Ceramic Sculpture: Making Faces: A Guide to Modeling the Head and Face with Clay

I so wish I'd thought to look for this before I began my first bust. It would have saved me a whole lot of time, and increased the chance that the finished piece will dry evenly enough to remain free of cracks before it goes into the kiln. Fingers crossed! Because I tend towards realism (and being a born perfectionist) it took a lot of time to work and re-work the face until it became real enough, and with the subtle smile that I was hoping to achieve.This book has excellent photos of not only the work in clay but also of models who offer a good range of expressions for every mood. It's also full of inspiring pieces from a range of different artists.The techniques are clearly laid out, step by step, and shown in good detail.The only thing that could have improved this for me would be to see some details of neck and shoulders. My figure is of a woman with her eyes half closed, face tilted upwards and slightly to the side. As is almost always the case, the neck and shoulders are the base of a bust, and I was hoping to see some examples of protrusions of the spinal cord, and the scapulas to help to perfect my piece. It's very hard to find photos that help with something like this.Overall though, I highly recommend this book. Love it!

Good book

perfect for learning how to show emotion with clay. will use this forever.

Very informative, easy to understand text paired with many very good photos, Lot's of emphasis on how to represent particular expressions. Good references to anatomy, but not so much that I felt like I was in med school. Looking forward to utilizing the techniques in my work.

I think this book is excellent and provides clear, detailed instructions for slab building a head and face to create a unique, expressive work. It addresses form, anatomy, solid basic construction methods and surface treatments. Many of the modeling techniques overlap to building on an armature, but this book addresses only the slab construction method, which I think is much more accessible for beginners. Could a beginner take this book and work with it without a teacher? In many cases, I think so, especially if you have a background in art and/or learn well from books. Some experience handling clay would be helpful, and if you don't want to dive in without a teacher, a basic hand building course should prepare you for the projects in this book. This book is so well done! Highest praise to the author.

I got this book to help with sculpting with polymer clay at six inch scale, and it helped A LOT. It breaks down each part into pieces and explains how to achieve it. Even though it's not necessarily geared for sculptors of polymer clays, it's easy enough to translate to a method that works.

This is the best book about sculpting heads and faces in clay. I am a beginner, and completely satisfied with this book, which I am reading it very slowly, since there is a lot to learn from the author. Thank you!

Very detailed book demonstrating different methods (slab, coil, and solid) for completing a human bust in clay. Includes many examples to convey various ages, emotions, and expressions of the human face. Gives instruction for proper placement and proportions of ears, eyes, nose, etc. Confident that this book provides a very good foundation to begin sculpting well developed heads and expressive faces in clay.