𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐒𝐊𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 💀| 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐒𝐤𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐲

I wanted to have the figure standing on a pile of skulls and so I sculpted a bunch of miniature skulls with polymer clay as an art doll prop in the image. I was inspired by stylized works by people such as Shaun Tan from his book “The Singing Bones” and by the work of sculptor Dug Stanat.

Watch me get up to some Skullpting

Prints of the dimensional-illustrations made with the redcap art doll are available here:

Open Edition Prints

“Redcap’s Rage” https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/thedreamsyndicate/redcaps-rage-evil-fae-fantasy-art/

”Redcap’s Rest” https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/thedreamsyndicate/redcaps-rest-evil-fae-fantasy-illustration/

“Redcap’s Reaping” https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/thedreamsyndicate/redcaps-reaping-wicked-fae-fantasy-art/

The skulls were made with original Sculpey, which is something I generally avoid using unless it’s for a background element. The issue I tend to have with sculpting with the original polymer clay’s that it’s really soft and gets even softer as your hands warm up as you work with it. In this case, I set myself the challenge of making these little sculptures with minimal clay, with each skull being mostly comprised of aluminum foil and also that I would make each one quickly, spending less than five minutes on each individual sculpture.

Once sculpted and baked in the oven, the skulls were tinted with raw umber ink, painted with a lightly earthy tinted white, and a final wash of ink was again applied. I found the change of pace freeing to work in such a loose and abstracted style.

Thanks for joining me so far and here’s to the adventures we have in future! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon. Catch all of my videos here: https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. And sign-up for my newsletter (in the sidebar) to get the latest studio goings-on! Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next time: Make. Believe!

𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐏 | 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊 𝐅𝐀𝐄 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐄𝐯𝐢𝐥 𝐅𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐘 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐥𝐥 | 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐩𝐬𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐱𝐞𝐝-𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐥𝐥 𝐓𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥

I recently spent some time documenting some terrible, malevolent, dark fae, the redcap. These nasty, blood-thirsty creatures make their homes in castle ruins or sites of gruesome battles and prey upon any who enter their domain. Redcaps are described as red-eyed old men with long, greasy beards, carrying pike staffs or scythes, and renown for wearing heavy iron shod boots and despite their ungainly footwear, move with preternatural speed. What really gives them their name are the red hats on their heads. The red is no mere ornamentation, it is actually soaked in blood and must remain so, for if a redcap’s hat ever runs dry of the crimson ichor, the creature will perish.

Watch me make the Redcap Art Doll here:

While the lore tends to describe the evil fae creatures as having a stout build, I tend to like spindly creatures. This poseable art doll was made in my typical mixed-mixed media style, beginning with sketches and ending with a finished dimensional-illustration. I made his fleshtone a sort of minty green hue because I thought it would coordinate well with the red cap on his head. One direction I decided to take on the design of this art doll was to make his hat resemble a mushroom- surprisingly, not many artists had made this character design decision. It made perfect sense to me, there are all manner of benevolent fae seen wearing mushroom hats and given that their are a good number of mushrooms that can seriously harm or kill a person and the redcap fae creature is menacing it’s self, it almost seemed like an obvious choice.

The art doll has a Sculpey polymer clay sculpted head, poseable wire armature body, fabric clothing, and his accessories are made from a variety of mediums. I particularly love some of the dingy little details of this malevolent creature like his spiked armguards and shoulder pad made from upcycled materials. His whole outfit was meant to have a rough-hewn, thrown together quality to it as if this creature doesn’t spend much thought to how he looks at any given time.

Sketching the design of the redcap art doll

The art doll has a Sculpey polymer clay sculpted head, poseable wire armature body, fabric clothing, and his accessories are made from a variety of mediums. I particularly love some of the dingy little details of this malevolent creature like his spiked armguards and shoulder pad made from upcycled materials. His whole outfit was meant to have a rough-hewn, thrown together quality to it as if this creature doesn’t spend much thought to how he looks at any given time.

Prints of the dimensional-illustrations made with the redcap art doll are available here:

Open Edition Prints

“Redcap’s Rage” https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/thedreamsyndicate/redcaps-rage-evil-fae-fantasy-art/

”Redcap’s Rest” https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/thedreamsyndicate/redcaps-rest-evil-fae-fantasy-illustration/

“Redcap’s Reaping” https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/thedreamsyndicate/redcaps-reaping-wicked-fae-fantasy-art/

Redcap's Rage

Redcap's Rest

Redcap's Reaping

Color studies for the various dimensional-illustrations made with the fae art doll.

Thanks for joining me so far and here’s to the adventures we have in future! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon. Catch all of my videos here: https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. And sign-up for my newsletter (in the sidebar) to get the latest studio goings-on! Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next time: Make. Believe!

𝐃𝐈𝐘 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐮𝐱 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 | 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐥𝐥 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬

For my latest dimensional illustration, Lord Bledwall, I wanted his robe to have a poseable metal trim- it wasn’t utilized so much in this image I made with him, but if I decide to use him in future images, I’ve some variety of what I can do with the moveable faux metal piece. This technique can be used not just for metal clothing adornment for a variety of art doll accessories like fantastical weapons or maybe metallic tentacles. Making these DIY poseable faux metal elements only requires some basic supplies and tools as well as some handicraft skills. If you can measure and cut things, you can absolutely make these! You can find the necessary supplies, instructions, or even watch how they were made below.

