Posted 13 September 2012 - 08:42 PM
Green Stuff takes practice. Here are some basic hints from my 9 years of sculpting:
- KEEP YOUR SCULPTING TOOLS CLEAN: After the green stuff stuck to your tools has hardened, scrape it off with a knife. Green stuff sticks well to itself, so the problem will just get worse. Also, any putty left on your tools will mess up the clean and smooth shapes that you try to achieve with future sculpting.
- PREVENT THE PUTTY STICKING TO TOOLS: To keep the green stuff from sticking to your tools the next time you're working, use a lubricant. I use plain water in a little piece of blisterpack foam, but other sculptors use saliva (licking the sculpting tools -- though others consider it unhygienic to put putty in one's mouth or just dangerous to put a sharp object on one's tongue), petroleum jelly (a tiny amount spread on the back of your thumb should be enough of a "reservoir" for one session of sculpting), or even the oil from your skin ("nose grease"). Note that some techniques, though, require that you let the putty stick momentarily to the tool -- as you pull the tool away, it makes a little "plink" sound -- but it shouldn't leave any pieces behind on the tool. It takes a subtle touch.
- ITS CHARACTERISTICS CHANGE AS IT CURES: For the first 15 minutes or so after you mix the blue & yellow parts to make green, it is very sticky and pliable, like bubble gum or taffy. This is when you take the approximate volume that you expect to need, and stick it to your sculpture. Then push and pull it into the basic shapes. Then make the details. you'll probably find that you didn't put the right amount on at first (too little or too much). Sometimes you'll need the putty to be new and pliable when you're trying to make sharp or detailed shapes, but usually you'll need to wait an hour or so into the curing time or else the details just won't stay where you want them to go. After about 2 hours, the putty will be too stiff and rubbery for you to make any more changes, but you can make subtle changes (such as in facial expressions). Be careful not to accidentally squash the putty and ruin your work when you thought it was cured. It won't be fully cured for about a day -- or less if you heat it to speed the curing (see below).
- HEAT MAKES IT CURE FASTER, COLD MAKES IT CURE SLOWER: You can use the heat of a lamp to speed the curing. You can also put mixed putty into the freezer for a few minutes or an hour if you're interrupted while sculpting. Store unmixed putty in the freezer, too, because it does go bad eventually (becomes too stiff, gets little hard chunks in it, etc.).
- YOU CAN VARYING THE PROPORTIONS OF YELLOW AND BLUE: Feel the different characteristics of each component: yellow tears off in finer wispy pieces, but blue is gummier and more cohesive. The standard mix is equal parts blue & yellow. If you use more yellow (up to 2 yellow to 1 blue), the yellow-green putty will be stickier and looser and can hold finer/sharper details. If you use more blue (up to 2 blue to 1 yellow), the blue-green putty will be stiffer and will tend to pull any sharp edges into itself and round them off; this can be fine for massing and some musculature, but not for most finished detail work.
Good luck!
Derek
