How to Create a Bas Relief Sculpture: Revisited

Hello everyone, Cinnamon here and I am going to show you how I created this relief sculpture portrait.

I've done this tutorial sometime last year for the piece on the left, but I wanted to revisit this project to push the details a bit further. It's always a good idea to be critical of your work and see where you can make improvements as an artist. 

Supplies:

• Creative Paperclay®
• Small hand roller or something to flatten out clay
• Exacto knife 
• Sand paper
• Wire bristle brush
• Saran wrap
• plastic knife

I chose to create my own silhouette from an image I found online in a computer illustrating program, you can make a sketch by hand if you want instead. This is a portrait from the project when I first did I last year. I chose to add some flowers to the neckline.

I took the silhouette and printed it out to the size that I wanted the portrait to be. Again, you can just do this by hand and not get on the computer to do this step if you choose. I put some saran wrap over the print so that the clay doesn't stick to the paper. This allows me to move my piece around and be able to check the progress without damaging the paper guide underneath.

I began to take my clay and started working on the shape over the portrait guide. You can use a plastic knife or anything that allows you to sculpt little details while the clay is still pliable. It's important to get your basic shape down at this point so that you don't have to do as much sanding and cutting into the clay later.

Keep building up the piece and focus on getting the profile to the point where you would like it to be.  

I used this ball point tool to add some texture to the hair by slightly pressing it into the clay

I knew that I wanted the piece to have a headband and a lot more details then the last one, so I kept building the pieces up as I went long and making adjustments as I go. 

 

Here I am experimenting with adding flowers to the base of the sculpt and I started experimenting with earrings to add to the piece. I also filled in some of the face like in the cheek area and around the forehead.

I was not happy with the hair at this point, I used this wire bristle brush to add some texture for a new hairstyle. 

I changed the hairstyle into dreadlocks to challenge myself since I've never sculpted them before. I used the wire brush here to give the type of texture that looked like real hair to me for the dreads. I set the piece aside to allow it to dry. I changed the earrings as well.

After the piece dried, I used a 1600 grit piece of sandpaper to get the piece to have a high gloss sheen to it. This is how she turned out.

Thank you all once again for stopping by, and I hope that you enjoyed 

today's tutorial! You can find Creative Paperclay® at the following 

retailers Creative Paperclay® Online Store, Michael's, Amazon, Joann's.

See more of my work at Melandolly.com, catch updates on 

my Instagram page and here is a link to my shop!

.  

How to Make a Puzzle Portrait

Hello everyone! My name is Cinnamon Willis and I am going to show you how I created this puzzle. I chose to create another piece with Alphie the Robot from one of my childhood toys. He is a reoccurring theme in some of my lighter work, but you can paint whatever you'd like for this project!

Supplies:

• Creative Paperclay®
• Wax paper or plastic wrap
• Plastic knife or Kemper straight needle
• Exacto knife
• Acrylic paint
• Sanding paper

Start by flattening out your clay. I flattened out the clay by hand but you can use a rolling pin or something similar to get it more uniform.

The next few steps need to be done while the clay is still moist! Cut the ends off of your puzzle to create a rectangle or whatever shape you decide on your puzzle being. I am using a Kemper straight needle but you can use anything you have in  your home such a a plastic knife or even a bobby pin!

I googled jigsaw puzzles online to make sure that I was creating the correct pattern for my puzzle. A bobby pin or Kemper needle would suffice for creating these shapes. Make sure that you dig deep enough when you are creating the lines on these pieces. It can be a bit difficult to separate the pieces after the clay dries without breaking them. Set the piece aside to dry.

After the puzzle dries, you may need to go back and weed out the pieces with an exacto knife. This is what it looked like after drying.

I am cleaning up some of the edges that needed to be better separated. Take your time on this part so that you don't cut into the side of the puzzle that shouldn't be cut.

This is what the pieces looked like after trimming them out.

Take your sanding paper and smooth out the rough edges. I am using a 400 grit paper here.

When you are happy with the amount of smoothness that you get from sanding, plot out your sketch with pencil to prepare to paint. Put the pieces really close together to get the best drawing that you possibly can

Start painting your pieces with acrylic paint. Make sure to paint the top as well as the sides of the puzzle. It makes a big difference when you look at the piece from the top. The white edges will distract from the picture.

Here's to another piece added to my Alphie collection!

Thank you all once again for stopping by, and I hope that you enjoyed today's tutorial! You can find Creative Paperclay® at the following retailers Creative Paperclay® Online Store, Michael's, Amazon, Joann's.

See more of my work at Melandolly.com, catch updates on 

my Instagram page and here is a link to my shop!

