Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hello there. My name's Lizzie, also known as Clay disarray, and I'm a Polycla
artist and illustrator. I've been working with Polycla I'd say for around
eight years now. So during that time, I built up I'd say
quite a lot of experience in working
with the material. And I specialize in making
cartoon style characters, and I have a real
interest in pop culture. In today's class, I'll be taking you through
the process in some detail of making this cute little chap
here with Poly McClay. It's a similar character
to a class that I've made previously on skill
share in which I made a little chap
wearing a jumper. But I'd say this one is
a lot more involved, so it's probably more of an
intermediate level really because there's quite
a lot of detail with the waistcoats and the jackets. As always, while
taking this class, I'd really encourage
you to think about your own creative
style and your own aesthetic as artists
should always be thinking about creating
their own unique voice really. So I'd use that opportunity to really explore your own kind
of character design really. You may well want to embellish your character further by
adding different elements. Or you could go down a whole different route and
make it completely surreal. It's entirely up
to you, so yeah, remember to be creative
and let's go get started.
2. Getting started: So in terms of colors that
I'll be using for this glass, I'll be using gray white, a flesh tone, mauve and black. But of course, it's entirely up to you as to what
colors you choose, as you know, it's
your piece of art. And I'll be using
these tools here. So there's a couple
of cookie cutters, my acrylic roller,
small ball tool, and a needle tool, and
my blaze cutting tool. And I'll also be using some liquid femo these are all pretty easy
to source online.
3. Making the Base and Legs: To start, I'm just going to wipe down my work surface just to ensure that my space is cost-free because the cleaner your work environment is, the cleaner. Note out your final result will be, so I'm gonna give my little mortal whitespace. So just gonna go in with a wet wipe and ensure that it's nice and clean. It's a good little tip actually. So I recommend that you have a pack of what pipes nearby whenever you're working with polymer clay. And with my credit, probably just going to go and flatten that style. And I'd really recommend that you use some grease proof paper underneath your piece because it just makes it a lot easier to move around freely. So now I'm just going to cut out a circle. Nice and easy. And that should just pop out fairly easily, like so. And again, with a wet wipe, I'm just going to go around the sides to ensure that they're nice and smooth because you can't get indentations as a result of using the plastic cookie-cutter. So now, okay, I'm just gonna go over with my wet wipe and clean my space down again. So I'm gonna give my little chaps, some black shoes. So I've got two identical sizes of black balls of clay here. And really easy, I'm just gonna go and flatten those out into a very basic shape. And the more experience you get with clay, the more detail you can add to your shoes. So I'm just going to keep it nice and simple for today, just a beginner level. So here we go there looking pretty similar. And that river similar size. All that I need. And I'll just pop those on the base, like so. And I'm trying to make sure that the backend of the shoe is roundabouts in the middle of the circle to ensure good balance off the module once it's done. And I'm using a very basic armature today and you can't use cocktail sticks if you like. But I'm going to go for some craft fly up. And I'll just pop that into the shoes like so. And that should go right down to the bottom to be terribly long. Just to ensure that you're like as well secure well to your before shoes really. So just cut the end off here. So I'm going to clean town my space again. So now I need to move on to the trousers of the suits. And before we get started, I drink, appends the happy lots of clay in the same color to ensure that you've got a good match for the trousers and the suit jackets. There's nothing worse than starting a project where you've not got enough clay and you have to try and color match because it's really difficult. So maybe you'd want to start with a black or a pre-mixed color available from female horse go pee because yeah, it's really difficult to color match. And particularly when you're working in sort of fairly large quantities of polymer clay. So I'm just going to roll out some trials is here, like so. And take the ends off with my blade tool. And I'll just spend over the trousers like so. So it's really easy. And to ensure that my models are pretty secure, I like to use female liquid, which is bashed up here. But it's really great to have as a tool in your studio. So Hi, Yeah, I just tend to pop a little dollop on to the craft wild like so. And that will really enable your trousers to a deer have a passerine. So I just need to attach the suit trousers like so. And this fit can be there for fiddly. And if you're not careful, you might get your armature, shoot through who travels alike. So yeah, it's worth just taking a few moments to ensure that you are able to get this nice as possible. Really. Just finish with a wet pipe to ensure that any sort of bits that Avery, et cetera, and taken off the peaks. And it's back to some craft Jolla, just going to add some into the top of the trousers. So I'm using two pieces again. And that will enable your body to be secure to your trials. It's Spades just adds a couple of dollops of liquid female. Again, ab.js mix that rounds with my bowl tool here just to ensure that its costs a good coverage going on. And now it's ready to bake.
