Botticelli Skin Tones

 This page is just a note to myself. Sometimes i mix colors and do things a certain way and then I forget what I did so I am writing this down as I work on my copy of a Botticelli.

This is what I have so far:

I changed the composition slightly to fit on the 2 panels which open.

Atlas completed

 This is the second and and last part of my blog about this project. 

After all the clay was dry I put a base coat of a greenish dark brown all over him. The only hard part was making sure all the white parts were covered. In the future I would like to try putting color in the clay while wet so it is not so obvious when I miss any spots while painting. If I know it will be a dark color I think that would make it easier.

brown undercoat

For the top I printed out an old map the right size for an 18 inch circle. I use modpodge to seal it so the ink wouldn't run. I put it on both sides but That made it harder to glue down smoothly to the wood. I think I will try just doing the top side next time. I just have to be really careful not to damage it when I am gluing it.

I then used Martha Stewart craft paint (she makes the best) Citrine Gold to glaze him. It was a nice greenish gold.

So here he is:

I will have to keep experimenting with the structure and formula of the clay but overall I am pretty happy.

Atlas Table

 This is my new project. We got a new couch, finally, and I noticed that we really could use a table to go on the side since this couch is much smaller than the old one. 

I suddenly saw the vision in my head: Atlas holding up the world. Ok but this is a demilune table (that is half a circle) so I guess he is actually holding up half the world. This is somebody else's work and not my property at all and all that copyright stuff but this was the kind of thing I wanted to make:

 Since I have no power tools and cant cut a straight line I ordered an 18" wooden circle off of etsy and asked her to cut in half, which she did at no charge (thanks 😊)

Following the paper mache process I learned from Jonni on Ultimatepapermache.com I created an armature using wire and aluminum foil

wire, foil, masking tape 

I glued the foil on with hot glue and used some newspaper and masking tape too.

I then used paper mache paste of flour and warm water with a layer of newspaper and then a layer of paperbags.

Paper bag layer

It was already pretty sturdy considering but to make it super hard and add detail I used Jonni's papermache clay made of white glue, joint compound, toilet paper and flour. The problem is that you are not supposed to use DAP brand joint compound because it's got some ingredient in it that makes a weird chemical reaction that gets all rubbery. Apparently DAP is taking over the joint compound market in Los Angeles because I couldn't find any other brand in stock anywhere so I ended up using Fixall.

Its a powder which I like so I can save it and it won't get ruined but I'm not quite sure its the same. It gets VERY hard when dry which is good for strength but its not very good for sanding. I'm not sure if it was because of his or just the proportions of glue/fixall/flour but the clay came out fairly easy to work with over the paper bag but rather rough and hard to sand out bumps etc. In the future I would make everything smaller and more like an innercore and then use more of the paper clay for the outside. It is kind of expensive and a little soft and fragile when dry but I haven't found anything that is as easy to work with. It sands and carves nicely with the min rotary tool. On this guy I think I didn't leave enough room for the paper clay layer so I wasn't able to put in as much detail as I would like.

I will have to experiment with other DIY recipes for paper clay.

Here he is with the layers of paper clay:

Today I put his toga on and covered him with a layer of Jonni's gesso which is mostly glue and fixall. We will see how that dries.

gesso