Ploughshare Tortoise, Adding Textures
The ploughshare tortoise that I started a week ago has been progressing slowly. I blame the rain. Everything seems to slow down at my house when we have unending clouds and rain – it just seems like the best time to curl up with a mystery novel and hibernate for a while.
However, I have now started on the fun part of the tortoise project – the textures. That’s really why I wanted to do this sculpture in the first place. Before adding any paper mache clay I did some more pushing and squishing on the crumpled paper armature, because I found out that the top and bottom shells are attached differently than I thought they were. Then I added a thin layer of paper mache clay and let it dry.
Once I had a nice solid layer to work on, I started in on the bottom shell. Last week Xan found us a photo of a baby tortoise upside down. I intended to use that photo for a model, but I read a bit further in my book by Jane Goodall and found a color photo in the center showing an adult male ploughshare tortoise upside down. It looked very different from the lower shell of a baby tortoise. (One thing I’m learning is how much I don’t know about tortoises). I used the photo in Jane’s book as a model and added clay to the bottom shell of my sculpture:
Ploughshare Tortoise, Upside Down
I added some clay to form the head details, and then started working on the bumpy leg textures. I used plastic film over a thin layer of clay, rubbing the clay smooth through the plastic. Then I used a tube from a ball-point pen, which I took apart, and used the ends to make circles in the clay. I used the plastic again, just to smooth out the texture a bit, although this probably wasn’t necessary.
Ploughshare Tortoise, Adding Bumps to Legs
Then I drew the geometric pattern on the top shell, and added clay to each raised area, one at a time. I used the edge of a knife to press the lines into the clay. In the photo below I have just a few of the raised areas finished. You can see in the photo at the top of the post how the shell will look when it’s all finished. I should have all the shell’s texture finished today.
Ploughshare Tortoise, Adding Texture to Shell
I may spend a bit more time on the face, to make it a little more realistic. I know it isn’t quite right the way it is now. Then I’ll let the entire sculpture dry for at least a week to make absolutely sure it’s dry before I add the color. I intend to finish it with marine varnish and let him sit in my flower bed near the pond during the summer – this is an experiment to find out if the varnish will protect the sculpture. We should know by the end of summer if it’s a reasonable thing to do or not.
Next week I’ll show you how he looks when he’s all done. I know my tortoise wouldn’t win any prizes at a science fair, but I can see that creating accurate sculptures of rare species would be an exciting career choice for an artist just starting out. There must be people working in museums who do that sort of thing – what would a job like that be called?
- My favorite online bookstore.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Very cool. Love the texture on the pyramid shapes on the shell, and the legs look great as well. One question about the pyramids — have you built them up entirely with clay? And how deep would you say they are in the thickest parts? I’m curious about how depth effects the drying — tho perhaps that’s part of why you’re going to give it a whole week to get entirely dry.
Also, I heard an article on NPR a couple of weeks back about the retirement of the last Smithsonian taxidermist. They’re not replacing him because there’s not enough work in taxidermy anymore. I’m guessing that’s because museums use other methods for realistic models these days? Here’s a link to the story in case you’re interested.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125914878
Interesting story. I wonder how they intend to preserve the specimens they have in their collections, if they don’t have an expert on hand. They were probably busier back when it seemed like a good idea to shoot rare animals for the collections.
The clay did get a bit thick on the tortoise shell, about 3/8″ at the thickest part. We’re having very wet weather (another inch of rain last night) so I want to give the clay plenty of time to dry. It probably won’t take that long, but it’s better to be sure.
I think you might be interested in the job opportunities at this firm that’s in the town 6 miles from me. http://www.breesstudio.com/new%20webpages/newhomepage1.html
I haven’t learned how to make a website but it would probably be with my gourd art and egg art that I carve and paint on. I’m an old Country Gal and love animals of any kind. As a country kid they were my only toys. I just love your turtle and would so like to make an atempt to make 1..2..or 3 of the little darlings. Can you give me a tip on how to start ?
GrandmaJoyce Shasta Lake, CA
I always suggest that you start crumpling up some old newspapers and use them to create your basic shape. Cover with masking tape, and then use either the traditional paper strips and paste or the new paper mache clay to finish. If you can wad up some paper and stick masking tape on it, you can make a tortoise (or anything else you like).