4. Bake #1: So now it's time to bake the whole base. So I've just set my now on my baking sheet here that I use only for polymer clay work. You shouldn't be using something that you also use for foods. And I've got a collection of mugs that I use really to act as stabilizers. Just to ensure that if my model does become a little off balance while baking, that it's got something to fall back onto. But I'm trying to ensure that they don't actually touch because I don't want any indentations in my case, so I'm just going to pop it in the oven now. And at this point, so you'll need to refer to to polymer clays, bacon instructions.
5. Making the Shirt, Tie & Waistcoat: Now my model's legs are all baked and cold, I can move on to the body. I'm going to start with some white polymer clay to make the shirts. But of course, you can use whatever color of polymer clay that you fancy. I need to start by conditioning my clay. Just as a tip, it might be helpful to have a wet wipe nearby just to pick up any bits of debris that appear on your clay, so that you end up with a cleaner results, hopefully. I need to create just a very basic body shape that you'll see here. I'm just trying to flatten that a little at the front because this will be essentially the shirt front. There we go. There's my trusty wet wipe to pick up any tiny flecks of dust kicking about. I've got some liquid Fimo here, which is a little battered as you'll see. But I'm just going to add some to the craft wire like so. It just enables the elements to adhere better basically when it goes through the baking process. I'll just very gently aim to push that down into the trousers and mold that in a little. Again, take off any debris with a wet wipe. Now I'm going to create a little tie. I got quite a nice mauve color of polymer clay here. With my blade cutting tool, I'm just going to go in and make a very basic tie shape. Take the top off and put in a V at the bottom. Invariably, you might need to just neat it off as you go just so it's balanced on both sides. There we go. That can be placed into the center of the body. A little dots will finish you off. But I wouldn't press down too firmly at this point because you may well need to move it while you're adjusting your collar. Now, I'm going to move on to a waistcoat. It's entirely up to you if you wanted to include a waistcoat or not. I did actually film this from above as well, but for whatever reason, I lost the footage, so apologies for that. But hopefully, you'll be able to see what I'm doing. Down the center, I'm just going to create a little line with the other side of my blade cutting tool, so I don't want it to go through. It's just to scar it really. I'll take out a little triangle at the bottom and make those into little V's. Do a similar thing at the top, but with a much deeper V. I'm sure you can see, it's starting to resemble a waistcoat already. I'm just going to take off the ends. I might bring those in a little further like so. The waistcoat is all done. Now I can attach that to the body. I just need to ensure that it's right in the center. I think I need actually to take some more clay off the sides because you won't see that, so it doesn't actually need to be there. I'll just take a little bit more off and place that on. I'm just trying to eye up where the center is. There we go. Once you're happy with the placements, you can start pressing down on the waistcoat. Not too firmly though, because you want it to still look neat, but you need to press down at the sides. I'll just use a wet wipe to ensure that that's really well secured. If you fancy, you can add some buttons to your waistcoat like so. This part of the process is all done, so now we can move on to his head.
