Starting in with some clay:
For this tutorial I'll be using Super Sculpey and Premo (both are Sculpey products). I use Super Sculpey for massing out my general forms and then use Premo for all my finishing work. Super Sculpey is very soft and is great for laying things down rather quickly. While Premo is rather firm and holds its shape and detail very well. These clays stay malleable until you use heat to harden them.

Massing Out your General Forms:
I start out by building out my general forms using little pieces of Super Sculpey at a time. During this phase of the sculpture I rarely use tools to carve out the muscles. I find that it's easier to build out the musculature than it is to carve it in. Keep adding more clay and keep moving, not dwelling on any one area for too long until you have the general look of your sculpture down. I like to start on the trunk and work my way out from there, but that's just a preference thing. While you are building out your forms start thinking about what the muscles are doing underneath. Don't ever be afraid to pull out an anatomy book to help you out if necessary. Even though this creature is not a human being it is based on the human form, just tweaked out a little.

That Darn Cracking Super Sculpey Problem:
Once the form is built out just shy of where I want the finished sculpt to be- I cook it in the oven. In the picture to the left you can see that prior to cooking it I separated those arms from the main body using monofilament (fishing line) for molding purposes. There are a few reasons that I do this (cook the sculpt). The first and foremost reason is cracking, if you cook your Sculpey in the oven- you can expect it to crack. It's too small to see in the picture (left) but there is a hairline crack going all the way down his chest.Thick Super Sculpey will almost always crack when it is cooked in the oven.There are several ways around this problem and the following is the way I like the most.

- First, mass out your form a few millimeters shy of your finished sculpt.
- Cook your sculpture in the oven.
- Say hello to those pesky cracks.
- Use super glue in the cracks to hold them together, and keep them from getting larger.
- Then finish your sculpture but this time when you cook it, use a heat gun (or a hair dryer) instead of the oven. This way you are cooking it from the outside and you can control it better. Unhardened Super Sculpey and Premo has a slight sheen to it. As you cook the outer layer with your heat gun watch for the moment that the sheen of the clay goes matte. Once an area goes matte move on to the next area and never heat one area for too long. The surface should be warm to the touch but never hot. This has always worked for me and I have never had cracks on my finished sculpts utilizing this technique.