I've been subscribing to this feed for quite a while and love your creatures. I was wondering if you would answer a couple of techincal question: how do you keep the white you use for the eyes so white? I have never had any luck with polyclay or fimo. The white tends to end up brown after it has been in the oven!And how do you keep the colours so clear after mixing them up? They are so bright.
Have you checked the calibration of your oven temperature? If your whites are turning brown and the colors are getting dull, it sounds like they're cooking too hot. You can try getting a cheap oven thermometer to make sure the temperature setting is accurate (I once had an oven that would be off by as much as 100 degrees!).
I use a dedicated toaster oven for the feeps: it gets up to temperature rapidly and doesn't have as much hot spot variation as a big oven.
I use Premo, which is a bit oilier than Sculpey or Fimo, so I think that accounts for some of the brightness of the colors. Also, I don't ever mix them too much, just enough to get a marble effect. Or, for stripes, I twist two colors together but don't really mix them, so they mostly stay separate (this only works if both clays are the same consistency; if one is particularly harder or softer they won't mesh together well for stripes).
I'm a cartoonist and a sculptor. The cartoons are generally aimed at adults and tend to be Not For Everyone. The sculpts are my Feeping Creatures monster figurines and art, and are suitable for all ages. I do a lot of scfi-fi/comic conventions and art fairs where I sell the Feeps as part of my ongoing effort to increase the number of monsters in people's homes and offices.
I come up with the captions for these photos first thing in the morning, when I'm still half asleep. If they seem a little surreal sometimes that's probably why. You are more than welcome to comment with your own caption ideas.
2 comments:
I've been subscribing to this feed for quite a while and love your creatures. I was wondering if you would answer a couple of techincal question: how do you keep the white you use for the eyes so white? I have never had any luck with polyclay or fimo. The white tends to end up brown after it has been in the oven!And how do you keep the colours so clear after mixing them up? They are so bright.
Thank you! I'm glad you like my monsters.
Have you checked the calibration of your oven temperature? If your whites are turning brown and the colors are getting dull, it sounds like they're cooking too hot. You can try getting a cheap oven thermometer to make sure the temperature setting is accurate (I once had an oven that would be off by as much as 100 degrees!).
I use a dedicated toaster oven for the feeps: it gets up to temperature rapidly and doesn't have as much hot spot variation as a big oven.
I use Premo, which is a bit oilier than Sculpey or Fimo, so I think that accounts for some of the brightness of the colors. Also, I don't ever mix them too much, just enough to get a marble effect. Or, for stripes, I twist two colors together but don't really mix them, so they mostly stay separate (this only works if both clays are the same consistency; if one is particularly harder or softer they won't mesh together well for stripes).
Post a Comment