Clay Art Ideas: Learn How to Sculpt Horse Heads from Clay with No Armature
How to sculpt clay figures for beginners: learn how to bring your clay art ideas to life with this clay horse head sculpture class. Due to the small size of this sculpture, this intermediate level project uses a newspaper armature and doesn’t need a wood and PVC armature to support the work in progress.
STUDY GUIDES: Click to open these guides in a new tab:
- How To Sculpt Clay post has a LOT of information and links to help you get started with clay
- For detailed information about drawing out the horse before sculpting, see the Horse Head Charts & Drawing Tips
See the finished clay horse head sculpture – “Blaze“
This clay horse head sculpture will start out with a very simple armature made of crushed-up newspaper. It will not need any type of support like the larger sculpture demonstration, so you won’t need to build the PVC pipe and wood base that you need for the larger clay sculptures. You may want to use extra newspaper under the sculpture to protect the surface you’re working on.
Clay art ideas: how to make clay sculptures, sculpt horse head from clayProducts Used In Making This Clay Sculpture:
*Disclosure: This beginner pottery ideas class contains links that I earn a small commission on, at no additional cost to you. Purchasing through these links is a great way to support this art demonstration site, as is purchasing artworks!
- The clay used was similar to this low fire white clay (my current clay). You can also use air dry clay for practice works (they won’t hold up like fired clay, but they’re a good way to get started sculpting!).
- I have several sets of clay tools, but a great set for beginners is this Kemper Pottery Tool Set. Despite the numerous tools I have, the most important ones are the wooden clay modeling tool and the needle tool. These are essential to both detail work (modeling tool) and to venting the sculpture before firing (needle tool). The tool set linked above includes both of these tools.
- The Amaco #5 Decorating Wheel is an essential part of my armature setup, but any banding wheel can be helpful.
- For fired clays, cones, shelves, kilns, and more.
