point of being able to take a dead head, and,
by knowledge of its living anatomy, to model it in clay so truthfully
as to far surpass any other process whatever. I can, unfortunately,
give no directions for doing this. I can merely say, in the words of
many unpractical "guide books" to art: "Take a board, some tools, a
well-kneaded lump of clay; place the head before you in strong light,
and turn out a lifelike representation of it; wrinkles, muscles, and
all--in clay." To me, this is now far the easiest thing to do, but I
do not forget the time when I used perhaps a ton of plaster in
experiments, and wasted lots more, and learned many little arts before
I could model correctly.

Let this be a grain of comfort to the learner, that, although he must
waste a deal of good plaster ere he sees the "points," and before he
can model straight away, yet that he has an advantage which I, as a
self-taught man, did not possess--the advantage of some little
practical advice, such as is given in the pages of this work.

Now, "returning to our muttons," it must not be supposed that our
omega is gained when the tyro has modelled by eye, and by
measurements, his first head in clay; this has to be cast from, as if
from the dead head, and the resultant model touched up, where
incorrect, by cutting and scraping when too large, or by addition of
clay when too small. Sometimes it will be necessary to cast from this
again and again, but in all cases the mould and model should be
managed as before described.

Fig. 28--Stag's head in plaster from clay model.

Assuming that the student has managed a cast to his satisfaction, he
will see, by looking at the accompanying cut, Fig. 28, that the orbits
of the eyes are shallow, that only the upper line of the sinus shows,
that the lips and nostrils are also shallow depressions; all of these
parts must be hollowed out or undercut. To do this we require a knife
such as that figured No. 12 in Chapter III, and three other tools, one
a large crooked awl (sharpened at one edge), in handle, and steel
"undercutting" and "relieving tools" (see Figs. 29 and 30). [Footnote:
Messrs. Lechertier, Barbs, et Cie, of 60, Regent-street, London, have
many patterns of these for plaster work, at a low figure.]

Fig. 29--Steel "undercutting" tool.

Fig. 30--Steel "relieving" tool.

With these the eyes, nostrils, lips, etc, of the model, are relieved
and undercut, in order to take in the folds of the inner surfaces