Watch how they were made: DIY Poseable Faux Metal Tutorial | Art Doll Accessories

Click on any of the items below & you’ll be taken to a corresponding Amazon page, which helps support my art with no additional cost to you.

Faux Metal Making Supplies Needed:

• Aluminum Wire (18 gauge)

• Medical Paper Tape

• Foam Sheets

• Pliers & Wire Cutters

• Wax Carving Tools (similar to the set I use)

• Needle File Set

• X-Acto Knife & Blades

• Modge Podge

• Fabri-Tac

• Transparent Raw Umber Ink (you can use a variety of colors)

• Silver Acrylic Paint (or whatever size tube/color's appropriate for your project)

• Cutting Mat

• Transparent Ruler

• Metal Ruler

• Bristol Board, Heavy Weight Paper (optional)

Texturing tools.

We’ll start-off with a length of 18 gauge aluminum wire. I’m basing the length of the wire on about how long I think the art doll’s robe should be. We’ll twist it up with our pliers and depending on what you’re doing or if it’s visible, you might want to snip the uneven edge of the wire with your wire-cutters.

Once that’s done, we’ll roll out a length of medical paper tape. And cut it to size. I like to cut it so it's about as wide as 3-4 times the thickness and about as long as the wire. We’re going to wrap the paper tape around lengthwise… this part’s tricky because the paper tape wants to snag on itself (a little bit of this is OK though!). You want to make sure it’s wrapped around snug to the wire. We’ll wrap the wire two, maybe three times if desired.

Then we’ll soak both ends of it in some water for a little while- anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour on either side to get the paper tape thoroughly saturated. Next we’ll spread some heavily Mod Podge diluted with water across it. I’ll do a couple more layers, letting the piece dry in-between, where I add in more and more silver acrylic paint and progressively less water with each subsequent layer. What that’s doing is seeping the pigment into the paper fibers of the tape. This is a similar method to how I go about creating my poseable art doll hands.

We’ll measure a thin strip of the a foam sheet, which is going to give us the segments of this sort of spinal shape that I’m making for this poseable faux metal trim.  I like using foam because it’s flexible and you can easily texture and paint it. We’ll make a thin strip. And another little strip that will serve as a template for the other pieces we’ll cut. And we’ll just trace it all down the length of the foam strip. Then we’ll cut them out with our X-acto.

Here’s a quick note on failure: I’d tried using 2 part resin epoxy (another adhesive that I commonly use. Use with caution) and for whatever reason, it didn’t seem to hold. I’m not sure if I messed up the timing on the set time or what… it just wasn’t seeming to work at all. It might be that it wasn’t the right adhesive for the job.

We’ll use some of an old bottle of Fabri-Tac- this was made clear by the way I need to fish it out with a bit of scrap wire. I tried clothes pins to hold the foam pieces on as I went, but didn’t think they held it on snugly enough. I found a better solution by wrapping them with tiny scraps of wire that I had lying around. Being a bit of a pack-rat for the win!

Now we’re just going to take a sharpened pencil and use it to indent into the surface, score into it a bit with a pointy clay tool, and I also got some interesting textures from using needle files like one would use in jewelry making.

Then we’ll just go in with our silver acrylic paint onto the spinal form. One layer of metallic paint leaves a lot of the black of the foam showing through, which depending on what you’re doing, might be how you want it to look. I ended painting on three layers. You might consider using spray paint, but the propellant, what makes the paint shoot out of the can, tends to have a melting effect on a lot of foam-like surfaces. So that melting would either have to be a part of your design choice or you’d have to seal your foam in some way that also didn’t involve spraying the sealant on.

We’ll do an ink wash with this transparent raw umber. Unless I want a detail heavily accented, I tend to add a little water to the ink and even sometimes a tiny dab of dish soap. You can see how that ink wash is bringing up all the dents and scratches on the surface. After the ink’s been on the surface for a minute or two, we’ll wipe away the excess to make the details a little more subtle. We’ll repeat this process with each additional coating of ink. Since I liked the patina the ink was giving this, we’ll go ahead and do another wash. Each layer’s going to tint it just a bit darker. Another thing we can do is go back and put some ink inside some of the little holes and scratches to really bring them out. Here I’m using much more saturated ink and picking-out individual details.

Lord Bledwall sketch/color study

My sketch of Lord Bledwall had these blade bits sticking out the sides of the metal trim like a spinal column, I’d already gotten pretty far on this build (and should’ve put them in sooner).... so I was in a mental fight over risking messing up what I’d already done (and really liked) and also my laziness didn’t want to do anymore work… or I could make this a bit cooler by spending the time to add them on. It was a hard fought battle, but “making it cooler” won, so I cut bits of blade out of some Bristol board, sliced tiny grooves that I could put the narrower ends of the blades into, and used resin epoxy both inside the grooves, and thinly applied it to the narrow end of the blade form. Once the two part resin epoxy set, I then carefully painted and ink washed the blades.

