The Portrait in Clay: A Technical, Artistic, and Philosophical Journey Toward Understanding the Dynamic and Creative Forces in Portrait Sculpture

Very good book to have in ones library of art texts. Currently using it to address individual parts of the face, sculpting eyes, nose, ears and mouth to sharpen up skills. This book addresses wet clay while I am using Plasticine (oil based) clay. It is well illustrated with actual photographs of work in progress. In the beginning there are basic instructional information and as it progresses individual details are provided in sharp, clear illustration. I would recommend this book and do. It also addresses the anatomy of the face in very fundamental ways, about two to four pages worth enough to encourage me to purchace a life size skull to practice from. Hoping the clay adhears well to the skull.

Was able to sculpt portrait with help from the technique presented in this book. Peter Rubino shows how to break the process down using logical geometric form.

I am trying to get a hold of as many books on sculpting techniques as possible as I live 2 hours from the nearest college, so this is how I have to learn. While I also gave Katherine Dewey's "Creating Lifelike Figures in Polymer Clay" a high review, those techniques just don't translate as well into sculpture as I had hoped (though her discussions on scaling and proportion do). Peter Rubino's "The Portrait in Clay" is an excellent step-by-step beginner's guide to sculpting portraits. Its broken down into 5 sections. The first shows you the basic techniques on a generic head. The second section is a brief section on tools. Its brief because he doesn't use very many tools. The third section shows sculpting with a live model. The photos (the failing of far too many scultping books) are clear, detailed and actually show the area being concentrated on. They are not perfect, but still do an excellent job (you sometimes have to skip ahead a couple of pages to see what the current step looks like when completed). Section 4 is a detailed discussion of the individual features of the face: nose, eyes, ears, the mouth and chin. Part of what makes this book good is that during the first and third sections, he refers to these sections with page numbers so you are not just flipping around. However I think he could have merged sections 1 and 4, or at least put 4 after 1. Finally Peter details the finishing process: hollowing, firing and applying a patina. I must reserve judgement here. It reads good, but this is for water-based clay and I work in oils so I can't really comment on it. Books like this create a difficulting when attempting to rate them due to the differing abilities of the potential reader. So for this I will say 5 stars for the beginner, it has everything you need to make a good portrait in clay. You might even make a few bucks off what you learn. For the intermediate I would call it 3 stars because there is probably something in here that will make your process a little easier or more accurate. For advance artists, I doubt you will find much of value. My criticisms are three-fold. First, the artist's finished portrait created during this book doesn't look like the live model. But I think this is due more to the artist's eye than his techniques. Second, it doesn't offer any methods for smoothing the work to create more lifelike texture. And third, his patina finishes are, in my opinion, way too heavy-handed. He attempts to create the bluish effect of aged bronze, but really ends up just painting it blue. Again, a great book for the beginner, the best I've read so far.

Excellent tutorial on portrait work in clay modeling. This book takes the student, step by step through the process. Best book I've seen on the subject.

This is the 4th copy of this book I've purchased for my classroom. My students seem to love it so much for guiding their head sculpture assignment they keep the book! Highly recommend due to the excellent instructive photos.

First of all, the author's portfolio is less than inspiring, to put it rather mildly. The text is actually fairly well written, and will be of some help to the beginner, although there are certainly better guides out there. To the author's credit, I've given the same rating to books with better techniques by better artists; the decent writing helps here. However there isn't much here for intermediate or advanced artists. Many of the techniques run the gamut from sloppy to downright lazy, and the results show this. If you'd like to make your way to a moderately successful stint as a mediocre contemporary sculptor without working too hard to get there, this book is for you. Of course, lots and lots of folks fit in this category. However, if you wish to push yourself to higher levels to become a disciplined, highly skilled artist, I would seriously recommend Edouard Lanteri's books instead.

Wonderful book - very informative and easy to read - I would recommend unreservedly to anyone who is interested in portrait and sculpture.

I am new at sculpture and wanted an easy guide to help me become more proficient. This easy to follow template is just what I needed.