Paper Mache Jackrabbits

This pair of jackrabbits are made over a solid pressboard armature, and are finished with natural pigments. They are almost lifesized. The huge ears of the jackrabbits were a real challenge – I took a lot of time to make sure they were very firmly attached and strong enough to stand up to a reasonable amount of handling, without making them look unnaturally heavy.

"Male" Jackrabbit Sculpture

"Female" Jackrabbit Sculpture

When I finished sculpting the faces on this pair of jackrabbits I noticed that the one sitting up appeared to have a more feminine expression than the other hare. I tried to accent the differences by making the “girl” a lighter color than her mate.

These desert hares are my first attempt to work on more than one paper mache sculpture at a time – something I need to do more often. My paper mache/mixed media sculptures need to dry completely between every step, so it takes many days for a project to be done – but that leaves many hours in every day when I could be working on another sculpture.

I learn something new with every paper mache animal sculpture I make, so it stands to reason that I will learn even faster if I make more sculptures. That’s one of the theories behind the painting a day movement, which my daughter is involved in.

The jackrabbits are built over an armature made of pressboard. The armature gives them a nice weight that I find rather pleasing. You can see the armature in the unfinished jackrabbits, below:

Jackrabbits in Process

Except for the material I used to make the armature, the jackrabbits were made using the techniques shown in detail in the paper mache panda post.

Tagged as: armature, paper mache animal sculpture, paper mache jackrabbits