As a warning: pretty much everything in creativity’s a conflict of “good enough” and saving some amount of hours of work versus “putting in a bit more effort and making the thing cooler”.

Sewing faux metal trim with coordinating thread.

Having made the thing sufficiently cooler, we’ll attach the metal trim by sewing it on with a gray thread that will sort of blend-in with the paint job we’ve done. We’ll sew in from the back, make a loop, tie off our thread a few times, cut it, and repeat that process up the length of the trim. Here you can see what it looks like once it’s all attached.

Lord Bledwall’s also has a faux metal texture bladed mantle that I’ll do a “making of” process blog and video similar to this one if you want to see how that was made. When it’s ready, you’ll be able to click here. If you use techniques you learned from any of my posts, I’d be happy to take a look. You can tag me on whatever social media platform you’re posting to. You can find my links below!

If you would like a print of Lord Bledwall, you can purchase it here.

PRINTS AVAILABLE

A print of the final dimensional illustration’s available through my print shop as an open edition.

Thanks for joining me so far and here’s to the adventures we have in future! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon. Catch all of my videos here: https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts.

You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. And sign-up for my newsletter (in the sidebar) to get the latest studio goings-on! Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next time: Make. Believe!

𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐁𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐚 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐄𝐯𝐢𝐥 𝐖𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐥𝐥 | 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐩𝐬𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐱𝐞𝐝-𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐥𝐥 𝐓𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 →

Much like dharklings, I’ve made another more nefarious aspect of my world, Lord Bledwall (you can learn more about how he arrived at his powers further below). He’s one of my world’s Manifest, wizard caste beings who have power far above and beyond what most inhabitants of The Dream Syndicate possess. He’s an evil wizard figure who has the ability to manipulate these bladed, vine-like growths that accompany him, known as The Bleedwall. The mixed-media poseable art doll’s meant to be imposing, menacing, with his sharp, angular features and withered appearance.

Watch the Making of Lord Bledwall, a Poseable Evil Wizard Art Doll | Timelapse Mixed-Media Art Doll Tutorial

As an adolescent, I’ve always been fond of the design of villains and I can see much of that fondness echoed in this character. When drawing the mouth of the poseable art doll’s design, I was thinking of the toothy maw of a crocodile. Some more obvious features to jump-out at you would be the look of “The Lord of the Rings” ring wraiths (even before the Peter Jackson’s films, many artist’s renderings of these creatures had much in common) and the look of Shredder from various iterations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In much the same way that these villains are encased and adorned in metal, so is the warlord figure of Lord Bledwall. The substance of the Bleedwall that he commands is an ever-expanding, invasive species that will either corrupt, harm, or kill whatever it comes into contact with.

Open edition prints of "Lord Bledwall” are available here.

Prints of “Lord Bledwall” are available here:

Open edition print: https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/thedreamsyndicate/lord-bledwall-wizard-fine-art-print/

The more the wall hungered
The more that the enemy bled
The more that the enemy bled
The more the wall hungered

Lord Bledwall rules a land that was at war with a neighboring kingdom and he loses his son to the conflict. In his anger and grief, he happens upon a large, strange seed that calls to him. He nurtures it with his hatred and desire for revenge and day by day, month by month, it grows into this bladed and barbed barrier along his lands that comes to be called The Bleedwall.

The wall hungers and attacks friend and foe alike, maiming or killing anyone that comes within it’s lethal, sinuous reach. The Bleedwall ever expands and Lord Bledwall ever becomes concerned with assuaging it’s bottomless hunger. This caused the majority of his kingdom’s subjects to flee and how Lord Bledwall got his name, to be forever associated with that accursed wall.

Thanks for joining me so far and here’s to the adventures we have in future! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon. Catch all of my videos here: https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. And sign-up for my newsletter (in the sidebar) to get the latest studio goings-on! Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next time: Make. Believe!

Find me elsewhere online:

INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/dream_synd_arts/

FACEBOOK: facebook.com/TheDreamSynd/

TWITTER: twitter.com/Dream_Synd

PINTEREST: pinterest.com/TheDreamSyndicate/

WEBSITE: www.thedreamsyndarts.com/

𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐥𝐥 𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐏𝐀𝐏𝐄𝐑?! 👐

Today I’m going to share my process for making poseable art doll hands with… get this, paper! Well, more accurately, I use medical paper tape to make the hands for my mixed-media art dolls in a technique that’s sort of half-assed paper mache. This technique’s suitable not only for art dolls, but also for stop-motion animation puppets.

You can watch how I make this poseable wire armature hands on YouTube and I’ll also try to give as brief summary of how I craft these hands as possible. I’ll also put links to where you can get the supplies you need for this project. This method will allow you to craft a variety of hand shapes and forms and when you become well-practiced at it, you might be able to make a new set of art doll hands in about two and a half hours.

