Today’s post is short and sweet and actually a video called “The Making of My Dog Sculpture”.
I created it because I wanted to share with you how much work actually goes into such a sculpture and which steps I took to create it. A sculpture like this takes days to complete.
As inspiration I used a photo of my friends’ dog Hattie, a beautiful rescue they adopted from the charity 4Paws. I saw her on my newsfeed and shared her image with my friends and they were smitten. Hattie is a wonderful dog and very affectionate. We always look forward to see her and go for a walk with her. Here’s a photo of Hattie.
My friends’ dog Hattie
First I created the main body and head separately with Super Sculpey beige, which has a nice buttery feel to it and is used specifically for sculpting. I connected both body parts with a cocktail stick and smoothed over the neck so there is no visible gap.
This took at a least a couple of hours to complete. I paid special attention to the head and added details like eye sockets and brows. For the ears I used a cardboard template I made.
Once this was completed I let it rest overnight.
The second step was to add the fur. I used a tapestry needle for this. Again this took quite a while to complete – about 45 minutes. It’s back breaking work being hunched over such a piece, which is why I often elevate it on a box and work while standing – this means less hunching.
Again I let it rest – especially if I have completed a sculpture late in the day. I let it sit for a while or even overnight.
The third step was – to check it over and maybe add bits I missed and then I baked it for about 2 hours max in my halogen oven.
The fourth step was – priming the whole dog with white Gesso for acrylic paints – the reason behind this is to ensure that the paint that goes over this grips better onto the polymer clay. I let the dog dry before I started painting him.
The fifth step was painting the dog with acrylic paint. I started with white first, let it dry, then the black and added the white bit on the nose. Again this took a while, because I had to let several coats of paint dry and I had to add the paint twice to give the dog good coverage.
The final step was to give the dog two coats of protective varnish – I chose matte for this rather than gloss, apart from the eyes and nose which got a spot of gloss varnish.
And there you have it – my completed dog sculpture.
Thanks for reading and watching. And if you liked this blog post please feel free to share it and comment. 🙂
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