bought at Micheal's craft and hobby store. The Dowel was from Utrecht art store. The dowel was longer when I had bought it, so I cut it down. It was then attached to the baseboard with a wood screw (almost 2 inches); so the dowel doesn't actually go through the board-just the screw.

This is the clay that I used; I bought it at Utrecht for about $1.00 per pound. I bought two boxes of 4 pounders, but I quickly realized that it wasn't going to be enough. So I bought a bigger box: 25 pounds. The 25 pound box was about $25. The smaller boxes that are 4 pounds each are about $5.00. This is self hardening clay, so no firing is necessary. This means that I should be extra careful to keep it in a moist environment when it is not in use. I should also be careful not to take too much time modeling it for long periods of time or it may become difficult to shape.

This is the tool kit I bought at UCLA's Luvall store. It came as a set. Starting from left to right: Potter's Rib, Needle tool, Modeling tool, Ribbon tool, Metal scraper, Loop tool, and the Wire clay cutter. The yellow thing is a sponge. I find myself using the ribbon and loop tool the most while 'carving' away at the clay. The potter's rib and the metal scraper are used to smooth out the clay towards the end of the modeling procedure. I don't use the needle and modeling tool too often because they're needed for very fine details; which the digitizer won't pick up. The digitizer has its limitations on reading very fine curves and creveces.

This is a mold of my face. I made it by using strips of plaster (about 4 layers of plaster). The plaster mold serves as a guide to begin my modeling; it gives me a good idea of how big I want my model to be, as well as the facial proportions. After I establish the very general locations of the eyes, nose, and mouth, I then begin to shape the face without using the plaster guide.

The next step is to wrap the dowel up with newspaper and duct tape. Since clay shrinks when it dries, the newspaper will shrink along with it; this avoids cracks and damages. This is where the plaster face comes in handy because it gives me a good idea of how much newspaper I should tape together.

Another angle of the newspaper wrapping. From here, I would take chunks of clay and wrap it around the newspaper. At first, I tried to take a very large and flat surface of clay that I mashed together, and attempted to completely wrap it in one try. That was a big mistake. First of all, the clay gets really heavy, and so when I tried to wrap it in one try, the bottom pieces quickly tore. So instead, I wrapped the entire newspaper with clay one chunk at a time. I had to be careful to make sure that the clay was well pressed upon each other, otherwise might encounter modeling problems later on; the clay could tear easier if not pressed together well enough. I also made sure that I had a little over an inch of clay all around the entire area; that should give enough room to begin the modeling process. Making it too thin will be difficult to model as you cut into the clay, and making it too think may result in problems when the clay dries-it could crack easier.

This is what the model looks like after wrapping the newspaper with clay. So far it looks like a sad blobby figure, but I'm just glad I got the clay around the newspaper.

Here's 3/4 angle of the rough draft. The indentation lines that run along the side of the face are made by pressing the plaster mold on the clay. This line gives me a good idea about where the side of the face should be. So I begin to shape the side of the face, form a neck, and eventually create the chin.

In this refined model, you can see the chin and the side of the face. These features make the neck stand out more. I also added the nose, it looks a little big right now; which was intentional. I figured that I should add more than enough clay, that way I can cut sections of it away to refine the details later. I also added more clay over the eyes to give it the shape of it's eye socket bone.

In this angle, you could see just how much clay I added above and around the eye socket. Again, I put more than enough so I can cut away at it later.

Here you can really see the side of the face and the jaw bone. It shapes the side of the face really nicely because the neck becomes more visible and the jawbone also gives me a good idea of where the ears would go. By this stage, I don't use the plaster face anymore. As with the example of the jaw bone that would lead to the placement of the ear, the proportion of the model can now unfold by itself as I complete more of its anatomy. I also added more clay to the back of the head and trimmed away from the neck to eccentuate the shape of the skull.

This is the other side of the head. The skull seems to be shapping quite nicely. I trimmed the entire head hear and there. I trimmed it until the skull was more apparent and I was also getting more of an "egg shape" rather than the blob shape that I started out with.

When I took long breaks from modeling, I had to wrap the figure with paper towels and make moisten it with the sponge. This keeps the clay from hardening up. The figure doesn't have any lungs so it can hold it's breath for too long.

After wrapping it with moist paper towels, I wrapped the model up with two plastic trash bags. This prevents the air from drying up the clay. It also lets you sleep easier at night; otherwise you'd have a hideous figure staring at you while you sleep.

This is the face with more details added to it. Here I made the lips, shaped the cheek bone, the brow bone, eye socket, nose, and the chin.

Here it is again from a different angle...

...and a side angle. You can notice that I started to shape the neck as well; it doesn't just look like a cylinder anymore. I also added an adam's apple.

Here you can see the detail of the lips. I placed a slap of clay where the mouth is then started to cut away from it. I was constantly cutting away and adding clay to get just the right amount of mass. I also added nostrils.

For the eyes, I shaped the socket closer together, making it smaller. It doesn't have as much of a grotesque look anymore. I did keep the large eye brow bone though. That was a feature that I was particularly interested in because of the way the light feel upon it; it casts a nice shadow. It also gives a lot more characteristic to this face.

Here I shaped the cheeck bone more. You could actually see the lines of the face and estimate the body size of this figure by its facial qualities. Little by little this face is coming to life with more characteristics and features.

Wow, what a day of hard work. Time to let out some frustration and have a little quality time strangling my model. I'm glad it doesn't know how to fight back...yet?

Yes! I finally added ears to this model. I was quite torn when modeling the ears (no pun intended); on one hand, I don't want to make it too detailed yet I don't want to make it look too chunky. I came to a middle ground and tried the best I could to make that compromise.

This is the final sculpture from 3/4 view. You could see that the base of the sculpture is already starting to dry up. The base was the first to begin drying because it's the thinnest layer of clay. All the other thicker parts required a about 3-5 days to dry and harden up.

Here it is in the side view. The placement of the ears was quite simple because of the alignment of the jaw bone. The jawbone was a good indication of how far back the ear should be placed. And the eyes and the nose is a good reference on how high up the head the ears should be placed. When Adding the ears, I started out with a chuck of clay that generalized the shape of the ear. I attached that chuck to the side of the head then began to carve away.

And finally in the front view. Currently, Cameron and I are having some trouble locating a software for the digitizer to function. Cameron suggested the following software: Raindrop Geomagic, Form Z, and Maya.