Watch Making Poseable Art Doll Hands with Paper?! 👐 Timelapse Art Doll Tutorial 👐

The supplies you’ll need for this art doll hand tutorial

Poseable Art Doll Hands Supplies

Aluminum tubing that will compose the character’s forearm and also hold the wires for the hands

• Cutting Mat https://amzn.to/371kAXD

• Medical Paper Tape https://amzn.to/2ZGPzEe

• Aluminum Wire (16 gauge) https://amzn.to/2MNiy7D

• Aluminum Wire (18 gauge) https://amzn.to/2zARPCt

• Pliers & Wire Cutters https://amzn.to/34ekFGY

• Pipe Cutter https://amzn.to/34g43ym

• Small Scissors (any small, decently sharp grooming scissors will do) https://amzn.to/2ZHbQC2

• X-acto Knife & Blades https://amzn.to/2Zbqh2y

• Measuring Tape https://amzn.to/2tGeUEc

• Transparent Ruler https://amzn.to/2rkPpre

• Aluminum Tubing https://amzn.to/2UgQpXq

• Metal Ruler https://amzn.to/2ZdmvWl

• Sharpie Markers https://amzn.to/2EJ7O48

• Mod Podge https://amzn.to/2ZGXFwT

• Helping Hands https://amzn.to/34RCKts
  
  

Here I’m twisting wire to form the shape of the hand

For purposes of this poseable art doll tutorial, I used 16 and 18 gauge wire and a particular diameter of aluminum tubing, but you can adjust the size of the materials you’re using to accommodate whatever proportions you would like. The first thing you’ll do is use your pipe-cutter to cut lengths of the aluminum tubing that will form you character’s forearms. Afterward, cut two pieces of your thicker gauge wire at about 5-6” long (though whatever scale you’re crafting at will effect this measurement), create a loop- this will determine the size of the art doll or stop-motion puppet’s palm and back of hand, and then braid the two ends of wire.

Basic shape of the hands attached in aluminum tubing

You can then cut the braided ends of these loops so that there’s a piece left almost as big as your pinky across. You’ll then wrap the medical paper tape around this piece and you want to place this inside of the aluminum tubing pieces. You want this to fit in the tubing snugly, such that if you lightly pull, the hand wire won’t come out.

“U” shape to form the art doll’s pinky and thumb fingers

Next cut a longer length of wire, about 14-16” (I typically use the tip of my middle finger to the crook of my arm as a rough measurement), this piece is going to form the character’s fingers. You’ll leave a length of wire for the pinky finger, wrap the wire around the thicker gauge hand wire, have the wire create a gentle “U” shape, and then wrap this wire around the hand wire with it’s placement roughly where the thumb would go. I typically find the outermost fingers’s placement, the pinky and the thumb, as I craft the art doll’s hands. In all cases when you’re wrapping the finger wire around the hand wire, you want this wire to wrap around tightly- you may want to use your pliers to help in this process.

Completed art doll hand armatures

Now we’ll find where we want the index finger, wrap the finger wire around the hand wire. This will create a broad partial oval shape and the index finger and thumb will be connected. Next loop the finger wire around the “U” shape and back up to the hand, then wrap it around to create the placement for the middle finger. Then you’ll create another oval shape, winding a bit of the remaining finger wire around the hand wire and snipping off any excess with your wire-cutters.

Paper tape helping to lock the finger locations into place

You can adjust the spacing between the fingers, possibly even clamping them down with your pliers. Once that’s done cut thin strips of paper tape, and place them such that about the middle of it goes across the hand wire and each strip is going between our fingers. This will help keep your finger wires in place and you can take the wire-cutters and cut in between the connected finger wire pieces. You can take a sharpie marker and mark-off how long you’d like each finger to measure then cut them down to size.

This is our first layer of paper tape- it looks pretty rough, but it’ll come together in the end

Wrapping paper tape around each finger

Next you will wrap strips of paper tape, that are a little longer than twice as long as the finger, over each finger’s wire, smoothing it over one side and then having the paper tape overlap itself, wrapping around. You’ll typically do two layers on each finger in this manner.

As you place strips, follow the contours of the hand

Using thicker strips of medical paper tape, you’ll cover-over parts of the palm, usually folding over the wire at it’s mid-point. It’s going to begin to cover over the hand and also cover the tape from in-between the fingers and also the paper that coats the fingers. You want the paper tape to go where it wants to go, it may not form a mirror image of itself as it folds around the contours of the hand.

After you’ve a base layer of paper tape covering the hand armature wire, you can wrap pieces of tape around each finger. These paper tape pieces should be just a little shorter than the length of the fingers and about one and half times to twice as wide as the width of each finger.

You can bulk-out the muscles that comes from the thumb and pinky on the palm by placing strips that go across the length and width of these areas. At this point, you can also wrap a piece of paper tape that’s almost as long as the aluminum tubing and overlaps pieces covering the hand wire.

Next you’ll use as broad of pieces of tape on the hand as will comfortably fit- the wider the pieces, the less seams will be apparent on the hand. As you start to get a hand shape that you like, you can place a long strip that you might taper on the hand that will then wrap around the aluminum tubing and then you can wind another piece of tape around the tubing.

Wrapping a larger strip around the aluminum tubing

Painting a flesh tone on an art doll hand

“…Paint your art doll’s hands at the same time you’re painting other areas of it’s flesh so that you won’t have to try and color match it’s skin tones later.”

