Side blog where I post my art + reblog the occasional other stuff. I'm doing my best, so please show my work some love ;-;
DO NOT repost, personal use w/out credit + permission, use my stuff for generative purposes
Reblog with TAGS ONLY
stop making new wip and finish the 10+ you already have challenged: failed 🗿
Pictured here from left to right (viewer's): stylized elephant, Kirby, and stylized frog. They range from like. 2-3cm length and width. Made out of my mid homemade clay 😔
Other project (lmaoooo) under cut.
Making my own chubby Pikachu bc we broke in this house 😔 So far I have pieces of the aluminum base (body, paws, ears). It's actually bigger than anything I've worked on in a while, even if it's still technically palm sized lol. Over 10cm I think?
Partial turnaround of a japanese snow bunny made out of my subpar homemade clay 😔😅 About as long as my thumb? But I have small hands 😅 I also made the ears too big in proportion to it's size, but that makes it cute, right? 😭
One applin and three goomy also made of my subpar homemade clay. Mainly bc I was trying to get into the groove of things, but only one of the goomy is on model. The other two have feelers that are either too droopy or too big/thick. The second image esp makes them all look like various sizes but, in reality, it's only by a little bit. These are around the same size as a finger joint give or take. Again, my hands are on the smaller size though.
Note to self: check to see if your choice in damp object has hella lint before using it bc that shit WILL get all over everything 🗿
Anyway, more test pieces. Realized I needed to use the medium I'm gonna use for the final product if I'm gonna test it out right 🫠 And ofc I can't settle for a simple circle or sum shit— I am a disaster™️
Pictured here are a fairly flat turtle (idk what kind tbh; was aiming 4 a sea turtle tho 💀), a flat crescent moon (kinda looks like a cashew from this angle tho lmaoo), and a round stylized lucky cat. Worried the thinner pieces might crack BUT IT IS WHAT IT IS. They're pretty tiny, like the largest piece is a couple mm smaller than my eraser, which is also in the photo lol.
But, yeah, check rags/cloth/sponge/towel for lint 😔👍
against my better judgement, I tried to make cold porcelain clay using a microwave without a proper guide, so ofc I ended up over-cooking the batch. Like hella. Luckily, I was able to find some hacks to get it more pliable bc like HELL I was gonna throw all that out (bc I also didn't halve the recipe against my better judgement 😔)
Unfortunately, i wasn't joking when I said I overcooked it, so I ended up trying to make it somewhat workable for 5hrs pretty much (believe it or not, they still need a little more work 🫠)
Yes, my arms and hands hurt like hell after
Pics, lessons, and more rambling under cut
For once passing out helped ease the pain but again against better judgement I ended up testing the clay out. Anyway
Uber overcooked clay vs a fixed up one. Hack i ended up doing is making a paste using starch and white glue, then incorporating it into the overcooked stuff. I felt like I was working with rubbery dough..... Also Petroleum jelly. A lot more than I expected was involved (mainly to prevent it from sticking to ur hands like no tomorrow). The ball touching the spatula is what it looked like after around an hr or so of work.
This process continued until it was like ass o'clock in the morning (halfway i was like bruh can't we save this for future me to finish, but idk stubbornness/inertia won out); so at that point, I just made sure they wouldn't dry out (involved more of the paste + coconut oil), stuffed the balls into a silicone bag, and called it. I figured at this point, I could just work the clay as I use.
Here are the balls of clay i made sans one (we'll get back to that later) after a night of chilling in the fridge. I have no idea how the condensation happened tho bc I was raw dogging the chill and I have poor circulation lmaoo
So you would think I would just spend the next couple days chilling bc, u know, excruciating pain working rubber into something more pliable, but, once more, against my better judgement (r u seeing a pattern here), I decided eh, what the hell. My arms and hands don't feel as shit, so let's just do a test piece.
Yeah about that. We ended up doing more than one. Like. Several.
