three letter word for art

Here we are, the sixth and final installment of my long-overdue blog chronicling the Deinonychus I built this spring. Links to the other posts in this series: Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V When last we left, I was in the middle of the long and tedious process of applying epoxy clay scales.  Since most of the deino is going to be covered with feathers, I decided only to cover the legs, feet and hands.  The head has been covered for a while now. The leg on the left has a priming coat of acrylic gesso over the scales, as I'm going to paint this guy with acrylic paint. Detail of the hands: The whole guy scaled and ready to paint: I started with the legs and arms: There's also a preliminary feather test going on in the above photo. Closeup of the legs and arms.  The paint was applied with a pouncing brush (commonly used for stencils) to minimize brushstrokes. I decided to add a little more color to the face as well: I painted a basic count...

Links to the other posts in this series: Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part VI When last we left our Deinonychus, he was more or less rounding into shape.  I had sculpted all four limbs, the head and the tail.  Most of the claws were done, sculpted from polymer clay, as well as the teeth, also of polymer clay and set in epoxy clay. I knew that parts of Mr. Deinonychus (or Ms. depending on how you feel) were going to be covered in feathers, but for the parts that wouldn't be--the legs, feet, hands and snout--he would have to be painted.  I also needed to figure out a way to make scales and eyes. For the eyes, I initially thought I could paint them, then glaze them with some kind of transparent resin to give them a liquidy feel.  But a cursory look around the 'net at dinosaur sculptures with painted eyes shows how lousy that looks.  Painted eyes lack depth. I decided I would go with taxidermist's eyes, because they use a thick layer of acrylic resin...

Links to the other posts in this series: Part I Part II Part III Part V Part VI Okay, so I had to make some claws and teeth.  I'd thought about this from the beginning and decided I would make them from polymer clay (Fimo was the brand I used), a material I'd never worked with before. I had all the measurements at my disposal, thanks to The Dinosauria .  I built the claws around wooden skewers (not really visible here) so I could punch them into the soft foam of the Deino, then hold them in place with epoxy clay, another new material for me.  The brands of epoxy clay I used was called Apoxie Sculpt , which I ordered online. For the teeth, I used sewing pins instead of skewers. If you're not familiar with polymer clay, it's a kind of malleable plastic that's as shapeable as clay, but only needs to be baked in the oven to harden. I created a bead of epoxy clay--a self-hardening, extremely adhesive two-part clay that doesn't need to be baked--for...

Links to the other posts in this series: Part I Part II Part IV Part V Part VI Because you can't sculpt something in the round without a way to hold it up, I made a stand from scrap plywood and 2x4s, and some threaded rod and nuts.  I drilled a hole in the the chest of Mr. Deinonychus so he could be propped up tripod-like on the stand. Next, I set about making the tail.  Because I had cut them to fit into the car, I didn't have any sheets of foam long enough for the tail, so I knew it would have to be spliced together from shorter pieces.  It's hard to see here, but the finger/splice joint is in the center. To attach the tail to the body I used two lengths of PVC pipe like dowels and drilled holes in both the body and tail to stick 'em together.  The reason I used two and not one is I didn't want the tail rotating/spinning at the joint before the glue dried. Only after the tail was attached did I really begin shaping it, as I wanted to make su...