Monsters and Musings

Works in progress: baby fairies!

These are just the baked sculptures. They still have to be painted and decorated, and they need wings (notice the holes in the back of the one that’s on its tummy).

They’re quite fun to make, though perhaps a bit more cutesy than my usual work.

Right now most of the work I am doing involves cramming fairies, grotesques, and make-believe creatures into bottles and jars, so I’m entitled to do some cutesy-pie baby fairies to balance stuff out.

Despite their tiny size (1.5-2.5 inches long) these are still sculpted in my usual method: I sculpt the head first, bake it, and then sculpt the rest over a wire armature and bake the whole thing.

Canadian Politicians:

Yes, I’m a nerd.
This was a good exercise in portraiture though, since I feel less confident in portraits. I impressed myself. The only face I had to sculpt more than once was Elizabeth May.
By the way, if you want nightmares, try working with the heads of a bunch of political leaders lined up on your desk staring at you.
Some fun facts:

• I found out what Jack Layton looks like without a mustache.
• These scultures are just 3.5 inches tall.
• Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff appear to have a mole in the same spot on their faces. 
• It takes a really long time to make enough pieces for 5 ball-joint figures, even when it’s just their arms that move. 

I sculpted the heads first. This took a very long time. I used reference photos. Once the heads were complete I made the bodies. I tried a couple versions with all limbs moveable, but they looked too fightening and couldn’t stand up, so I went back to the drawing board (or, er, ball of clay) and sculpted simple armless bodies. I then sculpted the hands and the elbow joints, and fired them. The upper and lower arms were the last to be sculpted, so that I could fit them with the elbow, hand, and shoulder joints.
I ran out of black clay, and had to sculpt the bodies and arms with prosculpt flesh tones. In hindsight I should have dragged myself across town to get more black clay, because the black paint on the joints will gradually wear down as the joints are moved.

Medieval-esque dragons:

I’m working on critters in batches now to get ready for the Innisfil summerfest. Last week’s work was dragons. The above pictures show the naked scultps, and then the painting. They’re bright and colourful, and great fun to make!
I use a single wire and some scrap clay or tinfoil for the armature, and then sculpt over that. I always try to get a “medieval illumination” look, despite the big cutesy-pie eyes I give them (not in the above photos, because they go on last).
As part of the medieval look I refer to images of medieval illuminations. They’re inspiring to look at, and help set the mood for the sculpture.

Here’s a new take on wings. I’m always looking for new ways to create wings for my critters. Fantasy film is wonderful, but when you want a sort of insect-like look, it’s not the best. Last week I decided to do a little experiment, and it seems to have worked.

1) I took some tissue paper and folded it in half. On the inside, I drew wings (traced from an earlier drawing—this way they turned out the same size!).
2) Re-folded the paper, and put on several coats of fimo gloss.
3) Hung the paper to dry.

The result is a pair of translucsent wings that can be attached to wires and decorated.
I like this technique, and planned to try it with some more detailed wings. It’s especially good for tiny work, since unlike fantasy film, you don’t have to apply heat and risk it shrinking too much.

Creating an eagle

This project was pretty challenging. It included two portraits, and a structurally problematic eagle.

I decided to have the eagle launching off of a rock base so that the heavy base would provide a strong counter-weight for the eagle. I started with an armature based on an eagle skeleton, but after a lot of fussing around I had to scrap it because it wasn’t cooperating. I finally decided to use a wire armature without building up any clay in it under the actual sculpture. This worked, since I could get the shape I needed. Meanwhile, I completed the heads for the humans, and built their armatures so that they’d fit securely into the eagle’s body.

I’m pretty happy with the final result. It can be found on my portfolio blog, www.gawainart.tumblr.com.

Galumphing Elves:

Polymer clay, paint, and mixed media on canvas. Just a little fun experiment to see what happens.