Any sculptors here?

[frogmarch]

What sculpting medium would you recommend for a beginner? I bought some Crayola Air-Dry Clay the other day to experiment with. Is there something easier to use? I'd appreciate any thoughts or suggestions.

I hope to someday become good enough at sculpting to make a diorama with witch and warlock miniatures in dance poses. My inspiration is this depiction of the witch and warlock dance scene from Robert Burns's poem "Tam O'Shanter." I think it goes without saying that my diorama would be a much simpler scene than that in the picture.

"

Poem excerpt:

And, wow! Tam saw an unco sight!

Warlocks and witches in a dance:
Nae cotillon, brent new frae France,
But hornpipes, jigs, strathspeys, and reels,
Put life and mettle in their heels.
A winnock-bunker in the east,
There sat auld Nick, in shape o' beast;
A towzie tyke, black, grim, and large,
To gie them music was his charge:
He screw'd the pipes and gart them skirl,
Till roof and rafters a' did dirl.

http://www.robertburns.org/works/308.shtml

[1monster]

1. Late to answer your question, but I'd use Sculpey, Super Sculpey, or Sculpey III.

I've used it and it is great. Scupty is like clay, until you bake it (at low temperatures). When baked, it hardens permanently. It can be sanded and painted. You can also buy it in many different colors.

Sculpey (often misspelled as Sculpy) is the brand name for a type of polymer clay that can be molded and put into a conventional oven to harden, as opposed to typical modeling clays, which require a much hotter oven, such as a kiln. Until it is baked, Sculpey has a consistency somewhat like Plasticine. It is sold in many colors, though it can also be painted once fired. It has become popular with modeling artists. It is also sometimes used for claymation.<1>

Sculpey closely resembles Fimo, another brand of polymer clay. Sculpey is a less rigid composition which better suits modeling, while Fimo is better suited for twisting into cane and bead making because the colors do not blend together as readily. The plasticity is controlled by the amount of oil suspending the polymers in the "clay". Sculpey is also usually less expensive than Fimo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculpey

[frogmarch]

2. Thank you. I'll get some Sculpey and

see what happens.