SCULPTURE: "Baby Groot"

Yesterday, my eldest daughter, Jenni, opened a surprise early birthday present that I made for her (at the suggestion of her boyfriend, Brad). She is obsessed with cute little "Baby Groot" from the movie "Guardians of the Galaxy 2" and was delighted to get one of her very own.

Before I began to actually sculpt, I gathered tons of images of "Baby Groot" from the web...front, back side views...whatever was available for research. As with most of my sculptures made from "Super Sculpy" clay, I started the process with an armature of aluminum wire set into a wooden base. I built up the form with aluminum foil, then added the clay in stages. I used a "hot air gun" from the hardware store (for stripping paint) to "cook" the sculpture. You can add more clay and keep sculpting after each baking, if you wish. This helps to lock in the details, so they wont be "mushed" from subsequent sculpting (by accident, usually). Once the sculpting phase was done, I used glazes of acrylic paints to layer in the various tones...darker washes to settle into the cracks, then dry-brushing lighter colors for the highlights. I used metal ball-bearings for the eyes (scraping the paint off at the end, so they'd shine).