Other than patching areas that might need more tape, the poseable art doll hands are constructed. You can now apply heavily water diluted Mod Podge and let the hands dry. At this point you can trim the finger tips as they will have a blunt and malformed appearance. You want to trim a little bit of the paper tape material at a time. Once this is done, you can also patch any areas of the hand that look like they need it. You’ll apply a coat of less diluted Mod Podge, let that dry, and then you might mix-up a base coat tone with some Mod Podge and water that will serve as an under painting for whatever flesh tone you want for your art doll. The under painting color should be one that if the flesh tone paint was thinly applied over it and it showed through, it would add rather than detract from the piece. One tip I can give you is to paint your art doll’s hands at the same time you’re painting other areas of it’s flesh so that you won’t have to try and color match it’s skin tones later.

Thanks so much for stopping by. If you’ve read this post and watched the YouTube video, but still have questions, be sure to comment them below and I’ll do my best to field it. If you use this technique, tag me on social media so that I can see what you’ve made. You can find me on these platforms:

• INSTAGRAM

• FACEBOOK

• TWITTER

Prints of my art are available through my online store.

You can find my process videos by subscribing to The Dream Syndicate Arts here for more fantasy art doll polymer clay sculpture videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFMoEW3xC740tWfQNSixs_Q

Until next time: Make. Believe.

𝐌𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐚 𝐃𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 | 𝐂𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐅𝐚𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐅𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐲 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐥𝐥

Meet the latest addition to the world I’m building, a dharkling. These dark faerie creatures are more your spooky fae spirits of old, along the lines of being strictly on the malicious side. Their wicked blades stab at dreams and they’ve certainly been known to carry out the abduction or two. But we shouldn’t hold it against them too much, it’s in their nature.

Watch the Crafting a Dark Faerie Creature with Polymer Clay

I played around with the design for this fantasy art doll in my sketchbook and I imagine them as a sort of race of dark faerie creatures. They might vary a bit and height and proportions, but they all have a similar look about them and even wear the same drab clothes. The dark upper part of the head was inspired by one of my favorite fantasy artists growing-up, Brom, though I hope I added enough of a twist with giving it a sort of dripping look. I also enjoyed this idea of the hair being these wispy tendrils that constantly languidly drift behind them. I imagine them having this unchanging neutral expression on their faces and they may not even speak at all. One element that I’m thrilled about is his dagger. I often end-up with a sharps container that little by little gets full of X-acto blades that I’ll have to eventually have to dispose of… but I figured I could make them the blades of tiny daggers, so now I can upcycle them into mini weaponry!

Darklings are said to be comprised of malignant shadows and spiteful dust. They are the Sleeping Emperor’s knives of the eventide. Though others might speculate that their under the sway of the nefarious and secretive Dream Syndicate. With their hateful blades they come and cut away at your dreams if they live you living at all. They come stepping out of shadows and are gone in a whisper. Their faces the most unnerving of all as they gaze at you with a soulless, remorseless visage. Be wary traveler of the shadow that looks as though it is following you!

Shadows Wake

Shadows bide and shadows lied

Shadows lurk and shadows slink

Shadows stride and shadows hide

Shadows trick and shadows prick

Shadows take and shadows wake

-Efraen Children’s Rhyme

Prints of “Dharkling” are available here:

Open edition printhttps://www.inprnt.com/gallery/thedreamsyndicate/dharkling-dark-faerie/

Thanks for joining me so far and here’s to the adventures we have in future! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon. Catch all of my videos here: https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. And sign-up for my newsletter (in the sidebar) to get the latest studio goings-on! Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next time: Make. Believe!

𝐎𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐎𝐛𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐀 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐡𝐚𝐛 𝐏𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐭 | 𝐌𝐨𝐛𝐲 𝐃𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐥𝐥

I’ve had a fair number of sketches similar to the image I created for my Captain Ahab piece, “Ode to Obsession”, for years. I’ve been intending to make a Captain Ahab portrait and actually read Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” for years. Recently I’ve finally read the book and crafted a Moby Dick inspired art doll, but it’s telling that I was able to make an image that gets the theme of Moby Dick and Ahab’s disastrous pursuit of the white whale across without ever having read the book- most of us know this story without having ever read it! That’s the power of Melville’s Captain Ahab: he is THE archetype of when passion and drive crosses-over into self-destructive obsession and ruin. He’s transcended the pages of the novel and become the cliche, the shorthand of the thing he represents.

Watch the Captain Ahab Art Doll Being Crafted

Designing a Moby Dick Art Doll

When creating the Moby Dick art doll, Melville describes Capt. Ahab, aside from his iconic whalebone peg leg, as having a scorched face, grey hair, and a scar that runs the length of his face and body, which I wanted to capture in my interpretation. I’ve seen other interpretations of Ahab that make him look hardy and vigorous, but when I imagine him, I always see him as this hard-angled, hollowed-out sinewy character. I really liked this idea of Ahab solemnly looking out and being tangled-up in his harpoon line and though it’s kind of subtle, he has a noose cast about his neck, foretelling the doom that he seeks and the prophesy of hempen rope being his end.

