Foam dome from Walmart

I've enjoyed the paper clay sculpting of my friend's alien character so much, I'm anxious to do a new character. I haven't decided who I will carve out of that clay, but I have a few ideas. A 3T Cheeky Boy? A highly caricatured head of a goofy fella. Another old fart?

I've learned so much from earlier sculptures I've done, I have this inkling my next one will be really good. However, it almost never turns out that way, but any improvement will make me happy.


So, here are my supplies after hitting Walmart. I bought a large foam half-dome (top of the head), four round disks (middle of the head), and a small half-dome for the chin area. I fell for the hot tool foam cutter. I have no idea if it actually works. I also bought glue specially made for foam. I have no idea if that works either, but I'm a first-time foam armature builder. (More about that in a second).

My plan is to stack the foam pieces together in the general shape of the character's head. I  will mount the stack on a PVC pipe. I'll carve out a silhouette of the character, possibly with the aid of that hot foam cutter. Next, I'll build a pair of 3T eyes (wood knobs) mounted on an eye tray. Somehow, I will secure the tray in a cavity carved out of the foam. I may use some foam pieces to make ears and nose frames.

Once all of that is completed, I'll start laying on paper clay until some new character emerges.

Now, the reason I'm a first-time foam armature builder is that my previous characters were buillt up from blanks from Braylu Creations. It's a great way to sculpt a vent figure, but the size and shape of the blank define certain dimensions,  I can shoot for a wider range of dimensions with a foam armature.