Play with clay

Its just fun!
When you know that you don’t have a clue what you are doing, you can’t really be anxious of the results, and that’s relaxing. Although I haven’t really practiced at all apart from fooling around with it from time to time, forming a piece of clay into something always felt natural. As for the more technical aspects (materials, techniques, etc.) I am completely in the dark. So when I recently got the sudden urge to make something out of it, I just went ahead and did it, using nothing but common sense and some tips from friends.
I used some sort of polymer clay (Fimo-eberhardFaber) which you need to put in the oven for 30 minutes at 130-C/ 265-F as the package described, I also bought a set of wooden tools that helps you form the clay in detail when your fingers are just to thick and bulky to get the job done, and last but not least, I used wire and tape to make some kind of skeletal structure to work on.

I decided to start with making one of the characters that has been haunting my sketchbooks for more than 10 years now, and he is been giving me hell for not making something out of him all this time. Knowing that the graphic novel this vain little critter wishes for, is not coming out any time soon, I thought I can soothe his wounded ego with a statue in his honor.

The opposite side on the wooden tools turned out to be really useful for extracting excess clay from the form with precision and control.

This specific material is so hard. It gets your hands sore trying to warm it up enough in order to get it softer and mold it properly.

Although the hardness helps to minimize the fingerprints that you make, all over the model while working on it, and you can easily wipe them out with the tools applying gentle strokes. They are not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes it even looks good, adding texture to the surface, but for some reason with the one I am making here, it gave away a certain feel of scale, that I didn’t want.

Here it is. The cake is ready for baking. It took about five and a half hours. If it survives the oven in one piece, it’s going to be painted with acrylics. I’ll post the results soon.

Here is another character, just the head this time. This is a different material and it dries out by itself. No oven. It’s called “Plus” modeling clay by Sio-2. Comes in 1Kg packages and it’s much cheaper that the other one.

I made this one as a reference aid for a group of people building a 3d model of the character. There is a bigger story behind it, an exciting one which I am eager to share but I am not going to. at least not yet.