life size sculpture help!!!!?

[Flialybabiizz .]

making a life size sculpture and have the shape i want to make but my base is too week because it is made of tape and foam, tried adding the clay to see if i could do it and the legs weren't able to hold the weight.

im using air drying clay and i put clay on the body and was planing to start with details soon but the leg thing happened any suggestions or tips? would using foil paper over the tape body make a strong base or is stating over the only option?

 

[moonlit]

foil is better
but i would instead of using tape and foam base use a thin slice of plywood

 

[tigris]

life size human or life size kitten? Generally you will need to make an armature of the approximately correct proportions. Depending on the final size and material (clay is obviously heavier than styrofoam) your armature can be of wood, wire, or steel rods (e.g. rebar). You can also tape filler (e.g. newspaper, polystyrene to your armature to save you material.

Wouldn't air drying clay be pretty expensive for anything larger? If I had to do a life-sized figure of a human I would make first a maquette to figure out the pose I wanted. Then using measurements from the maquette I would make a sturdy armature out of steel welded together. Depending on the pose I might need a lot of weight in the base like a chunk of metal or not). Then I would use polystyrene for an approximate version of the sculpture and use plaster of paris for a top coat to work on. Once its set plaster of paris is like really soft rock and can be worked using plaster files and various metal implements.