Katherine Dewey's Animal Book
>> Monday, September 21, 2009
I discovered a very useful book everybody! Have you ever heard of Katherine Dewey? What a brilliant artist. Lately I've been fumbling over my sculptures. Artist block is bad thing when I'm trying to make a sculpture display by November. So instead of sitting around doing nothing, I decided to try something different. I stumbled across Katherine Dewey's book on Amazon.com, Creating Life-like Animals in Polymer Clay. After I got her book, I started sculpting again. What a beautiful sculpting aid. I'd never sculpted animals before, but using her book I found myself sculpting something I was quite happy with. 
The first sculpture I did was a toad, which was so much fun to make. I started to feel really good about myself that after so long messing up sculptures I was making I actually started to piece together a sculpture that looked alright. I then started to work on a rat in a jack-o-lantern. I aimed at making it look a little more cartoon-like, and I think even that turned out alright. Finally I was sculpting again!
Looking through her book, I realised that this wasn't just good material to help something going through artist block. This book was designed for complete beginners with polymer clay. In her chapters she talks about different kinds of clays and which ones are the best to use for sculpting animals. She even goes into how to make your own tools! The ideas she has for making tools are great for those who want quality tools without having to spend big money. Katherine explains how to condition, leach, model, measure and knead clay. She goes into great detail on how to make all the little shapes required to add to the overall form of a piece and even how to blend and texture the clay. All of these instructions are accompanied by clear pictures of her performing the task. She goes into armature making and baking techniques, even explaining the idea of series baking. Here's one that was even a bit beyond me- how to paint an animal realistically.
After explaining all of these must-know procedures, she then goes step by step on how to sculpt and paint 10 different animals- The Deer Mouse, The Young Cottontail, The Harp Seal, The Black Bear, The White-Tailed Fawn, The Red Fox, The Bull Frog, The Fledgling Bluebird and The Siamese Kitten.
In her final chapter she takes it a step further. She explains how to change the size, pose, setting or finish of all the animals you just sculpted. Very handy when you want to sculpt it different to how it was instructed.
The first sculpture I did was a toad, which was so much fun to make. I started to feel really good about myself that after so long messing up sculptures I was making I actually started to piece together a sculpture that looked alright. I then started to work on a rat in a jack-o-lantern. I aimed at making it look a little more cartoon-like, and I think even that turned out alright. Finally I was sculpting again!
Looking through her book, I realised that this wasn't just good material to help something going through artist block. This book was designed for complete beginners with polymer clay. In her chapters she talks about different kinds of clays and which ones are the best to use for sculpting animals. She even goes into how to make your own tools! The ideas she has for making tools are great for those who want quality tools without having to spend big money. Katherine explains how to condition, leach, model, measure and knead clay. She goes into great detail on how to make all the little shapes required to add to the overall form of a piece and even how to blend and texture the clay. All of these instructions are accompanied by clear pictures of her performing the task. She goes into armature making and baking techniques, even explaining the idea of series baking. Here's one that was even a bit beyond me- how to paint an animal realistically.
After explaining all of these must-know procedures, she then goes step by step on how to sculpt and paint 10 different animals- The Deer Mouse, The Young Cottontail, The Harp Seal, The Black Bear, The White-Tailed Fawn, The Red Fox, The Bull Frog, The Fledgling Bluebird and The Siamese Kitten.
In her final chapter she takes it a step further. She explains how to change the size, pose, setting or finish of all the animals you just sculpted. Very handy when you want to sculpt it different to how it was instructed.All of that costs $15.63 on Amazon. I don't know about you but I think that's worth it.
If you can't find it, I have a link to it to the right in the red box.
2 comments:
Awwww.....he (she?) is adorable!!
haha thank you ^_^
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