Clay sculptures and ornaments

My journey through the course “Fun with portraits” led by the artist and illustrator Sasha DeWitt continues. We had fun modelling sculptures and mini-portrait ornaments with clay.

Here are the instructions in case you would like to have a try, with or without your children!

You will need

• 500 g air dry clay (Fimo/DAS)
• old paper/packing paper/kitchen foil
• masking tape
• dish/jar with water
• rolling pin
• palette knife
• sandpaper (optional)
• acrylic paint
• varnish (optional)

How to make

The artist Sasha DeWitt explains step by step how to make a simple clay sculpture. Follow her videos on Youtube:

1. Create an armature (video 10:04 min)
2. Apply clay (video 6:27 min)
3. Add features (video 14:24 min)
4. Sculpture design ideas (video 3:49 min)
5. Paint a sculpture (video 11:07 mim)

I was confident in making a paper/masking tape armature because in the past I made different objects with the paper mache technique with my kids (3D Disney hats frames, Mickey Mouse). I tried to make a slightly more elaborated sculpture: a woman with a long neck and face inspired by one of Modigliani’s paintings. The result was funny and weird, but I enjoyed creating it!

Also, I challenged myself in painting my family members after cutting their shapes out of flattened clay. Not good enough the first attempt, better the second batch of mini portraits. When one paints very small portraits even a tenth of a millimetre matters…

Activity for kids: making their own sculpture

For this Easter break I planned to involve my children in making their own little sculptures of themselves. We followed the instructions on the videos above.

 Here is our result!

We also made together a chubby robin, inspired by a drawing of the author and illustrator of children’s books, Rob Biddulph. Do you like it?

For my latest artworks head over to my artistic accounts on Instagram and Facebook.

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