I haven’t been blogging much recently as I’m working secretly on some commissions for Christmas. These I will share with you after Christmas.
I had a demo evening last week during which I painted Brocci my miniature dachshund. It was a very loose and quickly worked portrait of 8″x8″ and I left it loose after tweaking it a little the following morning.
I had a box frame in mind for this piece as I’ve been wanting to try and make something ‘steampunk’ style for a while now. So I decided to make a beetle to add a bit of 3D interest to this piece.
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| The finished piece framed with my steampunk beetle |
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| The finished piece 8″x8″ pastel on velour. Because this was a demo I didn’t stop to take progress shots. So instead I took some progress shots when I remembered while making the beetle sculpture. All the materials to make him were found around the house. A walnut, 2 old watches, |
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| The beginnings of my beetle wings. This is a walnut which I sanded smooth on the outside before cutting it in half and drawing on the wing shapes. |
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| At this stage I’ve cut the wings out with this cool wee tool I got from Lidl. It also has lots of attachments for sanding the edges smooth. |
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| Barry M nail varnish creates the sheen. I wanted a metallic finish as a lot of exotic beetles are bright and metallic in appearance. I also like Barry M as they are an animal cruelty free cosmetic product. 🙂 |
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| The body is the inside of an old wrist watch. I love using watches and the tiny parts inside! I used Super Sculpey a type of modelling clay to back the watch and create the head. I’ve then coated the head in a deep purple varnish which has created a shiny dark coating. |
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| Strengthened and decorated with more cogs from another watch the head taking shape. I’m very sore on watches! |
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| The finished beetle. I used very firm wire varnished to match the head for his legs. I don’t know if you can see it in the photos but he wears a little collar made out of the watch hands. There was nothing too difficult about making him but it was very fiddly and I kept superglueing myself to things. But he is pretty hardy and ready to be glued into place in the frame. |
Hope you like the finished piece at the top. It wasn’t exactly a pastel blog post but I enjoyed working on something a little different. The finished piece is available. I will have it at Victoria Square Sunday Fair if you’d like to see it in person 🙂