6. Making the Head: Now, it's time to make the head for the model. I won't go too deep into character design today. I think I may well save that for another tutorial at some stage, but essentially, it's about making our own work unique and just experimenting with different facial elements to arrive at a style that you're happy with. I've developed my own style as an artist through clay disarray, but some I'm working in a very generic-y, cartoony style today. I'm just going to go in and create a couple of cartoon eyes. I'm making two sockets with my bowl tool here. I've left the nose to the side really just so I can pop in some eyeballs. There's the second, just pat those in like so, and I'll just add in a couple of pupils, just put some black polymer clay. The skin tone that I'm using here is FIMO doll arts and it's in Sam's. They have some really brilliant colors actually to use basically as basis. You can obviously see or lighten the skin tone that so you have as a base, but I'll just stick with Sam's as it comes out of the packet today. I'm going to give him a pair of basic ears. I'll just attach those onto the sides. Here's one and here's the second. You don't have to attach ears if you don't want to, you can work in a contemporary style perhaps just with [inaudible] and a nose maybe. I'm not going to give my little [inaudible] today, but I just wanted to demonstrate how easy it is to pop on a mouth if you wanted to. Just a little drops of clay here in the same tone as the face, so just going to position that like so and that gives [inaudible] mouth. But as I say, I'm not giving him a mouth today. I need to make him a neck. I've just got rounds piece of clay here and just flatten that down like so and I'll place that at the top of the model in the center. Here we go, and so I'll just cut off some more craft wire and I'm going to put that right down the center and just press down. Again, I'll pop some liquid [inaudible]. I want to ensure that my head attaches in the right place, so I'm just working out where I want it to go with my needle tool, so I'll just pop that onto the craft wire and press down. There we go. He's looking more like a man now. I want to give my character a little mustache, just with something different really. I've just got a very tiny cookie cutter tool here. I'm just going to cut out essentially a pair of eye shapes really and attach to the model, but just under his nose, one and two. We've now completed this part of the process, so now we'll move on to making him a jackets.
7. Making the Jacket : So now we need to move
on to make the jacket. But firstly, I'm
going to make him a white collar for his shirt. So I've just got a length
of white clay here. So just going to take the ends off just
at a slight angle. And as I mentioned before, I need to reposition this top of the tie just so that it
attaches to his neck. And I'll wrap around
the collar, like so. It's a little bit
fiddly this sometimes. He might need to take it off a few times and cut it to sze, but yeah, I'm pretty
happy with this one. So now I'm moving on to
the gray clay again. So it's the same as his
trousers and his waistcoats. And I'm going to start with a kind of like an
oblong shape really. I just take off the bottom. And I need to curve my
blaze cutting tool, like so, really because
it makes things a little easier when you're fitting
it on the actual model. So that's one side, and
I'll just do the other. And I'll take the top off. So it's a little neater. And I'll just wrap that
around the model like so, and I'm really trying to pay attention to keep it as
central as possible, really. Just takes a few moments just to ensure that it's
in the right place. And once it is, you can start
pinching the tops together. And I'll just take those
off with my scissors. And just flatten those
down with a wet wipe. So now I need to make his arms, so I'm keeping these as
simple as I can really, so just got a length of the same gray clay and
I'll roll that out. And I'll just cut out
a couple of arms. Just need to ensure they're
of the same length really, so just cut those
at the same time. And just kind of mold
it over at the top, really where the
shoulder area would be. And now I'm going to make him a very basic pair of hands really. So I've got the same
flesh tones clay. Just need to clean that
first with a wet wipe. And with my scalpel, I'm just going to cut
out a random kind of thumb shape really, and that's as much detail as I'm going to add in this model. And I'll just take the ends off. So more craft wire. Okay. And I'll just make sure that the bottoms at before I start feeding
through the wire. So there we go. I just need to ensure that
they're firmly attached, so we'll just press
those pretty firmly together and the same
with the other arm. And I think they could
be a little bit thinner, so I'm just going
to roll those out slightly and just take the top off and mold
that over again. And now I can start
attaching them to the body. There we go. I'm trying to press
down as firmly as possible just so that
they attach well, really. And take off any debris
with my wet wipe here. And I can move on
now to the lapel. So I've got quite a long
stretch of clay here. Just take the ends
off, so I've got a more manageable
size to work with. And I'll start by making just a very sort of
long oblong shape. And I'll take the
ends off at an angle. Just need to ensure they're of the same kind of angle really. So I might take a few attempts, and just needing that off
and attach to the body. So, firstly, I just
need to ensure that it's the right
size actually before I make any further detail onto the lapel, and
I'm happy with that. So I'll just take
out a couple of little inserts. Like so. That looks a lot more like
a lapel now, doesn't it? So I can now attach
that to the jackets. And I need to just
ensure it's in the same place on
both sides really. And yet, I'm happy with that. And to finish, I'll just
give him a little button. And while I was doing that, I just thought it'd be nice to give him a pair of
little pink cheeks. So I've mixed some of the color that I use for
the tie with some whites, and yeah, give him a
couple of rosy cheeks. So now he's yeah all done and
ready for his second bake.
