Draw several studies of your sculpture. A study is a sketch that allows you to visualize the sculpture as you would like it exist when it is finished. Use a pencil and scratch paper. Keep these studies with you as you sculpt the figure.
Roll a cylinder of clay as long as you wish the body of your figure to be. This can be achieved by laying the clay on the table in front of you, placing your hands flat on the top of the clay and rolling the clay back and forth until the clay has stretched out and formed a long cylinder shape.
Cut away hunks of clay from the cylinder to form the basic shape of a person. This means you will cut away clay at the head to form a round shape, cut away clay from the area below the head to form the neck, and cut away clay around the body, arms and legs. Use a wire loop tool.
Smooth the shape of the body of the figure with your fingers. Use a wet sponge to wet down the outside of the body to help you with this.
Add whatever clay is needed to form the details of the figure -- hair and facial features like nose and mouth, arms, hands, feet, and whatever else you may not have included when you cut away the basic shape of the statue. The figure should still be rough at this point. Smooth the clay around the additions so that the seam between the original clay body and the new clay does not show.
Draw details on the figure using a needle tool or a pointed clay tool. Use the sculpture tool to draw textures such as the hair and lines on the face. Look back and forth continuously between the study you drew of your figure and the figure you're carving.