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.

Long Beach NY Zombie Walk & Pub Crawl

This August 22nd at 5:30 pm the zombie hoards are descending on Long Beach NY to celebrate the annual Zombie Walk & Pub Crawl.

Inspired by visions of the approaching zombie apocalypse I created this sculpt of a zombie wearing a  "Zombie Walk & Pub Crawl" shirt and photographed him with the Long Beach Boardwalk in the background.

The zombie is currently stalking my Etsy shop waiting for a new home :   https://www.etsy.com/listing/244518804/zombie-walking-dead-horror-art-sculpture?ref=shop_home_active_1


 If your in the area and are interested in catching a sight of the zombies you should visit the events FB page : https://www.facebook.com/LongBeachZombieWalkandPubCrawl

When I asked what route the undead would be taking the pages administrator answered :

" The route is pretty simple. Start at Kennedy plaza, walk up park ave, first stop is Sutton Place for a drink. We turn down Magnolia to get to the boardwalk and follow it to the end. Afterward we head to Shines. Followed by the Jetty, J.w. Trainors, and we'll end at A Whales Tale to try and catch TJ's band ".

Sounds like it should be a fun time. I'm definitely going to be zombie watching  - from a safe distance of course!

Cult of Doll WIP

Recently I've been working on a polymer clay tea caddy for my submission to the Cult of Doll team project I'm a member of.

The scene I'm creating will be in 1/12 scale. But since I wanted to be able to photograph a close up shot of my character grasping the tea caddy I decided to make a larger caddy and pair of hands.

 I used an antique ceramic caddy as my inspiration. After baking the polymer clay I began painting the caddy in blue acrylic.

The hands/arms were formed of aluminum wire. Then they were fleshed out with cotton, foam rubber, dental dam and liquid latex.

 If you'd like to be kept abreast of the work in progress by the various members of the Cult of Doll stop by the team Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/cultofdoll?ref=hl

Cult of Doll Mini Almanac Preview

For the past several months I've been creating a character. His name is Rafael Tartoros. Or " Raff " as he is known to the select few that can call him friend. 

Raff is just one of the characters of a collaborative project of the members of Cult of Doll: http://cultofdoll.blogspot.com/


  We are all working to create short stories featuring the dolls and characters that will come to life in  the Cult of Doll Almanac.

  Well I'm happy to announce that a preview of the Cult of Doll Almanac has been published and can be viewed at Yudu  : http://content.yudu.com/Library/A3aq61/CultofDollMiniAlmana/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http%3A%2F%2Ffree.yudu.com%2Fitem%2Fdetails%2F2609142%2FCult-of-Doll-Mini-Almanac-Preview

You can turn pages in the Almanac by clicking the lower right page corner. Clicking on a selected page will increase the print size.

Finishing Up the Miniature Skull Island Trees

I thought I'd post some photographs of my finishing work on the miniature Skull Island tree project. The palm trees are about 26" high while the other trees are roughly 20" tall.

 I sacrificed the log from my spider pit scene to create the armature for this tree trunk :    http://blacknick-sculpture.blogspot.com/2011/10/kong-spider-pit-finished.html 

                       Here I'm wrapping the wire with cotton twine to build up the limbs.

                              Adding cotton & liquid latex to the tree limb.

                                   The first coat of acrylic on the large tree.

                                      The finished tree decked out with foliage.

                                               The smaller of the two trees.

                                                  The two finished palm trees.

 Since the trees are destined for a King Kong set for a stop motion film I thought it would be fun to photograph them in B&W to see how they'd look.

It was a fun project but I'll probably be sweeping and vacuuming up moss for the next month!

Making Miniature Trees Part Three

I started working on two leafy type trees recently for a miniature Skull Island jungle film set. They both are around 20 inches high. They are made to scale for the  King Kong stop motion puppet that will be used in the film.

After building the trunk armature up I covered it in a paper mache mixture. The top layer was covered in paper cloth impregnated with mache.

                After covering the tree in the paper cloth I gave it a roughened bark texture.

 Here is one of the wrapped wire tree limbs with a covering of cotton and liquid latex. The wood block on the end will  attach to a slot in the main trunk.

                             Applying a mixture of tinted liquid latex to the branch.

                                            The finished branch after it has dried.

                      The main trunk with the slot I mentioned earlier to accommodate the branch.

The birch wood block base of the larger tree, I added some roots into the Apoxie clay base before it cured.

Aluminum wire forms the upper tree branches. Apoxie clay is added at the base of each branch to   firmly secure it to trunk section of the tree.                                                                                                                                                                   

After painting a coat of liquid latex on the wire I wrapped it with cotton twine to build it up.

                                 Cotton and additional liquid latex was applied to form the branch.

                          The base of the trunk with Aluminum wire and Apoxie clay roots.   

                                       Covering the wire root with cotton & liquid latex.

                      Some smaller roots made with tinted liquid latex over floral wire.

                   Adding the thinner roots to the main root section. This week I look forward to begin creating the leafy foliage for the tree tops!