Basically trying to test a few things. How well they keep their shape, how well I can shape them, how easily they smooth out, how they look like when dried, how much watercolor paint i need incorporate for a solid color, if i can paint over them after they harden, etc.
So I found out the night prior adding some kind of liquid that isn't oil will soften them out to the point where you need to add more starch back in if you're not careful. I ended up settling for white vinegar bc apparently it helps preserve the clay idk rlly. But u gotta add it little bits at a time. Eventually I managed to work it to that teardrop shape that they emphasize a lot in videos
Never back down never what 😅😭
But the consistency for mine isn't the same as the videos (again I fucked up lots n used a different starch) bc theirs are pretty smooth and can turn into ball without creases (at least from what I've seen). It was hard to smooth out and even harder to attach pieces. The window to form stuff without creases is extremely tiny and it can only be a tiny bit damp. Otherwise, it turns into a sticky mess.
Honestly, a lot of the time I was working, I thought I was working with forbidden tapioca dough 😅 Part of me wanted to boil it and eat it in dessert lmaooo
It's drying as I'm typing this out, and yup sure enough, I'm seeing cracks. What I ended up making (the clay itself) is a huge pain in the ass to smooth out, too 😔 Honestly, idk what I can make with all this clay except for test pieces 😔
If it comes to it, I'll have to make thin sheets that covers the whole thing like fondant? Gotta be careful, too, when using aluminum foil as a skeleton bc if i cover it too thin, the aluminum will show 😔
I think my favorite to work with is paper clay 😅 Maybe one day I'll try making cold porcelain again, but def gonna try the double boiler method, or, if I'm gonna use the microwave again, look up actual instructions or heat it up at 50% power and stir every 30 secs
don't ask me abt my arm or my back OR when do I plan on sleeping (I was being stubborn n that on me af) but I finished the first pass of my Hajime-chan (fgo) "chess piece" figure. Pictures of a partial turnaround below this paragraph + a hella simplified version of one of his katana (sheathed).
More rambling + describing + concept sketches under cut
Couldn't get it one to one with my concept sketch, but it is what it is. I've got shit depth perception 😅 I regret everything though... I decided to do each individual spike of his hair 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Here are the concept sketches below. Very rough. Partial turnaround again. The figure and my rough breakdown of his katana are on different pages.
Need to wait for things to dry but I snuck in a pair of those tiny ass magnets (smaller than a pencil eraser) so his sword can attach to the body
Rip my lungs tho. i gave up wearing a mask 1/3 of the way in bc I needed 2 many sippy breaks 🫠 Used paper clay (less mulch-like than paper mache) tho so the dust was technically less fine? Fr don't be like me
Always wear the best and most proper PPE for the situation
I have so much respect for people who work in the 3D man. It's a different kind of labor frfr
Edit: bc I need to put this madness somewhere
Here is the hella simplified sheathed katana. It's in the process of drying right now, and if you know anything about working with clay, you know that if you're not careful, your pieces will warp if you do not set up supports to help keep its shape during the drying process. I needed something at a very specific height, so here I used a partially rolled up piece of scotch tape 😭😭😭
Hey if it works, it works, right? It's funny though. I had to give myself a pep talk bc I was crashing out from struggling to find anything suitable. "U got a degree. U can figure this out."
Okie lil update. So wrapping it seran wrap works. It's drying a lot slower. Then the bit w/ the magnets. Uh. Soooooo.... it works. It works. As demonstrated in the image above, kinda sorta.
Problem. I made the coat layer a wee bit too thick. So the pull? It's weak. It's very weak. No satisfying snap and having to rip the magnets apart for better or worse. It's more of a slow, gentle, hesitant, a little lost kind of pull.
