Friday, May 28, 2010

A Baby Dragon and Celebrating the Odd

I sculpted this little fellow recently of polymer and Apoxie Sculpt clay.

It is a baby dragon hatchling.

I started a second dragon but I can't photograph it because my camera card is on the fritz.

It seems my camera and batteries are in collusion. When the batteries are fully charged the card acts up and vice versa.

I got an interesting email this morning. Some of my sculpture was profiled on: Celebrate Odd Etsy!: Blacknick Sculpture

My thanks to the author of the blog for finding my work suitably odd enough for inclusion ;)

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

One Nasty Little Guy

This weekend I sculpted this little guy with a bad attitude named Damek. He is 6" tall and sculpted out of polymer clay and Apoxie clay.

He is a real stinker and likes nothing better than stalking the forest with his hawk terrorizing the small game and gnomes.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Creating Water Effects With Resin

I'm in the process of designing a sculpture which will have either a water dragon or sea serpent as its subject. With the last serpent I created I used Apoxie Sculpt clay to model waves around the creature.

Another method of creating realistic looking water effects is to use clear resin. I first used resin on a project in the early 1990's. That sculpture depicted two men hauling a net full of mackerel into their dory. Unbeknownst to them a Mako shark had been zeroing in on that school of mackerel and breached right next to their boat.

The creation of that sculpture was detailed in an article I wrote about sculpting and mold making titled Mako Antics for issue 32 of Breakthrough Magazine Spring 1993 . The resin I used for that project is Polytranspar Artificial water distributed by Wildlife Artist Supply Company.

Unfortunately I don't have digital pictures to share of Mako Antics but here is a photo of a recent sculpture I did where I used similar techniques to create the resin water.

If you are familiar with the film The Old Man And The Sea you may remember this scene where Santiago is bringing in his catch lashed to his skiff.

This piece required sculpting clay waves around the skiff and Marlin. Making a rubber mold of the water. And casting tinted resin in the mold to get my resin waves.

Another product I find useful for creating water effects is Envirotex. If you've ever been in a pub and seen a coin embedded on the table top under a clear coat of material likely it was EnviroTex!

I prefer using it over resin to create still water. It doesn't give off the awful fumes that resin does. Another advantage over resin is the surface dries completely tack free.

In this sculpture of a Gorgosaurus coming upon a dead dinosaur in a burned out section of the forest I used EnviroTex to make the water in the shallow creek.

In the close up photo you can see the stones and moss that line the creek bed. After gluing everything in place I drizzled a thin layer of EnviroTex over it. When it cured I poured subsequent layers till I achieved the depth I wanted.

If you've ever wanted to add water effects to your work using resin I'd encourage you to go for it. Just be sure to follow proper safety precautions in using it. And expect to go through some trial and error experimentation before using it on anything important!

One tip I would pass along is to keep a work journal and detail everything. And I mean everything! Right down to the temperature and humidity on the day you make your resin pours. You'd be surprised how it can effect how the resin behaves.

And I can't stress enough to test the compatibility of everything that is going to come in contact with the resin. It can be nasty stuff and attack certain materials

I'd also advise you to keep a dated record of the age of your resin. It definitely has a short shelf life. For that reason I always make a point of mixing up a small test batch before adding it to my project. Trust me you don't want the hassle of trying to remove uncured resin from your project!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Happy Mother's Day

I'd like to take a sec to wish all the artistic moms that visit here a Happy Mother's Day. I hope you enjoy the day doing whatever it is you love most!

This past week I took some time away from my sculpting projects to make my mom a present.

She had wanted a revolving composter and I had drew a rough plan up but there was no way I had enough time to get it done.

So my next thought was why not make her something for her garden? She loves Roy Orbison's music so I wanted to create something in a musical theme. I decided on a garden stepping stone.

So I made a pair of Roy's trademark Wayfarer sunglasses, a guitar and musical notes from polymer clay. After baking them I painted them flat black and rubbed them down to give them faux pewter hi lites.

Then I filled a stepping stone mold with cement and set my polymer clay pieces into it. I was happy with the result and it was fun being creative outside of the usual materials I work with.

Now I just have to steer my mother to my blog so she can find this link to her favorite song: YouTube - Roy Orbison - In Dreams (Black & White Night) If you've never seen the concert "Roy Orbison and Friends a Black & White Night" it is well worth a look!

Saturday, May 1, 2010

My Sculpture Featured on Etsy's Off the Beaten Path

It was a pleasant surprise to wake up to find my Sea Serpent sculpture had been chosen by the curator of Etsy Finds: Off the Beaten Path : Etsy Finds: Off the Beaten Path :: Etsy Blog .

I can't believe the number of people that have viewed it in a little over a day! Just goes to show you the power of the Internet.

I have another serpent in mind I'd like to create. This one will be "swimming" in resin water.

Creating resin water is a little more time consuming and the fumes are a bit much. For this reason I like to cast my resin pieces outdoors which means I'll have to wait for warmer weather to arrive.