Building a Small Clay Horse Head Sculpture, No Armature p. 1

Using masking tape, make the general shape of the sculpture. Remember to keep it thinner than the finished sculpture will be - you will be applying a 1/4 to 1/2 inch layer of clay over the top.

Start adding clay to the newspaper, starting at the bottom and working your way up to the head. Use slip to add clay to prevent air bubbles (right).

Once you have the general shape and all of the newspaper is covered in clay, begin shaping the sculpture. You can twist the clay to turn the head and add a bit more character to the finished work. Add the main muscle structures, but do not focus too much in one area. You want to repeatedly work each section, so that the entire sculpture stays at about the some level of progress. As the work progresses, you will find small things that need to be changed, and you don't want to rework areas that you've already spent a lot of time on.

At this point, I haven't started with tools yet, it's faster and easier to do the initial sculpting with your hands. Notice in the picture to the above right that the muscle and skeletal structures are mostly finished everywhere except for the face. At this point I'll mostly finish the neck area, because the face will take some time, and the neck is going to dry quite a bit. You can always use slip to moisten it, and you never want the clay to reach leather-hard while you are still working on the sculpture. If you're having problems with the clay drying too much, mist the clay with water and/or cover the area you're not working on with a plastic bag to keep the moisture in.