The trees are finally finished! I’m so happy to get them off my desk. My painting desk looks so big now.
I did two more things to them before they were finished. First, I made cushions for the seats. The seats were originally pretty perfectly round, but since, as I’m sure you know by now, I’m [...]
Okay, slowly but surely I’ve been working on my little trees. Now I have a deadline so it’s going to become fast and furious. There are only two steps left (well, three, actually) and they’ll be completely done!
Here’s how they look now:
(That one on the end has been finished for months; I finished it up [...]
So, when last we saw my trees, I had just finished drybrushing them. The next step in this endless tree project is to add the details. I’m going to make some details out of paperclay, and then I’m going to make grass out of raffia and apply silk leaves.
This particular tree has a long, shallow [...]
I suddenly remembered I hadn’t painted the undersides of the trees, so I took a moment to do that.
I also went over the trees, filling in the worst of the gaps in the texture with paperclay. I also filled in around the bottom so it looks properly attached to the ground, and the place where [...]
Okay, I FINALLY got all those little branches sculpted. So now we move on to the next step: painting.
First, I want to discuss some color theory with you, because color theory freaks out a lot of crafters who don’t have a fine art background. The first thing you should know is that this is art, [...]
Continue reading about Forest Thrones, part 10: Lies your art teacher told you
Not much to report. There just isn’t a fast way to do the paperclay on the branches.
I wish I could be more informative on this part of the tutorial, but it really is just trial and error, and if you have some previous sculpting skill, like I do, that helps a lot.
So, to give [...]
Sorry I’ve been on hiatus; real life attacked me.
First, I wanted to show you a picture of my setup. When I’m working on a relatively large, detailed project like this, I use an old lazy susan to keep my desk clean and to let me turn it without touching it. Furthermore, I find that after [...]
Continue reading about Forest Thrones, part … uh… 8. Really?
Okay, I really wanted to show you a comparison between a throne with its branches posed and one that hasn’t been posed. Sometimes a detail like this makes the difference between a high-school quality craft project and a professional-quality art project. (Aaaand the unintentional TV sampling continues. That’s none other than Alton Brown, who is [...]
Continue reading about Forest Thrones, part 7: posing the branches
Sorry for the radio silence, guys; the batteries in my camera died and I had some actual paying work, so it took me a while to find time to go out and get new batteries. But I’ve been busy and I think this project is coming along nicely.
I thought I would be clever by laying [...]
So, this conversation happened recently at my house:
Me: Honey, I need a drill.
Mr. Tea Rose: ….
Me: I mean, I have my Dremel and all, but I need your cordless one.
Him: Oh, I thought you meant–heh, never mind. It’s over here. <shows me where his cordless power drill is.>
Later…
Me: Honey, I need a screw.
Him: … You’re [...]
Continue reading about Forest Throne, part 3: screws and glue
