Unveiling My Transformed Self: The Unconventional Clay Sculpture Story

Proud student of NYFA

It was the Los Angeles branch of the New York Film Academy, where I joined the 3D Animation and Visual Effects program after my graduation from the Russian State University of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow.

My first time in America, first week at school. During sculpting classes our teacher told us to go to the Home Depot and get flanges, T-pipes, couplings, epoxy putty, galvanized steel wires, aluminum armature wires, pipes, wireform (optional)... not galvanized wires, wooden boards and everything else we need to make an armature. Back then it was hard for me even to understand what home depot was. I only knew the one meaning of “depot” - a place where trains are housed… Asking someone for clarification was certainly not an option. I did write everything down and came to my apartment to solve this puzzle. Eventually I came to Home Depot - one of the first stores I visited in America. Plumbing isle. Looking through all the wire gauges and material varieties I got pretty confused.. and ended up with probably 20 lb of various metal scrap. That was also the time when I discovered a steel reinforced epoxy - the most useful substance till this day. I love the smell of epoxy in the morning. And the brand-new hammer I kept under my pillow for self-defense purposes.

I love the smell of epoxy in the morning

Home Depot, sweet Home Depot

The initial stage of clay sculpting is creating the armature, a framework essential for supporting the final piece. We were taught to use heavy aluminum wire because it's lightweight and flexible. But the wire I bought was at least half inch thick… The reason why I bought it was the guidance in my head whispering “this f*cker gotta be stable”... A sturdy armature is crucial for stability. The teacher helped me to cut it with some extra heavy duty cutter and all his strength. After several attempts and blood, sweat and tears, I managed to bend it just enough to make the outline of a ball for the head, measuring about 8 inches height. I carefully secured all joints with epoxy to prevent wobbling during the sculpting phase. The teacher said gloves weren’t a necessity, I love the needle feel of drying up epoxy in my fingers.

This is where it starts

She's made of metal and plastic bags and little paper And things I cannot speak

At first we needed to make an anatomically correct sculpture of a skull. Besides few little sculptures that I made early in my childhood out of dirt that I dug up in the yard, I never tried to make any semi-professional sculptures out of clay. So the whole process was very new to me and so damn intriguing. Building my first sculpture, from an armature to completion deepened my appreciation for the process and the feel of this earthy material.

With the armature in place, I began to add layers of clay. The moldable nature of clay enabled to define the scull’s silhouette while keeping the flow organic and adaptable. I utilized hand-formed coils and large slabs of clay to build the skull’s form. Every few minutes, I took a step back to observe my work, ensuring balance and proportion. I was familiar with anatomy of a skull since a drew a plenty when I taught myself how to draw. But building it in 3D, feeling every shape, ledges and grooves was a whole new experience. I highly recommend to everyone who studies drawing to make a skull sculpture. It tremendously speeds up the process of understanding how to draw a human head and then realistic portraits.

The entire assignment was to turn ourselves into characters. After the skull was complete we needed to study facial muscles to lay out a right shape for the head. We needed to take 3 photos of ourselves for the reference - front, side and 3/4 view and think about what characters we want to be.

While laying out muscles I already went overboard, I loved the process so much that I wanted to show every muscle if not every facial nerve and understand for once how the face works. To build that way my own face made everything even more fascinating. And then I just loved how the skull with muscles looks and I didn’t wanna put more clay to hide it under skin. That is how everything turn into a Zombie Queen character. I made one half of my face a little less decayed and the other half had the skull, jaw and the muscles exposed. Eyeballs were sculpted separately and then inserted into the sockets, that gives them way more real look and is highly recommended.

Then I decided to add neck vertebrae... this fascination with anatomy reminded me of high school times when I wanted to become a pathologist... And I added on some spikes coming out the head, because who doesn't like some spikes? I sure do - as my painting "I can already feel worms eating my spine" from 2012 shows. Four years later - the same motifs, how captivating...

As the form developed, I turned my focus to the finer details. Textures play a vital role in the overall impact of a sculpture. Realistic folds and creases bring the figure to life. To add depth and textures, I used tools like loop tools, dotting tools, wooden modeling sticks, dental picks and fine needles to craft contrasting surfaces.

For the hair, I made bunch of braid like shapes and started attaching them along the envisioned hairline, used water for better adhesion. With the soft, pliable clay, I could effortlessly create intricate details of organic matter.

The whole different story is hard surface modeling with clay - shapes, that need to be rigidly defined and don't deform easily. Like, for example, the crown of this Queen. Even the spikes were easier to sculpt because they were of organic origin. To make the crown look like it was made out of heavy metal, maybe rusted but still sturdy, I needed to work with firm pieces of clay, that hold shape well, cut the shape with a sharp blade and then polish them slightly with my finger and water.

I am not a fan of zombie movies but I am a huge fan of all death related topics. Transformation, decay, and the fine line between life and death. These themes always resonate to me. Strength without vulnerability of life. The end is already reached. I am especially proud of the zombie’s companions that are crawling out of the ear canal - the earthworms. Symbolically associated with death and decay, the worm’s quiet work of breaking down matter has made it a metaphor for insidious destructiveness. I think they contributed to this sculpture pretty well and added to it a needed touch of life.

The final result:

Time-lapse of the whole sculpting process