Silly Bird

Before buckling down to Midsummer Scream prep, I spent a Sunday afternoon doing a little loosey goosey craft day.

I sketched out a little scene that popped into my head the night before.  It felt like a good candidate for paper mache.

I used some assorted spheres I had collected for the body shapes, a bit of aluminum wire for the neck and legs, old business cards for the nose and feathers, and a well used paint stick for the base.

 

It's been years since I did any actual paper mache (see Appendix B: "Chicken Mache"). I used to do water and flour, but I never liked that much.  I had some off brand white glue that I mixed with water and flour (for a little texture maybe?), and dipped my newspapers in that.  I used paper towel for the worm and dirt because it's a little softer.

I stuck that in front of a fan for a few minutes and it was ready to paint.

I tried to get a sort of iridescent quality to the bird by selectively drybrushing some green and purple.  Even if it doesn't read quite like that, I just didn't want it jet black.  You'll see it's all a little dark here, but the clear coat on top (polycrylic-- I've been nursing a gallon of that for several years now) makes all the colors pop.