So I fell in love a long time ago with a product by Crayola; it's called Model Magic. A bit pricey, at least to miss sale-hunter here, but it's become one of my favorite sculpting mediums. I use it to make cat/fox ears to glue to headbands/hats/etc, crafting useful misc items or giving something a grip, etc, etc. It is water soluble, so don't get it wet unless it's on purpose for re-moistening the clay or something.
Anyways... aside from all that stuff, my bettafish Shark inspired a little art project that quickly developed into a new occasional-past time. I made my first bettafish sculpture;
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Here's some different angles and a scale-shot with a quarter. I gave the sculpture to Mama as a Christmas gift.
I painted him with acrylic paint, one of only two sculptures I painted. It's a pain in the but to paint them, since the wetness of the paint re-softens the clay enough to make it malleable to an extent I didn't want. The second fish (a crowntail red and black) I gave to a German foreign exchange student who came with a relative to a family gathering. I didn't get a picture... oh well ;P Hopefully she got it back without breaking!
My very favorite fish I made (colored with Copic markers, as all the fish are, now) I also didn't get a picture of, but it was a short-finned red and black betta. I think he may also have been flarring.... that, or the crowntail was flaring.
Here are the other fish I've done;
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This blue and white one was given to family in Ohio; it arrived unbroken *happy dance*
It was the only one to arrive unbroken *deflated happy dance* The two others that I shipped only had minor breaks, though.
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This one was suspended by thread in a glass fish bowl, and was another Christmas gift to a school friend. He's shown before I glued his pectoral fins on, as his bowl wasn't ready yet, and I had to lay him on his side to store him.
Unfortunately, the night before I was gifting him, I accidentally broke the bowl. I had to instead give him to my friend in a chinsey plastic container and let her know about the bowl, and that she'd probablly want to put it in something less... gross looking.
THIS ONE IS ONE OF MY FAVORITES:
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It was a gift for my sister (not blood-related sister, just sister-by-closeness-of-friendship ;P). I told her to find me a picture of a bettafish she liked, and she found one pictured in a similar pose to that which I sculpted. It was a shimmery, grayscaled fishy, but looked nothing like what I crafted for my sis.
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I went absolutely photo-happy with this guy. He's just so photogenic!
and just for fun, here's an unfinished drawing of a friend as a mermaid, inspired by my pleco named Pleco;
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I plan on selling the bettafish sculptures after I graduate from my Arts Highschool, and can open up an Etsy shop. I'm nervous about them being so fragile, but my recent edit to making them I think will help wonders; I bought a whole bunch of tiny glass fishbowls (which are not actually fish bowls, fishwater's forbid! Waaaaaaay too small!) in two different sizes from a dollarstore. I have three bettas-in-bowls made up now! One looks meh to me, since I rushed it too much (and I'm not overlly fond of pink, and this fish is a rosey-pink and deep peony red[which I do like]), one looks cute (the first one I did; a green and dark green fishy), and one looks gorgeous (a white and... sable? No, not sable. Uuuuhhhh, this grayish brown faint color? And a maize-yellow-color)
I do not have pictures yet of the bowl fish, but when I do, I will post!
Also, please note: I think keeping a fake bettafish in a cute little bowl is absolutely appropriate and acceptable. I despair over the fact some people keep living creatures in such small containers. A bettafish can survive in an unheated small cup or bowl, but they thrive and prosper in a properly maintained, heated tank. I personally think three gallons is the absolute minimum for one betta. Ten is perfect, anything more is absolutely supurb!
Anyways... aside from all that stuff, my bettafish Shark inspired a little art project that quickly developed into a new occasional-past time. I made my first bettafish sculpture;
I painted him with acrylic paint, one of only two sculptures I painted. It's a pain in the but to paint them, since the wetness of the paint re-softens the clay enough to make it malleable to an extent I didn't want. The second fish (a crowntail red and black) I gave to a German foreign exchange student who came with a relative to a family gathering. I didn't get a picture... oh well ;P Hopefully she got it back without breaking!
My very favorite fish I made (colored with Copic markers, as all the fish are, now) I also didn't get a picture of, but it was a short-finned red and black betta. I think he may also have been flarring.... that, or the crowntail was flaring.
Here are the other fish I've done;
This blue and white one was given to family in Ohio; it arrived unbroken *happy dance*
It was the only one to arrive unbroken *deflated happy dance* The two others that I shipped only had minor breaks, though.
This one was suspended by thread in a glass fish bowl, and was another Christmas gift to a school friend. He's shown before I glued his pectoral fins on, as his bowl wasn't ready yet, and I had to lay him on his side to store him.
Unfortunately, the night before I was gifting him, I accidentally broke the bowl. I had to instead give him to my friend in a chinsey plastic container and let her know about the bowl, and that she'd probablly want to put it in something less... gross looking.
THIS ONE IS ONE OF MY FAVORITES:
It was a gift for my sister (not blood-related sister, just sister-by-closeness-of-friendship ;P). I told her to find me a picture of a bettafish she liked, and she found one pictured in a similar pose to that which I sculpted. It was a shimmery, grayscaled fishy, but looked nothing like what I crafted for my sis.
I went absolutely photo-happy with this guy. He's just so photogenic!
and just for fun, here's an unfinished drawing of a friend as a mermaid, inspired by my pleco named Pleco;
I plan on selling the bettafish sculptures after I graduate from my Arts Highschool, and can open up an Etsy shop. I'm nervous about them being so fragile, but my recent edit to making them I think will help wonders; I bought a whole bunch of tiny glass fishbowls (which are not actually fish bowls, fishwater's forbid! Waaaaaaay too small!) in two different sizes from a dollarstore. I have three bettas-in-bowls made up now! One looks meh to me, since I rushed it too much (and I'm not overlly fond of pink, and this fish is a rosey-pink and deep peony red[which I do like]), one looks cute (the first one I did; a green and dark green fishy), and one looks gorgeous (a white and... sable? No, not sable. Uuuuhhhh, this grayish brown faint color? And a maize-yellow-color)
I do not have pictures yet of the bowl fish, but when I do, I will post!
Also, please note: I think keeping a fake bettafish in a cute little bowl is absolutely appropriate and acceptable. I despair over the fact some people keep living creatures in such small containers. A bettafish can survive in an unheated small cup or bowl, but they thrive and prosper in a properly maintained, heated tank. I personally think three gallons is the absolute minimum for one betta. Ten is perfect, anything more is absolutely supurb!
