SCULPTURE: "Mantis"

Tonight, I finished a little project I've been working on. It's been a while since I'd done a full on sculpture in the round, so I made 3 little "bas-relief" sculpts..the other two were posted here earlier. The MANTIS finishes the set. 

I did my "sketch" of the Mantis in Photoshop by cobbling several photos together to get the pose I liked, and found a nice Celtic knot design for the background. I transferred the image by punching holes in a flat layer of Sculpy using a pin. 

Then I roughed in the shapes. Turns out that the Celtic element didn't work as hoped...it's too large in scale and makes the Mantis harder to see. Live and learn. 

The last phase was painting it with acrylics to create a "faux bronze" effect.

UPDATE:  I decided that the background was a bit hard to read, and competed with the Mantis. So I muted the background tones, and added more "patina blue" so the Mantis would pop more.

 

SCULPTURE: "Rhino Beetle"

I just finished with the second of a trio of "bas relief" sculptures I'm working on. This is a "3-Horned Rhino Beetle". They are like tiny tanks of the insect world. I created this with Super-Sculpy on a wood base. The original sculpt was painted with acrylic to look like faux-brass.

I created a template image by combining bits and pieces from several photos in Photoshop, then made a line-drawing version. I sculpted a very rough draft on top of the line art, then transferred it to a wooden base.

 

After refining the sculpture, I coated the piece with several layers of liquid latex. 

I then painted a thin base-coat of wet cement inside the rubber mold, 

to get into the smaller detailed areas, and to minimize air bubbles.

Here is the painted version next to the concrete one.

 

SCULPTURE: "Froggy Part 2"

 Here is the final painted version of my recent "Froggy" sculpture.

 

SCULPTURE: "Froggy"

 

Today I finished a little sculpting project that I had started a few weeks ago when my Grandson, Jack, was over at my house for an "Art Day". It had been a long while since I tried making a latex mold and then casting a copy in Portland cement. I love "bas relief" sculptures and have made some "garden plaques" in the past. I had some trial and error moments to adapt to...but everything turned out like I hoped when done. I plan to paint the original sculpture made from Sculpy on a wooden base...will post it sometime soon.