St. Ahab: Patron Saint of Creatives

I find myself thinking of Ahab as a patron saint of creatives or anyone that has a passion, a drive for what they do but the path is unclear and even perilous. Many artists find themselves making emotional, relationship, and financial sacrifices to chase that white whale of earning a livelihood doing the things that they love. And since we don’t only have an effect on our own life, we impact the live’s of those around us, the pull of our creative pursuits could also take a toll on our loved-ones as surely as it did Ahab’s crew. The ups and downs of a creative life can be harrowing and it’s often trying to even know if you’re heading toward your white whale or if the risks and the inner turmoil will pan-out and be worth it in the end. The only thing you know for certain’s as scary as all of this has been, is, and will be, looking back and regretting not even attempting the pursuit would’ve been infinitely worse.

I do want to pull this back from the bleakness a bit and say that we right now live in the best times to try to be a creative! The fact that you can attempt to put your art in front of thousands of people across social media and various websites, the only thing it costs you is time, and find-out if anyone cares- that’s such an opportunity that all of us creators shouldn’t take for granted. This opportunity simply wasn’t there for creators that were trying to put themselves on their career path and previously only a few people at publishing companies were the ones to decide whether your art was “good enough”. Now if you figure-out how to market your work and amass only a few thousand dedicated fans that you work’s for them, you can have a sustainable career and life, just getting there is full of headwinds and crashing waves. And for that I think it’s worth risking the venture!

Prints of “Ode to Obsession” are available through my store here:

• Limited Edition: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/thedreamsyndstore/ode-to-obsession-captain-ahab-portrait

• Open Edition: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/thedreamsyndstore/ode-to-obsession-captain-ahab-portrait-cwas5

Here is the finished Capt. Ahab illustration! If you would like a print, it is available as a Limited Edition and for a limited time, as an Open Edition Print.

Thanks for joining me so far and here’s to the adventures we have in future! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon. Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. And sign-up for my newsletter (in the sidebar) to get the latest studio goings-on! Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next time: Make. Believe!

𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐍𝐨𝐬𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐮 𝐕𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐥𝐥

I recently wrapped-up making a Nosferatu vampire art doll inspired by the character from the classic film of the same name. I used reference images from the film and also found some inspiration as I did research about the original film, there was one line that stuck with me that described Nosferatu as vermin-like as opposed to the more debonair portrayals of vampire that we’ve had in later media.

One point where my version of Nosferatu diverges from the film version is that the costumers had given him these long, thick eyebrows, which I found to be kind of silly looking, so I eliminated them from the design. Many modern interpretations of Nosferatu omit them, so I can’t be the only one that feels this way.

This is the final illustration that was created with the vampire art doll. If you would like a print, you can get one here.

It was also fascinating to read that Nosferatu was actually an illegitimate Count Dracula. As many people are aware, Bram Stoker wrote “Dracula” and when he passed his widow, Florence Balcombe, had authority over his works and didn’t authorize a film adaptation of the novel. This didn’t prevent the creators of Nosferatu from going so far as to advertise Nosferatu as adapted from Stoker’s Dracula!

I hope you enjoyed seeing this lurking terror come together! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Until next time, make believe!

Making Slimy Slug Art Dolls with Resin Slime 🐌

Today we'll be embellishing wooden display bases as we make slimy slug art dolls with resin slime! I'd previously sculpted these polymer clay slug art dolls with super sculpey over aluminum foil armatures, made these handsome display bases, and only recently had the idea of "slug trail" trailing behind them as if the slugs (slowly) made their way up on to the base.

WATCH MAKING SLIMY SLUG ART DOLLS WITH RESIN SLIME 🐌

I'd already given the slugs a thin coating of two part epoxy resin to give the sculpey art dolls a wet sheen look and I used the material again to make the slimy path for the little critters. Since I've had these particular opened bottles of epoxy resin for a few years, this was a great way to use the older materials rather than wasting them. 

Slimy Slug Sculptures

These slug sculptures can slime their way to your home & heart.

Buy a Slug Here

 

To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon. Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. And sign-up for my newsletter to get the latest studio goings-on! Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next time: Make. Believe!

How to Craft a Miniature Wizard's Wand

What's a wizard, warlock, or witch without an implement of arcane power?! In this video I show how to craft a miniature wand through an incredibly simple process. When making a mini wizard's wand with my process, there's plenty of room to customize the wand and make it unique to whatever wielder of wyrd eldritch power you like, whether that's Harry Potter or Gandalf the Grey (or White).

 

How to Craft a Miniature Wizard's Wand

This wand was crafted with an art doll in mind that was actually a character I played in the Pathfinder role-playing game, Fabian Faust, a conjurer of devils and demons with a snide, sneering disposition- safe to say he's a bit of a jerk (I'd imagine him talking like Timothy Spall, the actor who played Wormtail/Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter movies). I'd made an art doll of the character some time ago and decided it was time Fabian had his arcane armament.

To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next time: Make. Believe!

Getting Ready to Show at My First Art Booth! | Art Star Craft Bazaar in Philadelphia, PA

This Saturday I'm taking a leap that I've put off for some time in years past- I'm getting ready to show at my first art booth at the Art Star Craft Bazaar here in sunny, hot, humid Philadelphia! Art Star has been running successful arts and crafts shows for several years in the area and I feel like I'm in pretty good hands. This is a pop-up show, which means it's only one day for a few hours. The first date for it is Saturday, 7/28/18 from 12-5pm.

