Modeling clays?

[Romy]

That's a beautiful horse!

I like your skinny dog too.

For getting prints out, it depends. Some pieces I work on in stages and bake in between so that I have a hard surface to hold while detailing other parts. Fresh stuff adheres to cured surfaces really well.

Fimo I don't like, it tends to be crumbly.

My favorite favorite favorite type of polymer clay is prosculpt. You can paint it but it's amazing too in that it's sort of translucent like real skin. It's also a lot stronger than others. I think it's made by the sculpey company. I get mine through Jack Johnston's Art Dolls. Sometimes he gets surplus in a color and sells the bricks for $10 each which is a super good deal. If you look at the price of those little super sculpey bricks it's a better deal I think.

http://www.artdolls.com/

Here's an early blue faerie dude pic so you can see what I mean about the translucence. It's shining through his ear. Also, his eyes are black glass beads and the shadow around them is the bead showing through his eyelids. It looked kinda cool and I'm kicking myself for painting his lids now. Ah well.


Also, he's a good example of something baked and sculpted in stages. Initially I did his chest piece and neck, with a little stemmy thing sticking up to put the head on. That was baked VERY briefly so it wouldn't burn, about 5 mins on 270 F. Then I did his head/face. That way I could hold his chest piece and not make finger prints. Left holes where the ears go, and baked it again.

Then I put ears on. Tada! No fingerprints.

Another awesome thing about the Prosculpt is the way it takes detail. It sort of dimples in and makes more organic looking lines when you're working on it. There's a lot less edge smoothing anyway.

ETA: I like sculpey original too. Sometimes I'll use it on top of a wire armature, to bulk it out and stiffen it up and sort of build up a core that can be cured. After baking it I'll "skin" it with prosculpt. It saves money that way.

ETAETA: When curing stuff in the oven, I'll use wadded up tinfoil to prop up the sculpture. You can make it any shape you need.

[CharlieDog]

Not quite finished and sealed yet, but another one I've done. Hopefully, if all goes well, this will be my first commission!

[Romy]

You do a really good job with the planes of their heads. I noticed the same thing with the Ozzy one in your other thread. It makes me wanna pet their faces.

[CharlieDog]

Thank you! That makes me really happy!

[Keechak]

This was my one that sold for $110 several years ago. I have a few more in progress right now