Introduction: Sculpting and Painting a Polymer Dirt Jack-O'-Lantern

Hello! Thank you for checking out my Instructible!

For this tutorial I am going to testify you how to sculpt and pigment a mini jack-o'-lantern. I love Halloween and it will be here before you lot know it so let'south become started!

Supplies

For this project I am using:

Sculpey- a polymer clay that doesn't dry out and will need to exist cured in an oven.

Diverse sculpting tools- for smoothing and shaping. Though you tin improvise with but about anything around the house similar a toothpick, a bamboo skewer popsicle stick, pencils, the handle of a paintbrush or merely your hands, get creative!

X-acto knife- used to trim excess dirt and cutting out facial features

Dirt roller- not entirely necessary, merely will requite you a nice polish surface to work with.

Aluminum foil- this will serve as our armature.

Acrylic paints- painting is optional if you are using colored clays, or are merely partial to grey pumpkins. For this project I used raw sienna, cadmium orange, raw umber, titan buff, titanium white, sap greenish (non pictured), payne's greyness & xanthous lite hansa. These are what I had on hand, but you lot do not need these particular colors or brands of paint; FolkArt or Apple Barrel brand acrylic paints are inexpensive and are perfect for this type of project.

Paint brushes- a small-scale flat shaped castor and a pocket-size round brush for painting or for the aforementioned sculpting/shaping tool.

Cup of h2o- to rinse your brush

Candy corn- for snacks and inspiration! I recommend them with peanut butter...mmmm.

Design idea- It's best to kickoff any project with at least a picture in listen. Having a reference photo or sketching the pumpkin and design/facial features you want is very helpful later on.

Step 1: Create the Armature

Accept a fair amount of aluminum foil and ball it upwards very tight, forming it every bit you become, into the approximate pumpkin shape you're going for. Add more as needed until it is roughly the size you want. Endeavor to get the foil as tight as you tin and as polish as possible.

Step 2: Rolling the Clay & Covering Your Armature

If you are using Sculpey information technology will feel a bit stiff right out of the package, just with some kneading it rapidly becomes soft and pliable. Once you lot've kneaded your clay apply your roller to flatten out a nice, even sheet, non too thick though, as we are going to add together clay in the next step to fatten up the ridges (I find information technology easier to add together dirt than to have to remove it).

Beginning at one edge of your canvass of dirt wrap the foil and work information technology around the securely and so that all of the foil is completely covered. Using your Ten-acto knife trim off whatsoever backlog. If your clay came upwards brusque, no worries, just pinch off some more than clay and squish it on there.

Adjacent, smooth the clay edges. Y'all tin can use your fingers or a smooth sided tool like the one pictured (or a pencil or paint castor handle). If you find air pockets, make a tiny incision with your knife to let the air out then shine it over.

Stride three: Creating the Ridges

To create the ridges we will showtime ascertain where they will go. Using the side of your sculping tool make indentations down the side of the pumpkin. This will besides give the ridges depth.

Form bits of clay into an oblong shape and identify them on the raised areas going all the mode around the pumpkin, building upwardly the clay until it is as plump every bit you similar.

Shine the edges downwards. Pumpkins are rarely perfectly symmetrical then whatsoever imperfections volition brand it look more realistic. Personally, I love the odd shapes.

Step 4: Adding the Stem

Now our pumpkin needs a stem. Gyre out a long, tapered snake of clay so it is bigger on 1 stop for the stem base. Add grooves along the length of the clay, nothing fancy, just random lines.

Put the stem in place and alloy into the pumpkin. I added a smaller snake of clay to assistance adhere it. Go along smoothing the stem into the pumpkin adding tiny bits of clay to help accentuate the stem grooves.

Bend your stem into a curl, equally curly and long every bit you like and so break or cut off the excess. If you like a shorter stem simply cut it at the length that pleases you. Add actress tendrils if you lot like.

Stride 5: Making a Face

At this point, the pumpkin itself is finished. If you lot decide yous would rather paint a face (or no face up) onto your pumpkin, you lot can skip to the next step.

OK, let's get to carving our pumpkin. Very lightly sketch your blueprint into the clay with your sculpting tool. Don't sketch too deep until you lot get everything exactly every bit you want it to be. But smoothen over any mistakes.

Once you become the blueprint simply then, compose deeper to really ascertain it. Using your sculpting tool, remove the inner parts of the optics, nose and oral fissure. Effort not to go all the way down to the foil, if yous do, just cover it back up with pocket-size bits of clay. Yous just want the foil covered. This is the indicate I wished I had given it fewer teeth!

Stride 6: Baking the Pumpkin

If you are using Sculpey the basic instructions are to bake the clay effigy on an oven-proof glass or metal surface at 275°F (130°C) for 15 minutes per 1/4 inch (6mm) of dirt thickness.

Practice not microwave. Practise not overbake. Blistering should be washed past an adult.

Never bake air-dry out dirt if that is what you are using.

Step 7: Painting

Once your pumpkin is baked and completely cooled downwards it'south fourth dimension to paint!

Sculpey takes pigment very well, but I like to add a base coat over the parts that I desire to exist brighter than the darker greyness of the clay so that I can apply fewer coats of paint. This is optional.

When the base coat is dry, brush on a coat of raw sienna.

Once that has dried, dry castor orangish over the raw sienna - this is done using a flat shaped brush. Load a small corporeality of orange paint onto the beard and wipe off the excess pigment. Lightly castor on, highlighting the raised surfaces, assuasive some of the raw sienna to show, especially in the crevices.

Side by side nosotros paint the stem with a coat of raw umber. I then used a smaller round castor with payne's grayness to paint the deeper grooves in the stem. Darker colors = depth. Next, I mixed a very tiny scrap of titan buff with sap green and dry-brushed over the stem, merely highlighting the raised areas.

Now the facial features. I wanted a glowing pumpkin look and so around the inside edges I painted orange, and so xanthous, then in the very center, white.

I help the facial features to stand out more I outlined the outside edges with payne'southward grayness. I thought it looked a little too much like eyeliner so I painted orange over parts of the outline to intermission it up a flake. I then added little scratch marks here and in that location to give it more involvement.

And that's information technology! Congratulations, you are now the proud possessor of your very ain clay pumpkin figure. I hope it brings you much Halloween joy.

Cheers!

1 Person Fabricated This Projection!

Recommendations

  • Anything Goes Contest

    Anything Goes Contest