THE URGE TO SCULPT: Part 5 As Done As It Gets

Presenting:  NUT GRASSBOTTOM! 

 Who very patiently endured my clumsy attempts to bring him to life.

                  I do hope he's proud!   :)

THE URGE TO SCULPT: Part 2

Well, it took nearly four days for the head to dry properly.  I was excited to sand and smooth the face but it turns out that even the coarse sandpaper won't do the trick on Claycrete.  I guess I kind of knew that as I was sculpting because there were far too many wrinkles that couldn't be smoothed out.  I've since perused the craft store and believe I'll give a different medium a go.  I'm wary of clay though as I'm not a big fan of trying to bake it.

But, nevertheless, I'll go ahead with this existing piece and see where it takes me.

I thought I had a plan, I can say it now- I was going to go for a Wonderland theme-in particular the Mad Hatter. (my soul favorite!)  But after sanding and painting and working for a flesh tone and coming up too pink in a face full of crevices and repainting and repainting,  it became apparent that this would be no Mad Hatter.  He definitely spoke clearly to me as he finally guided my hand to the green paint.  This was, indeed, the making of Nut Grassbottom, a Gnome appearing in a story I just recently began to make a blog for:
 A Faerie Magical Yellow Dog Tail  http://www.yellowdogmagic.blogspot.com/

Perfect cheeks...chin...wrinkles.....eyes.......oh, eyes. 

Yeah. 

This would probably be a good time to point out that I haven't a clue how to paint features. 
It's always been a problem that what goes on inside my head will never come out my hand.
(Probably good in some cases, eh?)  ;)

So, after mixing a lovely pale green (the green is much greener in person) and waiting (again) for all to dry I dug through my box of treasure scraps and here's what I came up with:

There is no way that this face isn't a Gnome so the flower petals worked nicely.

And since Nut Grassbottom is a trickster who lives in Faerieland it was perfect.

I used rather large pearls painted a blue iris, black pupil and white dot for reflected light.

And there you have it.

Plus, apparently now my lot has been cast.  I don't imagine the Creative Powers That Be will

let me stop until I sculpt the entire cast of characters!  lol

Now.......back in the bowl on top of the fridge you go Mister Grassbottom

whilst I think for a while longer.  Oh, and feel free to speak up if you have any more notions regarding how you should look.  Just tap me on the shoulder first!  ;)

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THE URGE TO SCULPT

So, at 8 o'clock on Sunday night after perusing one too many art magazines, this intense urge to SCULPT a doll comes over me.

Now, if you know me you know that when the urge to create strikes me I must act immediately.
I'm guessing it's all about my compulsive disorders (not necessarily all bad) in combination with my poorly developed impulse control.  (Um, probably not my finest work-impulse control.)  But no matter, sculpt I must.

Of course, 8pm on a Sunday evening is no good time to acquire clay but I *did* just happen to have a bag of Clay-crete,  a roll of foil and a chopstick handy (actually, doesn't everyone with even a single, hopeful, creative bone in her body?  Art project hoarding yields many things on a Sunday evening!)  So, much to Yellow Dog's distress (bedtime is 8:30pm) I got to mixing......and sculpting.

It went surprisingly well considering I haven't a clue as to what I'm doing.  I just followed my instinct and let the doll take over.  If dolls are anything like hats I have no doubt it will tell me what it wants me to do.

Clay would probably have been smoother to work with.  The Clay-crete, basically papiermache, got rather gobby but it was fun to see the face take shape.  The material also left quite a bumpy surface so it will  probably be quite a deal to sand it smooth.  Or perhaps it will be more Prim-like and the cracks will add character.   We'll have to wait an see.

  The drying process takes up to three days and in this weather probably more.
I'm anxious to move on with the process but clearly sculpting will be my lesson in patience.

I have an idea of where I'd like to see this project going but I won't say out loud quite yet.
I want to wait and see what the doll tells me first.
:)

STEP 1  Foil ball and a chopstick.

STEP 2  After much slapping on, over lapping and poking and prodding of the Claycrete.

AND NOW....WE WAIT...............

(Stay tuned for the Next Step!)