Hello everyone,
I’m writing this post to and answer some of the frequent questions I get regarding sculpting materials as well as throwing in some tips. So I will just list the material and link it to the online store in case you want to order and try any of them. I usually get them online for convenience, but If there is a retail store that has them I like to just visit and enjoy getting craft materials. The 2 top places I usually find everything is at my local Michaels or Hobby Lobby. I actually worked at Michael’s for a while after a manager hired me on the spot after seeing me answering several peoples art materials questions on one of those visits. Honestly there are hundreds of materials out there I have tried many but these are the onesa I usally feel are the ones that allow me to create successful sculpt projects.
Glues
JB weld epoxy – If you want to glue something to a custom or a sculpt this is like the bad boy of glues. I once accidentally left a tube on the garage floor at my mothers house and my brother parked his car over them. The piece of dried epoxy along with a chunk of tire is still there after 15 years.
Krazy Glue All-Purpose – Sometimes I use a dab of this and then circle epoxy around it just to make sure that what I am gluing stays glued.
Sculpting
Super Sculpey® Firm /Sculpey Super , Medium Gray Blend – These is my usual to sculpt material. I use SSF for delicate details and SSM for general areas. It all depends on what you want to sculpt. another thing I like to do is mix both of the Sculpey types. The mixture is absolutely perfect for building sculptures from zero.
Mighty Putty – Ok, I know this one is really hard to work with because you have to sculpt in less than 5 minutes but I will throw it in here. I actually pulled of a lot of the details with the Aladdin custom Disney Infinity figure using this material. At first I was hesitant to bake the figure since it’s made of plastic so I used Mighty Putty instead. It’s also good if you want to bond sculpt parts. I also liked to use this one on swords I did around 5 projects with this material because you cant really bake Sculpey with objects like swords. Check out this example of a tip on a sword I did a few years ago (pictures here)
TIP: Use rubbing alcohol to remove any finger prints or imperfections. You can give a piece a really clean polished look by just brushing it with rubbing alcohol. After you backed the sculpt or its cured go back and sand bumps of imperfections. This can help you post areas that need to be filled.
Coloring
I often use FolkArt acrylic paint without gloss (matte Finish) and add a protective layer of transparent gloss or matte varnish. I like to use paitn that has gloss for things that make sense like glass for example. But keep in mind you can cover these areas with matter varnish.
DecoArt Americana DuraClear Varnishes – I Buy these often, they are what protects your project. There’s different brands but I recommend this one.
For paint brushes its very important to get soft bristle so there are very little brush strokes in the end product.I use these 2 brands:
Kuuqa Paint Brushes and Princeton 6100 Synthetic Bristle
TIP: Always try to make sure those paint streaks are gone. Try not to leave excess paint on your sculpt that just makes it look less smoothed out. A trick I use it to add a tiny bit of water on the tip and go over the wet paint and remove streaks.
Tutorials
I highly recommend getting www.emilysculpts.com books there very good learning sources and they are kid friendly. Youtube has thousands of free videos for any sculpting questions you might have. I often look like to see how other artist approach how they make faces or hands and highly recommend watching a few of those videos.
If anyone has any other questions or tips feel free to share them and I will add them to the list.
