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[Tu Hoang]

This is my self portrait .Although I haven't decided to stop ( it still need many adjustments), I spent about 5 minutes to make the skin a little more smooth than before. Sorry for the background, I will improve it soon.
I call it self portrait because I looked at some of my photos and a mirror when sculpting but until now he still looks like a stranger to me ( may be because I do not often look at my self in the mirror)
Thank you for visiting this topic, and all the comments and critique are welcome.



Thank you for visiting this topic, and all the comments and critique are welcome.

[Jeanette Lewis]

Hi Tu,
I like the portrait you've done, -
Just to share with you that I cast a portrait of my daughter recently only to find that the right eye was not quite right - & I can see that you might have the same difficulty here. (The eyes are not looking on the same direction.)

I found that I had not allowed enough depth to the eye socket at the lacrimal gland/ tearduct on the righ t eye and this was throwing the position of the eye ball out.
I was able to carve the plaster after I had cast to correct it - but if it can be done in the clay ...so much the better!
Hope this might be helpful to you, good luck!
Jeanette

[Doris Fiebig]

hello tu, a nice portrait, and you say you look like stranger to you,,,maybe one point you can check is if the side view is correct. we cannot see this so well on our own, and i have feeling you have not enough depth in the sculpted face (but i might err, since we cannot see exactely from side), by which i mean that the eyes (the side corners) are not set deep enough. if you look on fotos, you see the side corners of eye go surprisingly far back on head. just a thought, you have done already a wonderful job on this portrait. thanks for sharing
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[Heidi Maiers]

Hi Tu, this portrait has a nice feel to it and you look like a handsome young man. I really like the nose on your self portrait.
My main problem with it has to to with the neck. I think it is a bit too short and vertical. A neck naturally angles forward and does generally not shoot straight up from the collar. I've edited here so you can see what I mean. Also, the shapes of the ears can use more study.


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[Tu Hoang]

Hi Jeanette, thanks for your reply, I found the your topic including your sculpture that have the same problem. Moreover, I found Stuart's topic about the way to check if the eyes are correct. This would help me much.
Thanks Heidi for your adjustments on the photos, much easier to follow.
I will also study more on the ears .
Thanks Doris, after reading your comment I checked if there was any big difference and looked for information about the differences of skull shape that related to race ( I am Asian so I think that it is the reason). I have not found anything which is really convincing ( most of them have many words, few photos so I should spend more time).
Thank you for very much your comments, I will try to fix my problems and will post the photos again as soon as possible.

[Jeanette Lewis]

Hi Tu,
I found a diagram that is a cross-section through the eye from a site which manufactured glass eyes.. I made a quick sketch of it and it is something like this; (though I am not anatomiclly accurate - its just a guide to ponder on.)
It shows that angle Doris mentions from the birds eye view.
The eye balls sit in two kindof triangular pockets, the white dotted line shows the angle of the plane of the head.
Hope it makes some sense and helps with your portrait.
Jeanette

[Tu Hoang]

Hi Jeanette, I looked at your quick sketch and Doris's post for several times. However, at last I understood and found out that it is really one of my problem. Although there appears some cracks and I wanted to finish and fix this problem ( related to the eyes) like your sketch to show you the result, there are too many exams and assignments that I must finish.
Thank you Jeanette for making this helpful sketch
Thank you Doris, at last I understood the problem you showed.
I will try to avoid the cracks and show you the result ( maybe next week)

[Stuart]

Just a couple of small notes on the variation in racial skull forms from my experience and to strike a small note of caution when critiquing these areas.
I've sculpted a few people of chinese origin (including the ex president of China for madame Tussauds) and was astonished at how different the skull structure is especially around the bony areas of the eye orbits. Those areas don't 'travel' as far back as they do in european skulls.
The eyes and cheek bones appear to be more frontally orientated.
I spent hours wandering around Hong Kong staring at people in the street, taxi drivers from behind, and so on in an effort to better understand these differences.
Without seeming to be stating the obvious and from a purely sculptural point of view, there are structural differences in African, Latino and other races too that we must take note of . The cheekbones of the indigenous peoples of North, Central and South America are often set high and quite pronounced too.
Interesting but complex stuff
Stuart

[Joel Levinson]

I often have wondered if there are reference books,or,better yet anatomical skull models of the various racial types in the world.I haven't been able to find same.If an outfit such as FreedomOfTeach produced them I'd be first in line.
Joel

[Phil Minchinton]

Joel, this possibly may be what you are looking for. A recent 2004 publication from Cambridge University Press that seems to have good reviews but not cheap in hardback as it is a forensic reference text.

A quick update, the hard cover edition is out of print but a softback copy is less than half the price and apparently printed to order.

This link is to an extract of the text. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=g6uUWFPNF6YC&pg=PA88&lpg=PA88&dq=forensic+skull+racial+differences&source=bl&ots=T3mM9k5jyl&sig=yFl9dKSlw2_IyuTmiHaMY5yuu4Q&hl=en&ei=L9PuS6DuOYaPOMGj5IAI&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=forensic%20skull%20racial%20differences&f=false

Regards

Phil

[Joel Levinson]

Phil,
Thanks for the info.I'll look into it...
Joel