Eyes and Mouth

To begin an eye get set up. Roll out a coil and a slab. The eye fits in the socket like a ball. Remember it goes back on the sides, back into the head rather than resting flat on the face. Use the wood end of the wire and wood loop tool to round the ball into the socket for a snug fit. Make sure the eye ball sits back in the face it should not be bulging out beyond the brow bone. It should sit back under the brow. The brow bone may need to be built up a bit.

Next add the eye muscle. Do not make it too thick. Roll out a slab for the eye muscle and cut a slit into the middle.The muscles of the face are very thin in general. Use the tool to tuck the eye muscle around the eye ball and orbital bone making sure to look at the drawings and in the mirror to get the details or the contours correctly.

Make a small button to depict an iris and pupil. Complete the details and there...AN EYE!

The mouth is a combination of the muscle, the secondary form, for the mouth (the orbicularis oris) and the tertiary forms, the details. The teeth should be the first part of the mouth to go on the sculpture. The teeth are the bones the help the way the lips look on the face. For example, if someone has a little bit of an overbite, then the upper lip will protrude a little bit over the lower lip. The teeth are simple to make: Roll out a thin coil as shown in figure number 2. Cut the length and roll the coil even smaller on one end. This will form the root of the tooth. Then gently apply some pressure between the index figure and thumb to squeeze the other end of the tooth for the biting edge. Make a hole in the gum area of the mouth and insert the root end of the tooth up into that hole made for the tooth. It is not necessary to go to all this trouble for all the teeth, just the important ones or the ones that are going to show.

Next it is a good idea to include some of the basic muscles of the face, for example the zygomaticus or the masseter. Use the face muscle chart included on this blog to help you. When this is done cut a thin slab into a circle for the orbicularis oris. Place it against the area of the mouth to make sure it fits. Cut a slit across the diameter of this form, but leave the edges as shown in Figure Number Four. Place this form over the mouth pulling the slit over the teeth to separate for the lips. Working from the center edges of the slit toward the upper and lower edges gently pull the sculpey upward for the upper lip and downward for the lower lip. Add sculpey as needed to reach the correct contours and details exhibited in the drawings and sketches.