A Bad Bunny!

I've been working on a new dark art themed piece for my Etsy shop OOAK Bad Bunny by BlacknickSculpture on Etsy and thought I'd share a couple work in progress photos with you.

This naughty character started out as an aluminum wire armature. After padding the armature with foil I added a coating of Apoxie Sculpt clay which I allowed to cure.

After the clay had hardened I began adjusting the pose of the legs to give the figure the stance I wanted.

Here is the figure roughed out and posed on its wood base.

Remember what your Mother told you about taking candy from strangers? It goes double for naughty rabbits!

Stop Motion Puppet Construction

Over the Christmas holiday I decided to try my hand at creating some stop motion puppets. This type of puppet is fully posable and used in the film industry to create stop motion animation in movies like Coraline.

I thought it would be fun to create my interpretation of the strange creature that crawls up from the pit in the 1933 version of King Kong.

I began by carving a wooden skull for the creature and adding some Apoxie sculpt teeth.

Next I used aluminum wire to create the spine and front legs of the creature. Here is the lizards head added to the spine. The small human figure is one of the lizards intended victims.

The wire body of the lizard is then wrapped with cotton.

Then chunks of foam are glued to the armature using liquid latex. It is then trimmed to shape and covered with a foam tape overwrap.

Next I sculpted the lizards head and lower jaw over the armature in clay. I then made a two piece plaster mold of the clay head. I brushed a mixture of acrylic paint and liquid latex into the mold halves.

After peeling my lizard head pieces out of the molds I brushed some liquid latex onto the armatures skull and glued the sections in place.

Next I glued down the neck section onto the lizard and added some spikes I had formed using liquid latex and cotton.

For the lizards skin I made a textured mold into which I brushed a thin coat of tinted liquid latex.

When the latex was dry I brushed talcum powder over it. This prevents it from sticking to itself.

Then I carefully peeled the latex skin from the mold.

Here is one section of the completed skin. I'm guessing I will need about 3 or 4 sections to cover the entire lizard creature. Hopefully I'll be able to finish the puppet up this week.

Asian Noodle Soup

I'm frequently at the Chinese restaurant to get my soup " fix " so when my wife Diane came across this recipe she knew I'd like it! I forget where she got a hold of it so I can't give credit to the author.

I changed the recipe somewhat. Instead of turkey meat I browned up some Italian sausage and crumbled it up. I also did away with adding the extra 3/4 of water. We like things spicy so I added some cayenne pepper to our soup. I'm not a fan of cucumber so I omitted that garnish.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons hot sesame oil, divided

1 pound 93%-lean ground turkey

1 bunch scallions, sliced, divided

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

3/4 cup water

3 cups thinly sliced bok choy

8 ounces dried Chinese noodles

3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 small cucumber, sliced into matchsticks, for garnish

Preparation:

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add ground turkey, all but 2 tablespoons of the scallions, garlic and ginger and cook, stirring and breaking up the turkey, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

Add broth, water, bok choy, noodles, soy sauce, vinegar and the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the pan. Bring to a boil over medium-high. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the noodles are tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Return the turkey mixture to the pan and stir to combine. Serve garnished with the reserved 2 tablespoons scallions and cucumber (if using).

One Bad Egg Finished!

I had fun creating this piece of dark artwork. It was a departure from the more complicated sculptures I usually work on.

Run afoul of this bad egg and your head could be decorating his Easter basket!Here are a couple different views of this rotten character.

Bad Egg Work In Progress Photos

I got some more work done on my bad egg character this weekend. After drawing a machete on thin basswood I cut it out and covered it with Apoxie clay. When it cured I sanded it smooth with wet/dry sandpaper.

Next I painted it with acrylic paint and set it aside to dry.

Here a piece of Apoxie clay to form a hand has been added to one of the characters aluminum wire arms. Gently pressing the soft clay against the handle of the machete will create a hand that perfectly fits.

When the clay hand had cured I glued the machete in place with Zap a Gap.

After adding fresh Apoxie clay to the hand I sculpted fingers gripping the machete.

After setting the hand aside to cure I textured the base of the sculpture and worked on the characters shoes.

After the arms are attached I can begin painting!

A Really Bad Egg

With Easter around the corner I decided to do a dark art themed egg. At Michael's I found the perfect sized styrofoam egg for my project.

I began by making a cardboard template of the shape I wanted for the sculptures base. After tracing it on to a piece of plywood I cut the base out and drilled holes for my characters legs.

Next I cut 4 steel rods for the arms and legs. After embedding the legs in my egg character I bent the arm rods and ground one side of the rod flat.

Then I inserted the arm rods in brass square tubing which I had filled with Apoxie clay. Flattening one side helps prevent the rod from coming loose and turning once the clay cures.

The photo shows the styrofoam egg covered in mache with the steel leg rods mounted in place. It is temporarily mounted on the wood base as it dries.

After the egg dried I marked the location for the arms.

I cut an opening for the arms, packed the hole with Apoxie clay and pressed the square brass tubing into place.

Now it was time to cover the mache with Apoxie sculpt clay. This provides a much more durable finish than mache alone.

I have more sculpting to complete on this after it cures later this afternoon. Tomorrow I'll have some new work in progress photos of the bad egg.

Crab Cakes

I decided on making crab cakes for dinner. Generally I use backfin or lump crab but since claw meat was on sale that was what I went with.

I keep my recipe fairly simple because I don't want to over power the flavor of the crab.

Ingredients 1 pound Blue crab meat

4 unsalted Saltine crackers crushed

1 egg beaten

1/4 cup Hellmann's mayonnaise

2 small scallions chopped

1 Tbsp red pepper chopped

1 Tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/4 Tsp Hot sauce

1 Tbsp Old Bay seasoning Extra virgin olive oil (for frying)

flavored bread crumbs (for coating the crab cakes) Preparation

After checking over the crab for cartilage or bits of shell I add the meat to a large mixing bowl. I sprinkle the Old Bay seasoning, scallion, red pepper and crushed cracker crumb over the crab. In a separate bowl I mix together the rest of the ingredients which I then spoon over the crab. Using a spatula I gently turn the crab to mix it trying not to break up the chunks of meat.

After letting it sit in the fridge for an hour or so I form the cakes. I usually end up with about 7 cakes. The cakes are then pressed into flavored breadcrumbs and fried in extra virgin olive oil 4 or 5 minutes per side till they are nicely browned.

With the crab cakes we are having scallops and shrimp which were marinated a few hours in garlic and oil with a few dashes of habanero pepper sauce.