Click the images to make them twice as big if you need more detail. And please forgive the poor photo quality, these were taken with my cell. ><
You always start with a foil core when working with sculpey, and then build up your basic forms. In this case I just started with a lump and began carving away large rock faces in clumps. I wanted a cliff edge. I use wooden clay shaping tools, never my fingers, even for smoothing the clay. Wooden tools are your best friend! No matter how careful you are, your fingers leave prints and oils all over the soft clay. The fallen tree at the back was sculpted by just carving ruts into a rolled pipe shape.
On the left is the finished sculpt. Once you get your basic forms sculpted out, it's just a matter of using tools for fine detailing until you're satisfied with the effect. never leave out the details! On the right is the figure placed in the soft clay exactly posed as I wanted her to be after baking. I then removed her from the base and baked it as directed on the box. After the base is baked and cooled, do your last sculpty touch ups. Sanding rough edges where necessary, carving out forgotten details, etc. Make sure your figure still fits in the mold you made, cause sclupey always deforms a bit in baking. Xacto blades make excellent post-cure carving tools.
Here the base is primed and ready for painting. I always paint in the same order. Start with the base coat, then do blended general(large surface) shading and highlighting. Then paint in more detailed and specific darker shadows and lighter highlights. For rock and other textured surfaces, finish up with a liberal drybrushing of your lightest or second lightest highlight (shown right). It really brings out the natural sculpy texture and can make your rocks extremely rocky. =P
Before doing the groundcover, I placed the figure in her mold and filled the gaps with green stuff. After letting it cure, I was free to paint the base coat of the grassy earth area.
Flocking time! Alright this is how I do flock, it is by no means the "right" way or the best way, it just works best for me and the effects I want to achieve. The far left image shows the flock right after it's been dusted over sporadic watered down glue. After I let the glue dry, I tip the excess flock back into its shaker. Now what I do then is to fill my brush with water and some green pigment, and press the brush tip gently to the dry flock on my base. The flock soaks in the water like a sponge and changes its texture to the clumpy stuff shown in the center image. Using this technique, I then continue flocking the base and teasing it around while adding water to it. The far right image shows the finished flocking.
If you use this technique, make sure not to move the brush around over the flock or you'll uproot it from your figure. You're just adding water to it. Allow it to dry, which takes a good 15-20 minutes, and it'll be solid enough to paint like any highly textured resin or clay surface.
The flock painting is shown here, same steps as always. Base coating, general shadows, deeper shadows, and drybrushed highlights last. I did go back in with a wooden pick and removed some of the flock from the rock cracks as it was looking too overgrown to me.
And, the finished piece. Let me add that in my opinion a faster way to achieve the solid flock result is actually to flock a base after it's cured but before priming. Do all the flocking when you do your final carving and sanding, then prime the entire thing together. When it dries, the flock will be solid and paintable. I just forgot to do it that way here. Also, if you're going for a gentle mossy effect, this is not the method for you. This gives groundcover a LOT of texture which is not what you want for mossy coatings.
I hope this was helpful! Every base is still an experiment for me, but I like sharing my ideas. If anyone has questions, critiques, anything to add, please feel free! And thanks for looking. =)
