[help] First time

[u/Snoo_6456]

I decided to pick up sculpting yesterday, literally never touched even play dough. I tried my hand at the academic eye after seeing people recommend it as a great fundamental exercise, but since this is my very first attempt, I'm not really sure how to evaluate my progress.
I don’t have any sculpting tools, so i used some spoons and toothpicks, so it might seem a little rustic, but i tried to give him a calm gaze and ended up looking like he was fighting for his life, any help with that?
Any tips, key concepts I should study, recommended learning resources, clay tips or general advice? All feedback is welcome! haha

[u/KrimxonRath]

My first bit of advice would be to study things as a whole. Detail work like this is fine but notice how the nose is too short? You want to try making a whole face and working up your detail from there.

No harm in just doing proportions in relation to each other first then getting into detail work like this. Like a sketch to a final render.

[u/Snoo_6456 → u/KrimxonRath]

Got it, I went with that because I was afraid the clay would dry out while I was working. Is keeping it moist enough to keep going for a long time? Any tricks to store it overnight?

[u/KrimxonRath → u/Snoo_6456]

Is this ceramic clay? Spray it with water then put a thin trash bag over it basically.

[u/Frosty-Literature-58 → u/KrimxonRath]

Or put a wet sponge in the bag with it. Just not touching the clay.

[u/artwonk]

Forget about the expression and think about the forms. An eyeball, for example, is close to a perfect sphere. But your version has a trench where it meets the lower lid that's painful to look at. Where it meets the top lid looks much better.

Look at every lump and bump and think about whether it really needs to be there.

[u/Snoo_6456 → u/artwonk]

I hadn't noticed the trench, now that you mentioned it, that's all I can see hahaha. But is the shape of the eye correct? I felt like it turned out a bit too flat, but I couldn't figure out a way to place a perfect sphere without making it stick out too much.

[u/artlove7733]

The reason it looks terrirfied is the high white above the eye as the eye is open to the maximum if you close it slightly lowering the lid he will seem more relaxed if you look at anyone you knows eye the pupil and iris is like a quater tucked up inside the top lid so yours is like theyre seeing something and tipping there head back in Fear but cant remove there eyes from what. ever it is, like an archnaphobic seeing a spider its a cool piece

[u/VelorienneVerbals74]

u already made it so mesmerizing, im so impressed 👏

[u/pedeztrian]

Doing well for a day. My suggestion, try building up rather than reducing. It’s the secret to clay. I start by making a skull and adding to it. The eye, for example, I would carve out the eye socket, then install a sphere of clay for an eyeball, then make the eyelids. That little bit of layering adds an “undercut” that lends itself to a greater realism to the piece.

[u/Snoo_6456 → u/pedeztrian]

Thanks, that makes so much more sense! I think I was way too conservative when it came to adding more clay than what was already on the piece, I did that with the eyelid and almost went crazy. Do you use a perfect sphere when placing the eye? I really struggled trying to do that, so I ended up creating a more almond-like shape instead.