Tutorial creating Flats in backing clay

Start to create an other peace for my nostalgic series, it's 10 x 13 cm tall.
the figures are approximately 54 mm.
Until today it's 2 day's of sculpting, i think i will need another day for the clean up and minor correction's

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Complete Finished "Mother and Child, in love for a lifetime"

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Hi Jan,

Nice piece...I am impressed.
And the japanese girl, I love her too.
Amitié,

Serge

finished today, another single peace
I will be a gift for the birth of my first granddaughter  

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Size; 6 cm
Sculpted in Supersculpy
Painted in Acrylics

Grtx Jan

today started to put on the basic colors, i always paint with Acrylics

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today the flat is past the backing process, just in a normal bake oven at 130° for 15 minutes.
One a metal plate

the result, i just sand it with a 600 paper otherwise photographing wasn't possible.
You can still work on it with any engrave tool, but for me she is just fine for the purpose i need it.

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The flat is 1,5 mm tick and can for further manipulation easy be hold, but still remember it is clay and stay fragile.
It gets stronger after priming because the porous clay absorb the paint, but the fine detail one the side stay a difficult point.
So if you gonna make one don't overdo it at the first time.

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So i have another unique flat in my collection,


Now i gonna start painting it, it's a gift for the mother of my first grandchild in a few day's

If you have any questions just ask, i will try to give a descant answer.

Grtx Jan

Your welcome,
My problem with tutorials, once i am started with something i am mostly lost in time and forget to take photos.
Yesterday evening i am almost finished the flat, but i think i can still ex plane how i created it.

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But overall it is still the same, pushing up the clay carefully in the right direction.
I have created a photo to visualizing the procedure.
The black arrows are for the hard soft brush, the white for the soft soft brush.
The arrows with a flat line one the top are for the flat, the arrows with a round top for the round.

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It is only a example of the way i work, the rest is doing it and practice, patience at the start.
Once you have the Technic it's a fast and essay way to create flats of your one.

For the hair i use a hook, it is the thing tat fits to me when it com to sculpting.
But i use it almost every time to make the hair on flats.

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I just pull the hook with the long side in the direction i one to create the weaves.

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The side you are starting dependent of what fits you, and the details also.
If you love to paint hair, make less detail.
If you want more support then create more details as reference.

to smooth the flat i use a clean brush and odourless white spirit, the most clay's are one a petrol base so it wont fight.

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The most asked question is how many detail can you make; it depends on the result you want and the great of the flat and the skill you have.
But you are create the flat mostly for your one benefit, so try to create the flat that fits most to you.
Personally it's for my not possible to create a 30 mm human flat i think every Technic has is limitations.

The next is backing, to be continued

Great tuto thanks!!!!!

For sculpting you don't need many tools, just that one thing that fits you.
When started i wont to try out many tools one the market, now i use a few and the rest (waste money)

We start with cut away the part we don't need, so just the flat remains.

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The tools i use until now.
The soft brush, black hart, grey medium, white soft (i have this brush in the three versions, one will do to start)
The sling tool is easy to remove great flat peaces, you can do it also with a scalpel

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The fascination of a flat is "It is flat" so the mean thing we gone do is to try nothing to build up.
Semi rounds are nice but no flats, there something between  

For my first flats i try to use the way engravers work, the result was good but the detail very difficult to create.
So we do not gonna bake the flat until we are satisfied with the result.

I started with the black flat soft brush to push up the arm,the hair and the face carefully, my technique is to push up the clay in the direction you won't the get the increase.
the difference is maybe 0.1 mm, but it is enough to create a flat without building op new clay

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To continued

The most of the flats i am painting are the one i creating my self, just because there not one the market our for the fun of creating something special.

I use super Sculpey to work with, but i think other backing clay will work also

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For the creating of the base i use a Pasta machine, found some were in a store for a small price.

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You can work also with something else to get a flat square of backing clay.

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This thing is just easy to work with and fast, i use for the most flats a square of 10 x 10 cm and 1mm thick.
For some other thinner for other more, it depends of the figure i gonna make.

The most time i am searching for good motives our special drawings in all possible sources, the WWW, books, magazines, paintings.

For starting, i advise to something easy with not to much detail.

I have chosen for something with less lines, and chanced the drawing a little bit.

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I scale the sketch to 70 mm tall and print it on normal paper.
Cut it out and fix it on the base.

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Under the base I put parchment paper, this prevents the clay to stick with the surface you are working one

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Then i draw the design again with something that is not to sharp, otherwise you gonna get holes by to many pressure.

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This is the result, still no flat but something to work on

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In the next part i gonna try to explain the sculpting.

Grtx Jan