Union Square & Co. 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!

This book is a waste of money, it’s weak and has mediocre information at best, i give it three stars because I feel generous. I should have returned it, tho. And you shouldn’t buy it. There are MUCH better books on the subject. Faraut’s books are more expensive but you will actually learn the real knowledge. Your money will be well spent. This book is a false economy because you spend less money and get virtually nothing for it.

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.

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.

This is a very simplified way to show how to sculpt, it's what I needed and not overly worded. Gets to the point.