Keannu Reeves might not be the most charismatic actor in the world, but his movies do make $$$. Rather than breaking every little points on Keannu's face, I'll just say that he has a distinctive cheekbone that tapers down into a slim jawline. However, it's his eyes that make him unique. Depending on the angle from which it's viewed (as well as his facial expression), his eyes can range from average caucasian to asian. It took me about 5 tries until I was satisfied. It's still not perfect but there's a point of diminishing returns. My first two sculpts made him look too asian and my 3rd sculpt looked too average. This is why portrait sculpting is the hardest aspect of sculpting. One little line that's less than 1/4mm can make the difference between a head that looks like Keannu Reeves or Brandon Lee.

As an artist, you have to pick your features carefully. It's very hard to replicate every exacting features of human head especially when you're recreating a 3-D head from 2-D pictures ... that and the fact that you have less than 1" of sculpting material to work with. Many artist tend to exaggerate prominent features. This works great in that draws your attention away from smaller insignificant features, but it does have it's downside. Look at the Austin Powers figures and statues done to date. From far away, you could almost say they're dead-on accurate, but upon carefully examination, you'll notice many of Mike Myers unique facial features are either exaggerated or missing. The end result is a head that looks less life-like and more cartoonish. This is why I think it's important to study the person you're sculpting. See what expression best fits them and attempt to bring that to life without extreme exaggerations.

On a side note, the Keannu head was sculpted from Magic sculp instead of my normal premo routine. Magic sculp offers an advantage in that it smooths a lot easier than polymer clay. Just add water and you'll get a perfectly smooth surface. The downside is limited work time and change in working state of MS. After mixing I find that MS is too soft for detailed sculpting. For this project, I mixed the MS components and allowed it set for 30 minutes. This gives it a little more rigidity and a feel comparable to supersculpey. The problem is that you only have an additional 40 minutes until the MS hardens to the point where it can no longer be shaped. In addition, no major add-ons or removals can be done in the last 10 -15 minutes .... you can only move shapes around) . It took me 3 phases to complete the head, but the benefit is that you get a rock hard head that doesn't need post-sanding like most premo sculpts.

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