How to Make Wire Armatures for Sculpting
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About instructor
Proko sculpting instructor. Sculpting takes drawing to a whole new dimension.
assignments 39 submissions
Hi all,
I'd never heard of Hale before, so this system was new to me.
I like Andrews approach, one wire, one cut, potential to do from memory.
I made plenty of errors along the way, and like to mix things up trying little tweaks each time...
So far I have 17 armature test bodies, most are 5 inches tall, the biggest is 7. I wanted to save on wire for when I'd gotten the hang of this method :)
#1 First try, over cranked it, knee snapped.
#2 Excess spine length, something went wrong looks dodgy.
#3 Tried thin steel (basic garden wire), ok bit flimsy at less than 1mm thickness for 5 inch figure. Messed up the arms, too short.
#4 Tried something different, more cuts, too fussy, fail.
#5 1mm steel garden wire, stiff to bend but do-able. Experimented with the idea of a support bar. Ended up being 3 pieces of wire and needed a bit of tape. It is strong and would work ok.
#6 2mm Alu' wire, this one is built like a tank! Over kill for 5 inch scale!
#7 Tried a simple technique with just wrapping in the middle. It's fast and flimsy, and I also managed to get the measurement way off, doh!
#8 Raced along in real time with Andrew's video and just about kept up yay, but, I managed to mess up the measurements again.
#9 It dawned on me the diagram I drew to help me, ur...wasn't helping because it was wrong. I corrected it, and finally it clicked, feels like I 'got it'.
#10 The excess on the wire roll was driving me nuts so I tried to figure out what length I need to cut a work piece off. On this one I started with x7 total heights worth of wire and ended up a bit short. (Later I settle on x10 and have plenty to work with.)
#11 On this try I ran short on wire again but the build went quick, 9mins.
#12 Angled 'up' pelvis to help correct a long spine.
#13 I tried a wider shoulder (heroic look?), got this a bit overdone. Messed up the left foot, has messy head loop. Took 13mins.
#14 Adjusted my diagram again. Turned out nice.
#15 x10 total height lengths of wire measured and cut off as working piece. Straight spine. Took 11.5 mins, had some wire left over (which is fine).
#16 7 inch, the biggest yet. Thicker wire took longer to bend and more area to cover. Build time 17 mins.
#17 Small 2 inch tall scale, this is green 'floral wire'. I messed up the order but think I saved it, the wire length was stock pre-cut and ended a bit short of making it back to the head.
I've now just watch Andrew's second armature video and will try again, this time I'll aim for smooth loops on the hands and feet. I hesitate slightly as I've previously preferred to undersize these areas, but I came here to party so I'll go with the flow and trust that Andrew can help me fix it later haha.
LESSON NOTES
In this lesson you’ll learn how to build your own anatomically correct wire armatures! If you don’t know what an armature is, it acts as a skeleton that will support your figure sculpture. This prevents the sculpture from sagging and slumping over. The second benefit to a wire armature is that it serves as an internal measuring system for proportions. It’s a foundational step that you don’t want to skip!
SUPPLIES (amazon affiliate links):
14 gauge soft aluminum wire
12 gauge soft aluminum wire
Pliers
Related Links:
Human Figure Proportions - Cranial Units - Robert Beverly Hale
Basic Sculpting Supplies
How to Start Sculpting on a Budget
Bridgman Quick Sculpt Demo
DOWNLOADS
how-to-make-wire-armatures-for-sculpting.mp4
331 MB
How-to-Make-Wire-Armatures-for-Sculpting-Transcript.docx
6 kB
ASSIGNMENTS![]()
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Assignment
Build 3 of these armatures and check their proportions to make sure you’ve done it right. Feel free to make them different sizes but keep in mind that we’ll be using them without an armature stand so I recommend keeping them between 4-12 inches tall. We will use these later in the course to practice gesture.
Hi All,
I'm excited to be starting this course finally(!) 💪
Here are my 3 armatures made around 8.5 inches tall in preparation for the gestures studies in the next lesson.
This method is a bit different to some of my earliest sculptures. And although I actually like it as it does avoid the need for tape, glue etc, I am finding the arms lengths to appear a little short, but I have adhered to the Bale cranial proportions
I am expecting that when the clay is over the armature the proportions will fall into place.
Cheers!
Cam
It's armor according to the lessons. The same cranial units. There's another larger one, the problem is that the gise is expandable.
Hey there! Here are my 3 armatures for this assignment: 11.75" (legs ended up a bit longer, aiming for 11.5"...learned the importance of measuring at least twice on this one!), 5.5", 3.25".
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8mo
Looking good! shoulders and hips look to be a bit wide so you might just bend the angle of the arms and legs a little closer to the spine, the neck might also be a bit long. Keep up the good work!
Hello, these are my armatures builds for this project. The two small armatures are 4 and 5 inches tall on 20 gauge wire. The two larger armatures are 10 and 11 inches tall on 14 gauge wire.
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10mo
Hey these look good! I'd maybe just bend the wire in the hips to make sure the waist isn't too wide ( in the video I said 1 unit on each side of the hips but I found that 1/2 unit is better to keep the hips for being too wide)
Can't wait to see you add some clay to these armatures! Keep it up!