However, what we're not gonna do is dig around for the thing and make the distance shorter. bc this is supposed to be for hobby purposes, and doing what I just described sounds like anti-fun 🗿
I was playing r99, which is a huge inspiration for this design, and realized they're actually a lot less chibi than I initially thought (the latest models at least). So very, very impulsively, I ended up adding a little over 1.5-ish cm to the base and uh. Post-clarity me is rlly regretting it 🗿He looks less cute 😭
More nonsense + pics under cut
Just some pics for frame of reference. His sheathed katana was a lot closer to the bottom originally. Maybe a couple mm?
First image <<<< the before and then the second is the after >>>>>>>
Now you might be thinking, "why don't you just cut off the 1.5-ish cm you just added?" Well, hypothetical viewer. The base is really pretty!
Blurry af image but you should get the point. It's a nice circle. It's smooth. And I went through hell trying to make it stand up straight in a balanced way 🗿I even fucked up the bits that were still wet! (His spikes are all ruined and need to be fixed, among other things. *cough* collar *cough* No one touch me)
Also it's relatively dry to the point where I would need something a lil sharper and sturdier than my thin metal scraper thing 💀(working w/ paper clay). I have like. One knife to my name. 💀
This is my present for @kinosternon for @natsume-ss' winter exchange! Happy Holidays! I hope the remainder of this year treats you kindly, while the New Year brings an abundance of blessings 🙏
don't ask me abt my arm or my back OR when do I plan on sleeping (I was being stubborn n that on me af) but I finished the first pass of my Hajime-chan (fgo) "chess piece" figure. Pictures of a partial turnaround below this paragraph + a hella simplified version of one of his katana (sheathed).
More rambling + describing + concept sketches under cut
Couldn't get it one to one with my concept sketch, but it is what it is. I've got shit depth perception 😅 I regret everything though... I decided to do each individual spike of his hair 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Here are the concept sketches below. Very rough. Partial turnaround again. The figure and my rough breakdown of his katana are on different pages.
Need to wait for things to dry but I snuck in a pair of those tiny ass magnets (smaller than a pencil eraser) so his sword can attach to the body
Rip my lungs tho. i gave up wearing a mask 1/3 of the way in bc I needed 2 many sippy breaks 🫠 Used paper clay (less mulch-like than paper mache) tho so the dust was technically less fine? Fr don't be like me
Always wear the best and most proper PPE for the situation
I have so much respect for people who work in the 3D man. It's a different kind of labor frfr
Edit: bc I need to put this madness somewhere
Here is the hella simplified sheathed katana. It's in the process of drying right now, and if you know anything about working with clay, you know that if you're not careful, your pieces will warp if you do not set up supports to help keep its shape during the drying process. I needed something at a very specific height, so here I used a partially rolled up piece of scotch tape 😭😭😭
Hey if it works, it works, right? It's funny though. I had to give myself a pep talk bc I was crashing out from struggling to find anything suitable. "U got a degree. U can figure this out."
Okie lil update. So wrapping it seran wrap works. It's drying a lot slower. Then the bit w/ the magnets. Uh. Soooooo.... it works. It works. As demonstrated in the image above, kinda sorta.
Problem. I made the coat layer a wee bit too thick. So the pull? It's weak. It's very weak. No satisfying snap and having to rip the magnets apart for better or worse. It's more of a slow, gentle, hesitant, a little lost kind of pull.
However, what we're not gonna do is dig around for the thing and make the distance shorter. bc this is supposed to be for hobby purposes, and doing what I just described sounds like anti-fun 🗿
don't ask me abt my arm or my back OR when do I plan on sleeping (I was being stubborn n that on me af) but I finished the first pass of my Hajime-chan (fgo) "chess piece" figure. Pictures of a partial turnaround below this paragraph + a hella simplified version of one of his katana (sheathed).
More rambling + describing + concept sketches under cut
Couldn't get it one to one with my concept sketch, but it is what it is. I've got shit depth perception 😅 I regret everything though... I decided to do each individual spike of his hair 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Here are the concept sketches below. Very rough. Partial turnaround again. The figure and my rough breakdown of his katana are on different pages.
