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Art Project Update
Mar. 7th, 2005 01:05 pmAnother update in my little art project. For assorted reasons, my using a 'make your own model horse kit' for making a carousel horse was put on the back burner. I did get some ideas on what I wanted and do some sketches (which are now somewhere really safe ... *sigh*) but hadn't really moved on.
So, I've been feeling the creative urge and finally just took some time to work with it. The kit I am using is one of the older ones (I got several for the proverbial song) where the body is a single rod wrapped in wire (the modern ones have a cylinder for the body). The legs are attached to the body and are also rods wrapped in wire.
The directions tell you to take the clay (sculpy I think) and mash it around then put balls of it onto the armature to get the rough look.
Riiight
The first thing I did was try to guesstimate where the legs would exit the real body of the horse and position them. This yielded my first set of learnings: 1) pliers are good, needlenose pliers are good, one of each is better. 2) Get a real good idea of where you want things before moving them ... the wire raps will come off (and feel like staples when you sit on them) ... the rod will also fracture if you mess with it too much.
So, I started working the sculpy and learned that the stuff is amazingly stiff and leaves an interesting texture on your hands. I also was not pleased with how it stuck together as I added more balls of sculpy to the armature. Lessons learned: 1) Go ahead and prime all the sculpy at once ... repriming is MUCH faster than priming and lets you get the rough together in a cohesive fashion. 2) you really want to get the rough together on certain parts fairly early and solid. The stuff does not stick to the armiture unless it is encasing said armature. 3) If you really need to move a leg/tail/whatever, it is possible to get all the clay off if it is still soft.
So, I got the rough of the horse done in one evening (last Wednesday I think). I quickly decided that 1) the head was too big, 2) the body was too lightweight, 3) the legs and neck were too big, 4) I was REALLY low on sculpy.
Long about Thursday, I was going to work on it some more and start getting more of the details done. I had gotten a very nice set of elbows on him, an OK set of hocks, some cute hooves. I took more sculpy and added to the body, shoved some of it around (it was still pretty pliable) and got out the tool that the kit came with to try to get some more detailing in. The directions said for the eyes to use the rounded end and push up (or something like that). Ummm, riiight. Not a good look. I tried a small ball of sculpy put on the face ... not right either. The head was too large, when I tried to slim it down, the armature kept peaking through the clay (new lesson learned, be VERY sure of the head size/shape with armature before starting ... I was NOT going to undo everything). Eventually, I got him looking pretty good (for a rank beginner, NOT good for someone who has the first clue of what they are doing). And having shaved sculpy off the legs and neck, voila! I have enough to do some other stuff, so I made him a saddle (way too patchwork for my tastes) and some basic trappings.
Next step (maybe tonight), is to tool some designs into the trappings. I think I lost (or never had) one of the tools for detailing because looking at the slots in the kit, there is a slot that nothing quite fits.
Later steps will be doing some more refining/detailing (maybe use a toothpick for some of it?), then bake it, and paint it. Maybe get some pix in its current form and other stages. I sort of wish I had taken pictures of some of the earlier steps.
So, I've been feeling the creative urge and finally just took some time to work with it. The kit I am using is one of the older ones (I got several for the proverbial song) where the body is a single rod wrapped in wire (the modern ones have a cylinder for the body). The legs are attached to the body and are also rods wrapped in wire.
The directions tell you to take the clay (sculpy I think) and mash it around then put balls of it onto the armature to get the rough look.
Riiight
The first thing I did was try to guesstimate where the legs would exit the real body of the horse and position them. This yielded my first set of learnings: 1) pliers are good, needlenose pliers are good, one of each is better. 2) Get a real good idea of where you want things before moving them ... the wire raps will come off (and feel like staples when you sit on them) ... the rod will also fracture if you mess with it too much.
So, I started working the sculpy and learned that the stuff is amazingly stiff and leaves an interesting texture on your hands. I also was not pleased with how it stuck together as I added more balls of sculpy to the armature. Lessons learned: 1) Go ahead and prime all the sculpy at once ... repriming is MUCH faster than priming and lets you get the rough together in a cohesive fashion. 2) you really want to get the rough together on certain parts fairly early and solid. The stuff does not stick to the armiture unless it is encasing said armature. 3) If you really need to move a leg/tail/whatever, it is possible to get all the clay off if it is still soft.
So, I got the rough of the horse done in one evening (last Wednesday I think). I quickly decided that 1) the head was too big, 2) the body was too lightweight, 3) the legs and neck were too big, 4) I was REALLY low on sculpy.
Long about Thursday, I was going to work on it some more and start getting more of the details done. I had gotten a very nice set of elbows on him, an OK set of hocks, some cute hooves. I took more sculpy and added to the body, shoved some of it around (it was still pretty pliable) and got out the tool that the kit came with to try to get some more detailing in. The directions said for the eyes to use the rounded end and push up (or something like that). Ummm, riiight. Not a good look. I tried a small ball of sculpy put on the face ... not right either. The head was too large, when I tried to slim it down, the armature kept peaking through the clay (new lesson learned, be VERY sure of the head size/shape with armature before starting ... I was NOT going to undo everything). Eventually, I got him looking pretty good (for a rank beginner, NOT good for someone who has the first clue of what they are doing). And having shaved sculpy off the legs and neck, voila! I have enough to do some other stuff, so I made him a saddle (way too patchwork for my tastes) and some basic trappings.
Next step (maybe tonight), is to tool some designs into the trappings. I think I lost (or never had) one of the tools for detailing because looking at the slots in the kit, there is a slot that nothing quite fits.
Later steps will be doing some more refining/detailing (maybe use a toothpick for some of it?), then bake it, and paint it. Maybe get some pix in its current form and other stages. I sort of wish I had taken pictures of some of the earlier steps.
