An Observational Approach to the Figure in Clay

A sculptor of international acclaim, David Simon’s career has ranged from life-size portraits and figures to massive bronze statues. David created maquette and sculptures for films such as Where the Wild Things Are, Fantastic Four, and Watchmen, and holds private workshops abroad and in his Los Angeles studio. In this series, David Simon shows you […]

In the second lesson of David Simon’s figure sculpting series, he takes a few measurements from the model and starts adding clay to the armature. David considers the structure of the figure as he adds volume to the sculpture. After blocking in the major masses of the figure, he can begin to establish the gesture […]

In the third lesson of David Simon’s figure sculpting series, he moves forward from blocking in the pose and begins focusing on the accuracy of the silhouette of the sculpture. He checks and rechecks the volumes of each major form of the body, adding small amounts of clay to each part as needed (in particular, […]

As David Simon begins his fourth lesson in his figure sculpting series, he is determined to address issues like the articulation of the hips and “rubbery” qualities of the legs. For the most part, he’s done adding and subtracting volumes of clay and no longer will be “futzing around” with that sort of minutiae. He […]

David Simon resolves the forms and relationships of the shoulders, breasts and ribcage. He begins to put in some of the elements of the face, then ends by moving down to the pelvis and adjusting those large forms.

David begins by reevaluating the model as a whole. He then revisits the lower body, dealing with the knee, lower legs, upper legs, and blocking in the feet. He also spends some time blocking in the head. With the exception of the hands and some awkward transitions in the arms, David brings the sculpture to a better sense of balance in form.

David dives head first into developing and refining the head, beginning with checking the angles and widths, then continuing down from the head to resolve and refine the relationships and transitions into the back. David then works up and down the model, pushing the forms and relationships to greater sense of balance, before refining the hands and breasts. David ends with an overview of his sculpting tools and leaves us with some final thoughts on his sculpture.