8. Bake #2: So my little man is all ready to be baked
for the second time. So I've got him on my
baking sheet again. And there's a mug to the back of him that's
not actually touching. It's really there
to basically stop his fall if he were to decide to fall over while
he was baking, but, you know, hopefully,
he won't be doing that. So at this point, you'll need to refer
to your own brand of polymaclas bacon
instructions.
9. Making the Hair: So now it's time to make some
hair for my little chap, and I've got some
black polymer clay here to go with his
black moustache. So I'm just going
to roll that out. And I'm going to be making a kind of generic
style hair today. It's not a usual style, but it's one that I'm happy
to work with on Skillshare. So I'm just going to make a little oblong shape with
the black clay like so. And then position that just
onto the back of his head. And once it's in a position
that I'm happy with, I can then start sort
of pressing that down. Maybe stretching it
a little as well, just to cover it heads. And I'll take the ends off just with my
blaze cutting tool here and press that down again. And just spend a
little more time just pressing the hair down so
that it's nice and secure. I'll do it at the top just
with the wet wiper as well just to ensure that it's
sticking well to his head. So I'm just going
to make basically some shapes to make
his hair with. So firstly, I'm going to cut out some circles and
then some shapes, and I can make three
out of each circle. And then it's a case of just
sticking them to his head. So it might take you a little while just to figure out where you want them to go. So I wouldn't press them down
too firmly to begin with, just so that you can
pick them up easily and reposition them into something
that you're happy with. I think he'd actually
work well with the top of his heads
being left bold, but I'm going to cover it with hair today just to give
the option really. So I'll just keep
building those up. There's various ways
to do hair, actually. So it's always worth
experimenting and coming up with a style that represents you as
an artist, really. So I think that's coming
together quite nicely. So now his hair is in a
position that I'm happy with. Just going to start
pressing those down a little more so that
they stick well. To give him a little
more expression, I'm just going to pop on a
pair of little eyebrows. So that's one and two. I'm happy with my here, so I need to bake him for
the third and final time.
10. Bake #3: So my little chap is ready to be baked for the third
and final time. So he's on his
bacon sheet again. And at this point,
you'll need to refer to your own brand of polymaclas
bacon instructions.
11. The End Result: And here he is all
Bates and calls. And yeah, I'm really happy
with this little chap, and I hope you like him too. And it's entirely up to you, but you could choose to use some sculplae either on some
elements or the whole piece. If you wanted to, it's really down to you and your own
personal taste really. But I think I'm going to
leave this one mat for today.
12. Conclusion: Well, I hope you
enjoyed that and you've got a little chat
that you're happy with. And I'd be really
interested to see your results as and
when they're ready. So by all means, do
let me know what they've turned out like
because I'd love to see them. And if you have any
suggestions for any other classes
along a similar vein. By all means, let me know, and I'll certainly give
that some thought. So thanks for taking part, and I'll see you again soon, hopefully. Take care. Bye bye.
Clay Disarray, Artist & illustrator
