She Sells Sea Dragons by the Sea Shore

Hello Art Fans!
Working super hard to get my Gallery inventory up by the Dragon Con Art Show in September. Ugh it is almost here! I somehow run out of time every year, I think the universe shortens the year in July just so I don't get my "to-do" list done...IT'S A CONSPIRACY I TELLS YA!!!
But I did get a fun sculpture finished this week and I am super excited about how it turned out. I'll admit, this piece had me worried for a minute. it was going the complete opposite direction than I had envisioned in my head so I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull it off, but it seems I know nothing. Let me walk you through my process of making my first Sea Dragon.
Every artist has mess-ups and mistakes when creating a piece. This piece decided to give me grief right off the bat. The frame I had planned to use for this sculpture originally, completely melted in my oven. I was super annoyed because I had spent several days embellishing it. But now I know to make sure a frame is actually wood instead of hard plastic. Live and learn...a lot. Each set-back teaches you something.
The new frame was around three inches taller than the last, so now my sculpture was going to be larger than I had expected but the Art must go on!
As always, I begin by forming the general shape with polymer clay around aluminum foil, loosely packed. The aluminum center helps to cut back on how much clay you use and how long you have to bake a piece.

I wanted my Sea Dragon to sort of resemble a seahorse. So I gave it a long thin jaw/snout and a curving shape to it's neck. Pressing yellow/orange glass beads into the clay for my dragon's eyes.

I poke holes in my sculpture where I need to attach the fins/wire before baking,
because it is very difficult to poke the holes after baking. 

Then I bake my piece for only about 10 minutes. I don't want to cook it for too long because I will bake my sculpture multiple times.
I hold my piece up to the frame several times during the sculpting to make sure it is the right size and shape for the selected frame.

The back of the frame is completely sculpted from polymer clay.
It makes it easier to attach my sculpture to the base.

Now lets make some fins. I sculpt each fin around a wire to keep them a nice straight shape and to have an anchor to attach the fins to my sculpture. The fins are then baked for 5-10 minutes.

Then I place the fins in my piece to make sure I have it the way I want. I ended up not having enough that were the correct size and had to make more fins. 

Normally I like to use colored polymer clay to add different shades to my sculptures but I didn't think I would be able to get the right look using only clay so the fins got hand painted stripes. I mixed colored powder with Liquid Sculpey so my paint could be baked without burning.  

Time to make the background on the frame. I don't like my framed pieces looking like mounted heads, to avoid this look, I give each frame a small background. I think it makes the frame feel more like a window my piece is coming through. I painted the background shades of blue and then sculpted right on the paint. I winded the Sea Dragon's long body back and forth to get the look of a serpent swimming. Then added small scales one by one.

And I added some seaweed to complete the look.
My frame was not feeling as oceany(oceany is a word :P) as I wanted so I felt little barnacles and shells where needed.

The small bubbles are made of resin and I added them after the piece was completely baked.

After the background is finished, I attach my dragon to the frame. Using craft wire that goes from the torso into the frame and mounds of liquid Sculpey, which works like glue you can bake.

Here comes the super-duper time-consuming part of our sculpture. Adding all the scales and facial details, Whew this takes a bit. I roll out tiny balls of clay and lay them one at a time on the torso. Smoothing each one out with my flat wooden tool before adding the next scale. Just to do the torso and neck scales took me around 15 hours.

While I am laying the scales, I am adding stripes to his body. Cause nothing is more oceany than stripes! :D Again I use colored powder mixed with liquid Sculpey to make the paint. 

Lets add belly scales now! These don't take as long because they are much larger scales. I flatten out yellow clay and highlight it with blue. Then each piece is layered on the belly. I tried to layer the scales in a way to make the scales look like coral. 

Small light blue scales were added to his lower jaw. These were spaced out a bit instead of over-lapped so it would appear more like cracked skin than scales.

