Thursday, June 19, 2014

Little Green Men

Saw a tutorial on these guys a while ago. Never thought it would be something I wanted to try... I feel like I'm saying this a lot lately... anyway, my brother's birthday was coming up and I thought I'd like to send him something hand made.... and this seemed like a project he might like.
So... I'd also seen another tutorial about an old witch's face out of clay and kind of followed what I remembered from that.
Here they are:


They certainly have their own unique personalities!
I think I'll try more of them and see if I can perfect it a bit. The second one is going to be a fridge magnet for my husband who really likes them although he thinks I put too much stuff and color on the first one.
There are 3 different leaf colors. A dark green mix (next time I'd do a Skinner blend first) with gold leaf on it, then 'crackled'  through the pasta machine; same color with more translucent and white added,; and some light green leaves I'd made a while back, intending to string them as jewelry, they looked great added to the darker colors.


Addition in 2016:
I've started 2 new Green Men. I'm thinking I might make a 2-sided one to hang in the new garden (see post in  May 2016).
I started with an 'ultralight' base:
 Sorry, there is no size reference... it is about 5" tall.


 Next I covered the base in a green/black blend and added features... using as a guide the witch face from  this You Tube video:
I tried making the face appear happier and more tranquil than the witch.... I also looked at this video.

Next, I made as bunch of different leaves. Some I had made a while ago, others I made from cane leftovers, some I made new. The variety was impressive and made a nice effect:
I like it but it seems a bit 'crowded' and I want to make some larger leaves that will stick out further to balance the large face...maybe in the ~NW and ~SE directions.
 One thing I had forgotten is that for the smaller ones, I'd set the face onto a base that was large enough to support the leaves so they could stick out away from the face more.
 I can fix this by putting the whole thing on a base layer and adding more leaves, and even use that base to attach a hanger of some kind.
I have a second ultralight base.... I was thinking I could put the two of them back to back and hang it from the 'teepee' so a face can be seen from 2 sides.
I need to make a lot more leaves for another face... maybe I could make them quite different.... stay tuned!

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