Clay Art Challenge Day 2

On day 2 of the clay challenge I was doodling over my morning coffee trying to come up with a snail creature that I fancied making.

I hit upon a toothy multi - eyed creature. When I'm working I always make up an assortment of eyes and teeth in various sizes which I bake and store. So I had a ready made assortment of fangs and eyes to choose from.

                                            Here the snail takes shape with its clawed tail.

While the polymer clay snail was being baked I formed a tightly packed cone of aluminum foil to sculpt the shell over. I'm going with a horned design.

     The painted snail and shell decorated in acrylic paint.

The finished snail creature assembled and sprayed with clear matt lacquer.

Clay Art Challenge

I thought I'd try my hand at an art challenge. Most of the work I do takes weeks to complete. So my goal was to create a new sculpture each day for 30 days.

My first piece is going to be my take on a hybrid snail creature.

For the armature I used galvanized steel wire. This I bulked out with foil. Over the foil I applied a veneer of Ave's Apoxie Sculpt clay. Here is the body with Super Sculpey being added. While I had my supplies out I prepared a second armature ( seen in the rear of the photo ) for my next creature.

Here is the snail with its teeth and feelers added.

A ball of tightly packed foil formed the armature for the snail's shell which I'm sculpting in polymer clay.

Here is the completed snail slinking around my outdoor steps.

Sea Serpent WIP Photos

On Saturday I worked on the sea serpent piece. I reinforced the neck area by wrapping it in wire mesh and masking tape.

Next up I inserted the eyes I had sculpted and painted earlier.

For the sculpting I was using Apoxie Sculpt clay Apoxie® Sculpt which is a two part medium that you knead together to activate.

The trick is too only mix up as much as you can use before it begins to set up. I prefer using small batches and mixing more as I need it.

Once I begin sculpting I like to try and complete the piece in one sitting. I find that by doing so the newly mixed clay blends into the setting clay already on the piece more seamlessly.

Here is a few photos of the finished pose.

A Couple Of Irons In The Fire

On occasion I'll work on two or three pieces simultaneously. It may seem chaotic to other artists but it works for me.

If I'm sculpting I have to get out my tools and set up my work bench. If I'm airbrushing I have to fire up my compressor, prepare my spray booth and thin and strain my paint.

And of then of course there is the cleaning of the tools and neatening up my studio at the end of the day. For just this reason I find it more productive (and cost effective) to work on multiple artwork at once.The sculptures I have going presently are Kong vs the Pteranodon, a thresher shark and a gillman.

The gillman is about ten years old! It was the first piece I ever made using Super Sculpey.I have always been interested in Cryptozoology and the sightings of unknown, mysterious lake creatures. So it wasn't surprising that my first polymer sculpture would be a cryptid of my own design.

Recently while searching for something in my studio I came upon a box containing the gillman.I thought it would be fun to design a base for it which I did.

Here is a picture of his head. In preparation for airbrushing I've masked off his eyes and mouth and primed him with spray paint.

On his side you can see the holes I drilled that correspond with the bolts at the top of the piece of driftwood on the base. I'll post more photos as work progresses.