Need to wait for things to dry but I snuck in a pair of those tiny ass magnets (smaller than a pencil eraser) so his sword can attach to the body
Rip my lungs tho. i gave up wearing a mask 1/3 of the way in bc I needed 2 many sippy breaks 🫠 Used paper clay (less mulch-like than paper mache) tho so the dust was technically less fine? Fr don't be like me
Always wear the best and most proper PPE for the situation
I have so much respect for people who work in the 3D man. It's a different kind of labor frfr
Edit: bc I need to put this madness somewhere
Here is the hella simplified sheathed katana. It's in the process of drying right now, and if you know anything about working with clay, you know that if you're not careful, your pieces will warp if you do not set up supports to help keep its shape during the drying process. I needed something at a very specific height, so here I used a partially rolled up piece of scotch tape 😭😭😭
Hey if it works, it works, right? It's funny though. I had to give myself a pep talk bc I was crashing out from struggling to find anything suitable. "U got a degree. U can figure this out."
Low quality photo of a rough concept of my vers. of Reed bean (plan on making a little clay charm). Shows how it would look from the bottom, top, side, and front + some very brief notes. Also a few individual drawings + some more notes on how her horns, fins, light from her chest, and potential accessories would be. The light on her chest, the flower inspired by her summer skin, and the front facing bean are fully colored.
I'm still figuring out the colors of her tail and feet 😅 it varies depending on context (see: Reed Alter's skins), but I might go with the base sprite in the end.
Finally got my hands on some ceramics supplies 🙌 Here are some tiny (for my disabled ass) test pieces I made over the past 2 days. Funnily enough the one in the top left corner (viewer's) took the same amt of time as the rest 😅
From viewer's left to right:
Shu bean from Arknights, Pabumon from Digimon (the internet ruined me idk how to make the pacifier look less like a weenus), a heart, Pompompurin from Sanrio, a flat but rounded simplified cat head, a seal, and a flat but rounded circle.
Bean, Pabumon, cat head, and circle are made in white Crayola air dry clay. Forgot the brand name, but the seal, heart, and Pompompurin were made with paper clay.
Mostly all painted. (Pabumon isn't as dry as I would like 😅)
Final test is the "glazes" I have. Rlly worried bc they're water based n I'm using watercolor here 🫠 Hoping the wax medium I got will do the least amt of damage 😭🙏
No pictures this time bc I'm waiting 4 these things 2 cure but def a learning experience. Some notes, mainly 4 myself:
Wax medium fucking stinks. You need a well fitting mask + well ventilated space when using that stuff if u don't want a chemical-induced headache + have the smell stuck in ur olfactory senses for, at the time of typing this up, at least an hr after use.
For the matte modge podge and triple thick gloss, bubbles. Be careful of the bubbles.
All of them when ur careful w/ application don't ruin the watercolor paint so long as the paint is completely dry 🙌 Unfortunately, I'm clumsy and several accidents happened w/ Pompom while using the podge 😔 Probably gonna stick 2 tapping wax/gloss 4 paper clay.
Wax, imma assume u need several coats of that shit 4 it 2 rlly do it's thing, but I'll do that later when I clear this current load from the system 🫠 WITH A PROPER MASK (used the equivalent 2 a surgical n yeah I regret everything)
Pompom got mostly covered lmaooo but yeah "final" product. (Still need to go over w/ wax at least 1 more time but God the smell 😭😭😭😭😭)
Only thing i can say confidently is that my lining technique improved a lot lmaoo
But yeah the heart I ended up painting a rlly deep red, the cat head i turned into Nyanko-sensei, the circle is some kind of abstract freshwater pond thing minus the fish but i made it hella 2 dark, and the seal is idk but it's medium-ish gray and spotted.
Pabumon is finally dry enough 2 paint I think. But i wanna paint it w/ buddies 🥹 Gonna try dyeing the clay directly next cuz y not lol
After making a couple more baby stage Digimon, next project is def going to be a bunch of spheal. I wanna make a little pile of 'em
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