Our dragon's neck and face are all that is left. The scales get smaller as I work my way to his snout. Then the scales across his nose are long and flat. I cover small wire with clay and roll it out as thin as possible, this makes perfect whiskers for my Sea Dragon. The rest of his head fins are attached and side fins are baked and attached to his torso. Looking pretty awesome if I do say so myself. :) 

All that is left now is to add small painted details to the clay. I paint the entire piece with acrylics and then wipe the excess away while it is still wet. The paint seeps into the small nooks and crannies and makes the whole sculpture pop. Then I added tiny dots to the length of my dragon, like the ones on seahorses. :)

When all was said and done, this sculpture took me over 100 hours and I used approximately 12 ounces of polymer clay. He is 10 inches in size and weighs about two pounds, which is heavy for my work. 

By Far the most difficult and in-depth sculpture I have done lately. 

I have named this guy Shorr (shore) and he will be available in my Gallery at the Dragon Con Art Show in September. I hope everyone has enjoyed following my process and I hope you can all stop by to see this piece. 

Keep checking my blog and social media sites for updates on what I will have available at Dragon Con. 

Thank you much for reading!

~Caralyn 

Giving Little Red her Hood

In many of my blogs I have walked you through, step by step, how I make my fairies/Myxies, framed or other. Here are a few of my step by step fairy blogs if you missed them. :)
Step by Step Unicorn Fairy
Step by Step Robin's Egg Fairy 
Step by Step Framed Fawn
Step by Step Myxie
I usually start with the head and move onto the torso, finishing up with the hands and feet. In this blog I am going to tell you a little about the process that comes after you have finished sculpting a piece.
With this piece I also sculpted her some white gloves. For form fitting clothing such as gloves or stockings, I usually use clay to avoid a bulky look on such a small sculpture.

I don't always jump around with a piece but this one had a small accessory that I was anxious to get started on. With white polymer clay I sculpted a fun tiny Wolf Mask. This mask would be the focal point of the sculpture. I cut out the wolf shape and sculpted teeny swirls into the face. Added a stick and baked for a lovely masquerade prop.

My Unicorn Fairy modeled my mask for me. 

After I have completed sculpting my piece and attaching it to the frame or base or whatever they will be displayed on, I then paint tiny details to the face and body. I like to use colored Polymer Clay because I think it gives a softer look than painted clay so the small details are the only parts that will be painted. For the pink skin hues I use chalk pastels, again it is softer than using paint in my opinion. I shave some of the chalk dust off and use a paint brush to add the color to the sculpture's skin. Then I use acrylic paint to add the color around the eyes, lips, eyebrows and details on the fingernails.

For this sculpture I am giving her eyelashes. I cut small strands of doll hair and glue them in place one at a time. This is super time consuming but I haven't figured out a better method of getting realistic eyelashes. I then coat the hair with gloss to keep it stiff. Now my girl has lashes.
Her gloves are then painted and jazzed up with some black beads.

Now lets get this lady some clothes.
By taking small sections of fabric and gluing them in place on her torso, I can make a fun little dress without even using a sewing machine. Sometimes hand sewing is required but it never takes long on such a teeny doll. I made all her clothes and accessories black and white so when I added her Red cloak it would POP!

But before we can make her Riding Hood, we must give this girl some hair. I portion small sections/locks of doll hair out and glue each small lock to her head. I start at the base of her skull and keep building lock over lock until her head is full. Then I style it.

Time to give her a Hood. For the cloak I mostly hand sewed and then glued it in place. Since this piece is a framed sculpture, I didn't want the hood to move too much so it would not mess with the look of the piece.
She is All Done! Little Red Rising Hood is ready for he fairytale.

So I hope that explains a little more of my after sculpting process. When you work with mixed media, your work is not done just because you finished sculpting.
This lovely piece will be available in September at my Dragon Con Art Show Gallery.
Thank you all for reading.
~Caralyn