From Progress to Completion

When I left off this morning the basic sculpture was complete, minus a few bits of fur here and there. So I added those in, fired it up, and began laying down a base coat of paint.
This is just a rough color, something close to the actual photo. Later on I'll add a few extra hits of tone here and there. Next came the large black areas. I like to use a glossy acrylic when painting with black. It just looks 'perty'.Now onto the face. I dry brushed in some of the facial markings to give me an idea of where things were going to end up.At this point I usually get a little concerned that it's looking more like a freakish ash tray than a dog, so painting the nose helps calm me down a bit.Okay, so where are we? Oh yeah! Next I start getting serious about the facial detail.When I'm satisfied with the head I move on to adding tonal details to the rest of the body and the VERY LAST thing I do are the eyes...

And now, the FINAL piece. Well, for the moment anyway. I'm not sure if I want to add tooth details yet...and in a couple days I'll see other details I need to add or change. But this is pretty much it. :)



Time wise, this fellow took about 10 hours from start to finish. I was way off on my earlier measurements- my ol' trusty ruler says he's 10" from tail to paw and 5 1/2" from elbow to ear tip. I'd say he weighs maybe 3 pounds. In a couple days I'll add some felt to the bottom and he'll be ready for his new shelf.
Well, thank ya'll for stickin' with me through these posts. I know they're SUPER long, but I hope you enjoyed the work progression.
Tomorrow I'll tell you a bit more about the subject dog. ;)

Work In Progress

There are a few personal side projects that I've been wanting to work on for some time now, so I thought what better way to begin the year than by doing just that.
This track of progression will be a little new to me, as I don't usually photograph my work indoors or before it's completed. My photog skills are still a work in progress too!
Ok, so onto the work! I don't want to get too detailed with the description of this piece just yet as it's a personal gift for someone, so forgive my lack on background info to start.
This is a German Shepherd Dog and the finished work will be aprox. 8" long by about 4 inches high or so. I'll have to get some better measurements- I'm just eyeballing it.
Since I didn't think to begin the progression shots from the beginning, I'll 'type' you through the steps up until this point. First I built an armature base using newspaper and wire for the bulk of the body. Polymer clay doesn't fire up well in big hunks. You'd have to bake it a pretty long time and the end result would be surface burning and cracking. I think it would probably effect the strength/durability integrity of the clay as well.Next, I began covering the body with clay piece by piece. I don't use a pasta machine to roll out the clay to a certain thickness to cover the whole thing in one fell swoop. All my work is done by eye and hand because in nature you'll find A LOT of variations- nothing is ever perfectly symmetrical. 'Least that's the way I see it.After everything is covered I drop in the limbs and finally begin work on the head. The eye and ear positions are extremely important as they lend themselves well to exhibiting personality. After I'm satisfied with head position I begin placing bulk fur around the neck and back and add some texture, which is where the photo progression starts.


In my next move this fellow will be getting a little more bulk fur and some other details I'll show in the next post.