Sunday, 6 May 2012

The newest and final hatchling. A little phoenix. He needs some styling and a tidy up but here's a preview.



Saturday, 5 May 2012

Pegasus and Dragon Hatchlings

Here they are, just newly hatched (you can still see gold paint on my hands hehe!) I'll get some better pictures when all three are done. But here's the Instagram preview for now!


Sunday, 22 April 2012

WIP- Fantasy Egg Series- Pegasus

I have a little creature on my sculpting table!

Remember I had those little cages and eggs sitting around for SO long? Well, I finally got my act together with a new eye technique which I'm actually happy with. This has allowed me to make 6 excellent little eyes, ready for 3 fantasy creature hatchlings, for the eggs.

Here's the first, Pegasus. He will have little feathered wings and is so small that he can fit into a modified chicken egg!

WIP

Sunday, 15 April 2012

Studio Re-Arrangement and 20 Points of Reference

I know I've done this kind of post before but I just love seeing other artist's studios and I've just re-arranged mine, so here we go again!

This time I've photoshopped a clumsy panarama up and can show you the full layout... with 20 little important bits pointed out.

  1. This is the photography part. I invested in a good camera, a couple of great lenses and a light cube/lamp set (eBay for around AU$100). Best thing ever for taking nice, detailed pics of your sculpts.
  2. A draw set my sister gave me. This has laminating pouches, stickers, printer papers, envelopes etc in it. Lenses and camera charger on top. Probably not the safest place for your $1000 lens!
  3. Mum's old 'Singer Blue Magic' sewing machine. I make up sculpts clothing on this machine... as well as doing the household mending and other crafty projects.
  4. Various bases and stuff I've picked up for sculpts. Also some stands for WIP heads.
  5. Biscuit tin full of clay.
  6. Glass sheet for a worspace, glass cake stand (turns), anatomy reference pics (under the glass) and a WIP or two. Glass is FANTASTIC. When it gets dirty with paint and clay and glue all over it, I just use a blade and a wipe and get rid of the muck. You can also put reference pics under it which don't require laminating because they are already under glass and always handy.
  7. Various tools and brushes (most of which are found or hand made). Also Liquids I frequently use such as glues, glazes, oils and liquid clays.
  8. Super wattage lighting. Since I don't have much natural light in my studio, I have lots of additional lighting.
  9. Modem, printer, laptop spot. Sometimes laminator, UV lamp, glue gun. Basically where the power is!
  10. Ever-full rubbish bin. Halfway there so better add another pic after this one.
 11 and 12 have gone missing so I'll talk about my two greyhounds and big cat, all rescues and behind me when taking the photos. They are lounging on a couch and armchairs in front of the TV. This studio is in a loft of my house (hence the slopy roof) and it is nice and snuggly up there. They are permanant fixtures in the studio.
13. Map of the world with little clear pins showing all of the places around the globe where my sculptures have been sold to. 
14. Washing line for drying clothes when it is raining outside... or holding various rags and fabric I want to look at for a while, before I decide to use them on sculpts.
15. Painting by a talented indigenous ex-student.
16. Shelf with finished sculptures. I really should get on eBay and sell some of these!
17. Dedicated clay convection oven with timer and thermostat! Best thing ever, I never burn a sculpt now. Note all the fibre-fill in it! Must have baked something fragile recently.
18. Pasta machine.
19. Unfinished cupboards. All of the space under the desk looks like this, behind those doors! Labelled boxes and containers containing the multitude of sculpting goodies and sparkly things I've collected over the years. The labels are essential or it would look like a rubbish bomb went off in there. Also holds some equipment which I am not using constantly (eg UV lamp, camera tripod, soldering iron etc).  
20. Temporary carpet. I'm still saving up for my 'real' carpet upstairs and I've decided to to leave the crummy 2nd hand carpet up there for as long as possible since I'm always spilling glue, leaving offcuts of fur, squishing clay into it.

So there it is in a nutshell. My little studio. One day, when I get the good carpet, have freshly painted and am really happy with the whole look of it, I'll post another update. Until then, this is how it will be for a while.

Thanks for reading and please feel free to post links to pictures of your own studios. I love seeing them all! 

Saturday, 14 April 2012

Moss Pixie

Remember the pixie I started a while ago? Well, here she is all done. She's the little one in charge of poking pieces of moss into all the nooks around the forest.




Thursday, 5 April 2012

Will he bring chocolate on his next visit?

Just had to get this one out of my system before I could do some more cleaning!

HAPPY AND SAFE HOLIDAYS!