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

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?

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.

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?

Hey all, Studying sculpture has been a fascinating experience for me, and I try to take it lightly. Coming from the digital sculpture in Zbrush, working with clay helps me visualize shapes better. Unfortunately, I had difficulty handling the aluminum wire, but I believe it was due to a lack of practice. To determine what would perform best, I tested different manufacturers and thicknesses. In the first exercise, I worked with three different sizes, and I hope to achieve better quality in the future.

Here are my thoughts after finally finishing the assignment; 0. Ok, lesson learned. Do Not Use Steel Wire. I thought I'd be saving money by using materials I had on hand however the resulting armature was terrible. Wrapping the wire back up itself was physically tiring & completely ruined my proportions (most notably, the lengths of the thigh & shin make up a difference of over 1cm) I'm basically writing this one off as unusable for the rest of the course. 1st: Switching to Aluminum wire already made a big difference. However, the more flexible material came with it's own challenges. While twisting the wire back up the leg, the foot became deformed in a way I can't easily fix & I found I had to fix the joints more often which I believe also messed up the proportions slightly (One leg is still shorter than the other by about 8mm). The figure still wont stand by itself but still an improvement. 2nd: In an effort to get the limbs to stay proportioned I tried reinforcing this armature with little steel pins. This was definitely a mistake, trying to bend the wire over the limbs & the pins was nightmarishly fiddley, worse was when a previous section would just slide out. Overall the proportions were still off & the figures extra bulk makes posing hard, not worth the extra effort. 3rd: Definitely the best of the bunch, the feet didn't deform as much & the proportions are reasonably accurate.

Hi Andrew, I'm just starting into sculpture, quite excited to see where it goes! Heres my first armature, made with old thin tie wire I had already (I've ordered some proper stuff) with the pose from a photo I found online. Used 1cm as the cranial unit, so it's quite small, but I like working small :)

Finally getting back into it! (I think I may have to be a bit more patient when it comes to double checking proportions >.<)

https://youtu.be/uJMoplyGboI here's a link to the cranial units video.

Hi Andrew, please add an open link to the page 'Human Figure Proportions - Cranial Units - Robert Beverly Hale'.

Having a downloadable picture of the cranial proportions for reference would be really useful here.

I enjoyed making the aluminum wire armature (black wire) with the cranial units and tried some silver wire I found at home, but it was too stiff and making smaller armatures with that wire was tricky I'm going to buy more aluminum wire of different thicknesses.

Hello, please explain, in the videos you talk about the premium videos. I bought the course. What is different to the free materials? Your work and teachings are wonderful

I made these three using a 20 ga copper wire which I already had within my hands reach. They are about 12, 7 and 5 inches. The tallest one is too flimsy so I guess I’ll make more using 14ga aluminum once I get it.

Just found some more Al wire buried in a drawer. ;-) It's not heavy gage but stiffer, so may hold up a larger piece. (Says "Electric Fence" wire, 17 gauge.) Worth experimenting with.