There's a few reasons I've put off boothing at art fairs, but I think one major one was not feeling like I'd ever had a large enough body of solid artworks to show. I don't feel like you can do this sort of a show without 10-12 images you feel strongly about. There's also a fair amount of start-up costs to running a booth- there's the cost of inventory (and the packaging of said inventory) and the display and booth decor items aren't particularly cheap if you don't happen to have what you need on-hand and want to have a certain level of professionalism to your presentation.

WATCH MY THOUGHTS ON GETTING READY TO SHOW AT MY FIRST ART BOOTH | ART STAR CRAFT BAZAAR IN PHILADELPHIA

Speaking of professional presentation, there's a few people I'd like to thank for inspiring me with best practices, either from watching their content or sending them the occasional frantic Facebook message. I've been following the independent genre artist podcast One Fantastic Week's YouTube content for a couple of years and I think there's few better resources for entrepreneurial artists and they've a great community of like-minded people. I also owe Pete Mohrbacher a beer for recommending El-Co Color Labs- they've produced some really fantastic prints of my art. Crystal Sully, creator of "Untamed Beastiary", was also super helpful in helping me track down a couple of vendors for booth supplies. Rather than have you track Crystal down, I'll list the vendors I've used for booth display.

Craft Show Vendors

• Printing: http://www.elcocolor.net/

• Banner: https://www.nextdaydisplay.com/product/fabric-wrinkle-free/

• Print Bags, Cardboard Backing, & Shopping Bags: https://www.clearbags.com/

I'm doing four of these shows and I'll let you know how they ultimately went- fingers-crossed that it was worth it! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next time: Make. Believe!

Greetings & Welcome to the Dream Syndicate Art Dolls

How rude of me- I've yet to properly introduce my YouTube channel. In this video, I do just that by giving folks a taste of what they can expect from The Dream Syndicate Art Dolls with this channel trailer.

WATCH WELCOME TO THE DREAM SYNDICATE ART DOLLS

Throughout my videos, I share the process I use in crafting fantasy art dolls, showing you how I sculpt, paint, build, and paint them. I also show how some of the props are made for a photo shoot and a glimpse of what the photography sets look like for my dimensional art doll illustrations. When I'm not creating videos about making art dolls, I make videos about the arts, whether it's culture or thoughts about what it's like to be a professional artist today.

To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next time: Make. Believe!

The Devil May Cry with this Devil Art Doll Repair 👹

This devil art doll's name is Diavolo Malvolo and he fits that old wedding tradition of something old, something new, something borrowed, and something new as the blue devil himself is an older work, the illustration's new, I borrowed some dry-rotted wood to make the "cliff" he's standing on, and well, the blue part's pretty obvious, isn't it? In this latest video, I take the devil art doll that's been sitting on my shelf and reveal his dark, disturbing secret... no, it's not that he's a devil- that much's obvious! The secret is this: he has crevice along his horn and ear- he's damaged goods. Over the course of the video I try to repair him, but do I succeed? Watch and find-out good viewer!

 

WATCH DEVIL ART DOLL REPAIR 👹

As you might have seen if you made it to the end of the video (I say in an accusatory voice), I made an dimensional illustration with this handsome devil art doll. If you'd like one to hang on your wall, you can order a print from my Etsy store.

You can bring this handsome devil home from my store.

Just in case you're still in suspense- I was able to repair Diavolo after all through the use of plumber's epoxy and epoxy resin as well as a fresh coat of paint. Huzzah! I hope you enjoyed your chance encounter with the devil! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Until next time, make. Believe!

BRAMBLING 🌲| Making a Fantasy Art Doll

And finally, a brambling is full born... or is it sprouted from a little acorn? The biology of the little fae creatures aside, this fantasy art doll is completed! All told, he probably took around 16 hours to craft (including accidentally sculpting two right hands for him! Unfortunately, not the first time something like that's happened, I assure you!). In prior videos I shared the process of sculpting and painting him in-depth and in this most recent one, I sew his clothes and show-off a bit of the staged set that went into making the finished dimensional illustration.

Watch Brambling | Making a Fantasy Art Doll

I enjoy characters with fanciful clothing and while the brambling's clothes are meant to have a utilitarian, rustic look to them, I was able to add some visual interest with the fae creature's asymmetrical, tattered cloak. The clothing was distressed by wrinkling, staining with acrylic paint, sanding, and then hand-sewing the fabric directly on to the art doll's body. I usually make a point of distressing an art doll's fabric as i like the viewer to imagine the secret life that the art doll has when they're not around. A life with a bit of mystery and magic's a better one! Lastly I set-up the scene by arranging fabric, vines, butterflies, and even used some small tree stumps! I photographed this mixture of found objects and then spent a little time post-producing the image in Photoshop.

Here's the finished dimensional-illustration:

You can find a print of this illustration here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/601530840/brambling-fey-fantasy-fine-art-85x11?ref=listings_manager_grid

I hope you enjoyed exploring this magical fey creature as much as I have! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Until next time, make believe!