Create a New Magnet for Your Refrigerator

Hello and happy Friday everyone! Today's tutorial is going to cover how I created this magnet for the fridge. This is a fun and easy project, you will need the following items:

Supplies:

• paperclay
• white acrylic paint
• magnet
• Aqua blue and magenta colored pencils
• ruler
• varnish
• baking pin or anything that can be used to roll the clay flat
• plastic knife or similar clay tool
• wax paper

First start off by getting a fresh piece of paperclay and lay it on a sheet of wax paper. Use a rolling pin or anything that can be used to roll the clay flat. I am using a soup container here.

When you get the clay flat, cut out your square shape for the sheet of paper. You will also want to cut out your holes and zig zag pattern at this stage while the clay is still moist.

This is also a good time to make an indent for your magnet on the back of the piece. Press your magnet into the center of the piece, but make sure not to press too deep into the piece. You do not want the magnet to go through the clay on the other side. When done, sit the piece aside and allow it to dry.

When the piece dries, flip it around to the front which should be flat. If there are any imperfections, you can sand them down flat here.

Paint the piece with white acrylic paint. Put a few coats and sit it out to dry.

Flip the piece over and secure the magnet with glue. I am using a glue gun here, let the glue dry and flip it back to the front.

Draw the vertical line with your ruler and magenta pencil. Next you will be drawing the horizontal blue lines. Use a piece of loose-leaf paper to use as reference to get the lines right if you need to.

Now draw a picture or write a nice message that you would like to see everyday on your fridge!

Use your pencils and draw what you would like on your piece. Seal with varnish to protect it from chipping.

now place it on the fridge with the rest of your magnet collection!

Thank you all once again for stopping by, and I hope that you enjoyed today's tutorial! You can find Creative Paperclay® at the following retailers Creative Paperclay® Online Store, Michael's, Amazon, Joann's.

See more of my work at Melandolly.com, catch updates on 

my Instagram page and here is a link to my shop!

How to Create a Cameo Framed Art Piece

Hello and happy Friday everyone, Cinnamon here and I am going to show you how I created this cameo framed art piece.  Follow the steps below to see how this was done.

Supplies:

• Creative Paperclay®
• Small hand roller or something to flatten out clay
• Decorative frame
• Exacto knife 
• Sand paper
• e6000 glue
• Acrylic Black and gold paint
• Sealer, Varnish
• Sheet of black felt

 I have a few of these pretty frames that I brought from my local 5 Below discount store. It has a very vintage and distinguished look so I wanted to create a cameo piece and place it in the middle. I have always admired vintage cameo portraits and wanted to try to recreate one of my own.

***This is not a necessary step****, but I chose to create my own silhouette from an image I found online in Adobe Illustrator. You can just grab a silhouette from a quick Google search online or draw one by hand. 

I took the silhouette and made it to the size of the opening of the frame and cut it out. Again, you can just do this by hand and not get on the computer to do this step.

Once I cut out the silhouette, I used it as a guide to make sure that I create my piece to size.

I have a flat tool that I use to shape clay which allows me to cut pieces of the clay as needed to create fine details. You can use a pin or anything that allows you to shape those little details while the clay is still pliable. It's important to get you basic shape down at this point so that you don't have to do as much sanding and cutting into the clay later.

Keep building up the piece and focus on getting the profile just right. 

I wanted to add a braid to the hair of the piece. My clay was a bit dried out so it broke in a few places when I tried to rolled out thin pieces of it. If you use fresh paperclay, you won't run into this problem. If you do, it can easily be corrected by brushing a bit of water onto the pieces and blend them together.

I took the braid and pressed it into the piece with a wet brush to help it stick in place. I brushed the pieces on the braid with the damp brush to join some of the pieces that were splitting from each other. Set the piece aside and allow it to dry.

Once the piece dried, I did a light sanding to clean up the details and smooth it out.

Be sure to try the piece out in the opening of the frame to see if you are happy with the size. Adjust as necessary.

After I was done with sanding, I moved on to painting the piece with a black undercoat of acrylic paint.

After applying the undercoat, I painted gold acrylic paint onto the piece using the dry brush technique. The braid was fully painted in gold so that it could be the focal point. Set aside to dry and then seal it with varnish.

Take your felt sheet and cut it down to the size of the opening of the frame. After you cut it down to size, glue it onto the back of the frame with the the e6000 glue.

If your piece is dry, glue it onto the frame with the e6000 glue as well.

And this is how it turned out!

Thank you all once again for stopping by, and I hope that you enjoyed 

today's tutorial! You can find Creative Paperclay® at the following 

retailers Creative Paperclay® Online Store, Michael's, Amazon, Joann's.

See more of my work at Melandolly.com, catch updates on 

my Instagram page and here is a link to my shop!

.