Sculpture : Easy Cute Owls from Polymer Clay

1. Introduction: Hello, my name is Stephanie and I have been a professional sculptor for the last ten years. I have been working mostly with polymer clay and in today's class, I would like to share with you tips and tricks and techniques that are going to be useful if you want to sculpt. In today's class I'm going to show you variations around owls. Owls are really cute as home decor or little trinkets and they also make great gifts. You're going to learn in this class how to make an owl from scratch with simple tools and simple techniques that you probably already have at home if you're interested in sculpting. Now if you have never worked with polymer clay before, I would highly suggest to check out my class, Polymer Clay Basics first. I am also going to show you variations around the project owl, so you can really take the sculpture into your hands and let your imagination flow as freely as possible. If you take this class and want to show your project on social media don't forget to tag me, I go by the moniker petitplat, pretty much everywhere. I really hope that you are going to take this class, but most importantly, that you are going to enjoy it. 2. Materials: For this project, we are going to need some polymer clay and the colors of your choosing, and an oven to cure the clay. Some sculpting tools, liquid polymer clay, a pasta machine or a roller, aluminum foil and masking tape. I am also going to use some latex gloves, but those are optional. 3. Owl Sketching: It is always good to start with some loose sketching before starting to sculpt so you know where you are going. Sculptures always asked for some structural and construction thinking. You need to know what you want, what size, what shape, so you can better decide on how you're going to approach your work. For this project, I wanted to make some simple and cute owls. So I looked up preference pictures of owls online, and simplified their shape. When you simplify, you need to remove as much as you can while still making sure the object is recognizable. Owls are mostly recognizable by their big eyes and face shape, so these are the key elements to keep. The body itself can be simplified to your potato shape. As for the colors, I'm going to keep it simple here in this project, and focus more on the textures. But you do you. If your favorite color's blue, why not make a trio of blue owls? The only advice I would give is to keep the face white on neutral colored sweet pops. Now, let's start sculpting. 4. Core: First off, let's talk about the size of your owl. I am going to show you a medium-sized owl simply so you can learn the most difficult to create a core armature before adding the clay. However, if you want to make a very small owl, the size of your thumb, for instance, then you won't need to add a core. In that case, simply start with a ball of clay and start sculpting right away. For the core, all I am going to use is aluminum foil and masking tape. What I do is to crunch the aluminum foil into a small ball and the idea here is to shape the aluminum into the shape of the simplified body of your owl. Take your time to get it just right. You can always add or remove foil if necessary. You really want to push the aluminum into a tight shape, removing as much air as possible. That way, sculpting on top is going to be a lot easier as the core won't budge. When you're finally happy with the shape, you can cover it in masking tape. The masking tape will help to smooth the shape, but also help your polymer clay to better stick to the core or be removed if necessary. 5. Adding Clay: For this project, I am wearing latex gloves. This is very helpful to avoid fingerprints or dust specks on your project. Before adding the clay, lightly cover your core with a brush and some liquid polymer clay. I am using [inaudible] liquid, but any liquid polymer clay will do. I also use a dedicated brush as to not add too much of liquid clay onto the core. [MUSIC] Now roll the clay out to a thick sheet. You don't want it to be too thin as you are going to texture that all later. I have put my clay through the thickest setting of my pasta machine. You can also roll out your clay with a roller or a glass bottle. Now wrap the layer of clay around your core. Be careful not to trap any air bubbles. [MUSIC] If you see air bubbles simply cut into the layer and push the air out. [MUSIC] For the face, take a big ball stylus and push two holes for the eyes. [MUSIC] Roll out a snake of clay, create a point to it's end and cut a piece to create the beak. [MUSIC] Make two small balls of clay for the eyes. [MUSIC] Push them into the eye sockets. [MUSIC] Roll out a thin snake of clay and place around each eye. [MUSIC] Smooth down the clay with a tool. You can use any tool you have on hand, be it metallic or silicone shaper, or even a toothpick. [MUSIC] Texture the eye sockets by drawing lines from the center to the outside. [MUSIC] You can also draw the lines for the wings on each side of the body. This isn't strictly necessary, and I don't do it for the other variations. [MUSIC] For the texture of the body, push down feather-like shapes. [MUSIC] You can use a metallic tool or use a ball and it's tool and role while pushing it onto the clay. Start texturing the front of the owl while you still hold it between your fingers. [MUSIC] You might want to add another circle of phrase around the eyes. [MUSIC] Sign the bottom of your piece if you want to. [MUSIC] Now, push the owl onto a small tile so it won't move and you can sculpt all around without having to hold it. [MUSIC] It is now time to texture the whole body. I like to place the tile on top of two boxes so my head is almost level to the sculpture. That way I don't have to bend over my sculpture. Trust me, your back will really thank you for that. [MUSIC] The texturing looks better when you go over a few times, repeating the same movements and shapes. [MUSIC] Finish by texturing the head. [MUSIC] Once the whole owl is textured, and to your liking, you can bake. If you want to make the owl variations, put aside so you bake all owls at once. This will greatly save energy. [MUSIC] 6. Variation : Long Eared Owl: For the first variation, we are going to make a long eared owl. Just as a side note, the so-called ears are actually, it's browse. This is actually important for you to understand as this is how we are going to scope them. For this variation, I decided to give the head light sight tilt as well. For that, I simply made the eye sockets at a slight diagonal. Now making the core and covering the body with clay is exactly the same as the previous owl. The face process is similar as well. We are now going to add the eye brows, roll out a snake of clay, pinch and role both extremities in form of spikes. Place on top of the eye sockets. For the texture of this owl, I decided to only use bowl and a stylus. You can play around with different sizes. However, I find that it looks better to use just one size of ball, and like previously, be sure to texture the whole body and go over the texture a few times for better results. 7. Variation : Looking Up: For this our variation, I decided to make the owl look up. For that, I simply made the eye sockets higher than the previous ones. For the rest, the technique is similar. For the body texture, I decided to go with ripples of fur around the head, and cover in a fill like appearance all over. I simply went with small lines all around. Again, adding a few layers of textures for better results. 8. Final Words: Once you have made your three owls, you can bake them. I baked mine during 40 minutes at around 130 degrees Celsius. But please check what your manufacturer recommends as all polymer clays don't bake at the same temperature. Keep in mind that over baking is less of a problem than under baking. As under baking will cause your sculpture to break down after a while. I decided to not paint the final owls because I loved how they looked. But feel free to experiment with acrylics if you'd like. If you do, don't forget to vanish your pieces to protect the surface treatments. Thank you so much for taking this class. I really hope that you loved it. Please also share the project with your class. You can do so by simply going below the video on a computer, and you're going to see my project tab, then you can create your projects here and share with the other students. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. If you share your project on social media don't forget to tag me, I"II go with the Monica, pretty much everywhere. Since you're in Skillshare you can also check out my other sculpting classes. I have quite a few that should keep you occupied for a while. Thank you so much for taking this class and I really hope to see you in my next one. Bye.