Painting the Brambling | Painting a Fantasy Creature Head

Now that the brambling's head is sculpted to my liking, it's time to lay down some paint! When painting a fantasy creature head, it's actually kind of important to ground yourself in realism because bramblings are elusive in the wild! I had to do the next best thing and bring a couple of tree branches into the studio. Who'd have thought realism's the best strategy when painting a fantasy creature head? By looking at this tree branch I could observe that it was largely a warm grey tone with moments of green and brown on it rather than that iconic brown Crayola crayon that we might all instantly imagine.

 

Watch the Brambling Head Be Painted with Acrylics Here

I used a range of earth-tones in painting the fey creature's head- siennas, umbers, ochers, and greens with touches of grey tones to dull-down the pigments. I also painted the head generally lighter than I would have naturally due to the fact that I was about to embark on trying my hand with an ink wash technique...

EXPERIMENTING WITH INK!

ACRYLIC INK

In painting this head, I tried a technique that was new to me: using an acrylic ink wash with dark toned ink. I had carved a lot of bark texture all over the brambling and I wanted a way to darken the recessed areas that didn't involve my painstakingly painting in dark tones and then carefully trying not to undo this work as I painted-in lighter tones. Before I used the technique on the actual fantasy art doll head, I tested on scrap sculpted piece I had (who'd have thought I was doing myself a favor when I accidentally sculpted two right hands for this art doll?!). Admittedly, I still feel like I can do a better job at highlighting sculpted details with this technique, but overall, I'm happy with the outcome.

If you would like a print of the Brambling final image, you can purchase it HERE.

I hope you enjoyed exploring this magical fey creature as much as I have! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Until next time, make believe!

What's With #ArtVsHero?

If you spend time lurking artists on Instagram or Facebook or are an artist yourself, you may have seen #artvshero going around. The hashtag started with students of SVS Learn, which was founded by Jake Parker and Will Terry, and is a way for artists to see how they stack-up when surrounded by their art heroes. An artist places their work in the center of a 3-by-3 square grid and literal surrounds their work with the artwork of their influences.

Watch a Discussion on Art Versus Hero Here

I first found-out about this creative exercise on the fantasy/independent artist podcast One Fantastic Week when hosts Pete Mohrbacher and Samuel Flegal had Will Terry as a guest. And I spent some time thinking about it, I found that I'm as influenced by collaborative arts like stop-motion and film design as I am by individual artists and if you've followed any of these artists, there's a through-line, between many of them.

Watch the One Fantastic Week Interview with Will Terry Here

 

My Art Versus Hero Grid

 

Going across each row, the artists (or production companies) are: 

Rednose Studio (an independent artist), Brian Froud, Rankin/Bass Productions, Laika, myself, Tony Diterlizzi, Jim Henson Company, Brom, and Dave McKean. I try to take little bits and pieces of inspiration from all of these wonderful artists with myself acting as a filter. This is by no means an exhaustive list of artists that have influenced my work- I also draw inspiration from many, many more fantastic artists.

Brian Froud worked with Jim Henson films to design the characters for Labyrinth and the Dark Crystal and I know these films were hugely influential on Tony Diterlizzi as early in his career he dreamed of working for Jim Henson. Rankin/Bass produced stop-motion films throughout the 1960's and 70's and it would be easy to see their work informing later animation studios like Laika or the work of Rednose Studio. I love the work of both Rednose Studio and Dave McKean because they've both shown themselves to be near limitless in their process to visually story tell. I also owe Rednose Studio a debt of gratitude for raising the bar for dimensional-illustration! There have been traditional photographed three-dimensional picture books in the past, but they had the unfortunate ability to be unintentionally unnerving (a college friend had showed me a "Goldilocks & The Bears" picture book from decades ago that was nightmare inducing).

To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Until next time, make believe!

Making a Brambling 🌲 | How to Sculpt a Fantasy Creature Head

Bramblings are fey creatures that wander the forest floor looking for mischief to get up to or something good to eat. They can helpful to a lost wanderer or a nightmare to those that break some esoteric woodling taboo. The brambling has been living in my sketchbook for some time and I'm glad to see it finally come to life. I see them as a species rather than any one individual creature and being somewhat wild and unpredictable.

Watch a brambling get crafted here:

This fantasy polymer clay sculpture was crafted with Sculpey Medium Blend, which is a mixture of Sculpey's regular and firm variety, and was my first test with that particular clay (Super Sculpey beige being my "go-to: polyclay). While I found it pleasant to work with, I thought it had a pretty similar consistency to my regular clay. At some point I'd like to experiment with Sculpey Firm and see how that handles. I really could have stood to use a firmer clay since the oh so thin branches are a very delicate aspect of this art doll sculpture. I could see trying Firm or trying my hand at Monster Clay, which doesn't require baking in the oven since it's a two-part epoxy.

I spent a lot of time during the sculpting process creating the bark-like texture of the creature, smoothing-out and trying to create the delicate lines of the branches. I also sculpted tiny clay-like hands. I typically craft art dolls with poseable paper mache hands, but in this case I didn't think I'd be able to get the jagged texture of the bark with such delicate material.

If you would like a print of the Brambling final image, you can purchase it HERE.

A brambling in it's natural environment.

I hope you enjoyed exploring this magical fey creature as much as I have! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Until next time, make believe!