The bulk of the sculpture must be done with your fingers and good old spit. The final details etc can be smoothed using a small fine hair brush dipped into a small amount of terpentine or lighter fluid. Having said that. I would refrain from using a clay character with that design. A fabricated puppet would be ideal.

I see your little clay character, and I am reminded of one of my favorite clay animators, Robert Benfer ("Knoxskorner1" is his youtube site).

This guy got popular not by great art skill or detailed smooth animation, but by simple humor. So, I dont know... I dont think you need to smooth him out much. He seems to work just fine.

if your uaing a oil based clay then to smooth it out all you have to do is fill a small container with oliv oil and put a paper towl in it weat til it absorbs it . then touch the top of the paper towl and then use the oil on your finger to smoothe out your charecter.

Hey thanks, this is the best advice I have ever got regarding keeping the clay puppet smooth. In the past i have used methylated spirits, turpentine and even a candle to heat up my metal sculpting tools. But I was really surprised at how well this worked. I dipped a rubber tipped tool into a bit of olive oil and I was able to smooth out all the "imperfections" relatively quickly and effortlessly. Thanks again for this tip.