My three armatures - i accidentally measured the one's legs as two instead of three units long, so i figure he'll just have to be an ogre or dwarf or similarly reduced-leg character :D It was actually fairly hard to source the aluminum wire; had to settle for the bonsai stuff - which seems to work the same way.
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10mo
Hey looking good! I would also slim down the hips a little bit to 1/2 a unite on each side instead of 1 unit because it's easy to add clay to thicken the hips but if the wire is to wide (which it appears to be) it will cause problems during the sculpt. Keep up the great work! Can't wait to see some clay on those armatures.
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1yr
Hey this looks great! the gesture is really coming together just in the armature. Can't wait to see the progress with this one!
Hi, made the armature with 16 gauge aluminium soft wire. enjoyed the process of making the figure
Hi! Love the course so far. Here is my armature assignment. Used 1.2 and 1.3mm wire which is around gauge 16-17. My conversion was 1 inch to 2.5cm / 2.0cm. They are not posed yet. Do they look alright? I know their legs look short on the picture but I swear they are ok lol.
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2yr
yeah I would double check the proportions and measurements with a ruler. The legs do appear too short and the hips too wide from. The middle one the neck also appears too long and the arms too short. It might help to hold them up to an image of a skeleton on a piece of paper or a person on a computer screen just to double check those proportions as you're going. They look well built though so I think if you can just make those adjustments they should work great. I could also see these proportions possibly working for small children though I'd have to double check that as well. Keep it up!
Good evening y'all, here's my assignments for the 12in armatures. I built three of those. one with the simplified stick head and the other two with the complete head shape.
I used the 14" gauge galvanized wire and it was pretty hard to twist. I ended up using the pliers throughout the whole process, but what a great joy it was!
Thanks Andrew!
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2yr
Glad to hear the video helped! yes galvanized wire is a pain for sure but it looks like these turned out! The hips and shoulders might be a bit wide. remember to make them thin to make room for clay on the outside of them. Keep it up!
Good morning. Here are my initial armatures. I used 14 gauge wire and the unit measurement is 1 inch so they are about 12 inches tall.
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2yr
Looking good! the hips look to be a little wide as well as the shoulders. I would move those joints in closer to the centerline of the figure to make room for the clay to be built out on the sides of the shoulders and hips. Great job! fun gestures.
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2yr
Hey these are looking great! One thing I'd watch out for is making the hips too wide. I think I myself did this in the video lesson, so I might just change the width of the hips by bending the legs down closer to the centerline (spine) so the hips are thinner to give room for the clay.
Can't wait to see these armatures develop! keep it up! really fun poses.
Here are my attempts at some armatures! I made the first one to be 11.5 inches tall with some wire I already had on hand while I waited for the 14 gauge to be delivered. I believe it was 20 gauge. I feel like this was too tall for this wire and it would have worked better on a 6 inch armature, but the proportions seem pretty good. The second one I made at the same size but with the 14 gauge, and I added an expandable chest and some fingers. The chest is lopsided which I figure is still usable as long as I keep both sides at the same height if a readjust. The third armature is an upper body one with a cranial unit of 2 inches. I made this one with the intention of practicing the second hand building method. It took me a while to get it right because I made my palm loops at the wrong scale originally, and the hands always ended up half size. When I realized this mistake I untwisted the loops, but that made them slightly too big. I tried to use the pliers to reshape them as best I could, and I think they're okay for a first attempt. All in all, lessons were learned for the next time!
Hi, what would be the best wire size for a 6 inch armature? I just did a 14 gauge, 11.5 inch armature as you can see here, but I think sculpting on a 6 inch one would be far better for a beginner
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3yr
yeah the smaller you go the thinner the wire. Also depends on the type of clay as some types of clay need more support than others because they are softer. 18 gauge is probably what I'd go for for smaller armatures.
The three that are together are 6" tall. While the others are 11.5" tall. I've realized that I've run into the issue with my pliers. They are too thick so when I go to go back up the leg to tie the wire around it I can't grip the foot with the pliers. So the wire ends up slipping upwards and decreasing the size of the foot and ruining its shape. I think they are serviceable but I'll have to get new pliers.
What would the scale of this armature be?
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3yr
using 1 inch as one cranial unit makes it about 12 inches (30cm) so it's 1/6 life size scale. 1 1/2 inches makes it about 1/5 scale and 2 inch cranial unit is about 1/4 life size scale.
My 3 armatures. All are 1" = 1 unit. The packaging for the wire I used says it is 16mm or .062 in.
I really like this system because it keeps the guess work out of building armatures and is really quick to make once you get it down. Looking forward to throwing some clay on these.
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3yr
Looking great! I'm liking the poses already! Keep going!
Hello, my first attempt on armatures.
1. The size: 1 unit is 1 inch = 11.5 high
2. The size: 1 unit is 1/2 inch = 3 1/4 high. Material: florist's wire.
3. The size is 1 unit is 1 inch. I was curious about what changes when the posture changes from an upright posture to another. The proportions of the legs do not seem to be correct, although the units are right-ish. Material: florist's wire.
4. The size: 1 unit is 1 inch = 11.5 high
My three armatures. Having a little trouble wrapping the wire without twisting the two together, and getting it tight around the joints. Any tips?
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3yr
it could be the wire if its a bit stiffer of a wire. on #1 make sure the hips aren't too wide, better they be thinner to make room to add clay. These look like they should work great! hopefully you'll do some gesture studies with these soon!
