Painted Toucan

toucanSide1

There’s this old sculpture of a toucan that’s been sitting on my desk behind my computer for a while. I made it a few years ago out of some kind of water-based clay and did not think it turned out very well, so I thought it’d be fun to practice painting on.

toucanBack

I’m sorry these photos are such bad quality!

toucanOtherSide

I think this is a great example of how much a paint job can add to a sculpture. This is what it looked like unpainted:

sculpture_tucan1

A world of difference! It’s gone from being an eyesore to something I like to look at now. :)

The colors are a little duller than I want (the paint I’m using is very, ah … cheap), so I’m looking forward to applying the sealer to increase the contrast. :) Just waiting for it to dry now.

3D painting is a lot of fun. :)

Skullbird

skullbird1

Skullbird

I was playing around and trying out some paper clay that a friend recommended to me. I decided to try doing a 3D version of one of my skullbirds. I was going to add feathers on the elongated parts, but I sort of like the paint job on it now (I did this before making the Halloween mask).

skullbird2

I want to put a sealer over the paint, but the two sealers I’ve tried (one matte and one glossy) both dramatically change the color of the paint (they heavily saturate it) (I used the glossy one on the Halloween mask, then painted white on top of it to tone down the saturation). Does anyone know of a sealer that won’t cause such a drastic change in the paint? Or, should I just paint over the sealer? (The bottle of sealer also says it’s a primer.)

I want to try and keep the surface the way it is now, as it has a nice, dusty, kind of “bonelike” look and feel to it right now.

skullbirdHead1

I did this little one quickly after the one above (sorry these photos are pretty bad quality). This one has a light layer of the glossy sealer on it. It gives it a nice, smooth and more finished look to the piece, and made it much more saturated. It also feels stronger and more sturdy.

skullbirdHead2

I’m not too familiar with paper clay, I might have used it once before but I don’t remember its properties at all. I really like how it is slightly flexible. I wouldn’t be able to make a tongue like that with regular water-based clay. My friend also told me that wet paper clay will stick to dry paper clay (like plaster), which is simply amazing … the possibilities!

And here are shots of how the skullbird looked before being painted:

skullbird3

skullbird4

July

Cropping of a late night sketch. I plan to finish this one! Since it is already pretty simple.

 
I’ve been much busier than I’d been anticipating. I’ve done a lot of unfinished sketch things that I might post if I clean them up a bit, and I should be able to finish some little animations soon.
 
Oh!! And, I’ll also be going see the Pet Shop Boys this September 6th!!!! I’m a huge Pet Shop Boys fan so this is some pretty gigantamongus news.

Two Sketches

I have been pretty busy this past week with moving and seeing friends before leaving. But now I’m back home. :)
 

Need to tweak the perspective in this one.

I also did some animating tonight, not very much, they’re more like animated sketches. One is of a wirey bird stick or skeleton figure and the other is of a caterpillar/wave-like walk cycle. I have to figure out an easy way to post these small studies.