Using references when sculpting can really increase the quality of your sculpting and help you become a better artist. There are some simple inexpensive things you can do to get there.
I don’t use many references when sculpting, they confuse me and mess me up. I have a mirror on the wall of my studio and a life cast or 2 hanging on the wall. Using photographic references has always been a bane for me. I will look at them while sculpting and try to replicate what I see and then I get frustrated and angry and it just doesn’t work for me. Since I usually don’t sculpt anywhere near human likeness this isn’t much of an issue my pieces are more surreal and caricature based. When I decide what I am going to sculpt I will spend a few days searching Google images and bookmark the ones I like and look at them a few times and they get stored somewhere in my head. For instance if I am making a witch I will look at images of really old people and drawings of witches. What I end up making is some sort of amalgamation of what I have looked at mixed in with my own ideas.
Life casts are a great item to have to get facial proportion correct. There is a great source for these on EBAY called haunted studios, you can pick up a good quality life cast for around 20$ Haunted Studios I have a life cast of Peter Cushing on my shop wall now that I really like. It is shown at the top of this post
A mirror is great because you can use it to look at expressions and how they affect your face. I use a hand held mirror that works equally well when hanging on the shop wall, or I can hold it in my hand if I want to look at myself up close.
Many sculptors use photographic references when sculpting especially if they are sculpting a likeness. Maybe someone can chime in here in the comments section and add some advice in that direction.
First off, that link just opened up a whole new world of possibilities. A life mask of David Bowie? Vincent Price? Christopher Lee?!? Reference and gifts all in one shot. I can hear my bank account weeping in the corner.
Great to see the mirror recommendation here. It really is a must-have for any studio.
As for photo reference, that’s always tricky. Here’s some advice I’ve been given by far more talented people than I:
1) Shoot your own reference whenever possible for consistency. Shoot every angle from as close to the same distance as possible. For headshots, set up the camera position first and swivel the model to maintain an equal plane of position and set distance. This will help create a turnaround map for head/face sculpting.
2) Enlarge your reference as close as possible to the size of your sculpture. This can be harder for 1:1 work where certain elements such as arms, profile head shots, etc. want/need more space than available on a printed page. This might require some setup.
3) For faces, create rough anchors/landmarks that can easily be adjusted: cheekbones, chin, nose, lips, brow, and ears. For bodies, remember the rules of proportion and make landmarks according to head height. Once you have your anchors in place, break those rules for surreal effects.
4) If you’re not purposely creating a likeness, don’t fixate on the reference. It’s reference after all. Just refer to it for a sense of direction. Always look for openings to defer to your imagination.
You’re really passing along some great recommendations here, Grim. This site is a wonderful resource and I hope more people discover it.