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This polar bear is a small sculpture, about 6″ high and 11″ long. I used a very thin wash of pearl white acrylic paint to give it a soft sheen. The project used the basic techniques shown in the lop-eared bunny sculpture. I did not use a cardboard pattern, as I did for the panda bear sculpture or the echidna.
My learning goal for this series of sculptures is to loosen up a little. I’m trying to do that by working from quick sketches instead of using photos for my models. With the polar bear I wanted to emphasize the forward slant of his back and the sense of him being on the prowl, which is shown by his raised front paw. I’m not sure I succeeded, but the project was fun.
I also spent some time in the last few weeks playing around with clay, to remind myself that spontaneity is fun. The paper mache process sometimes requires so much time between each step that it’s easy for me to forget the “fun” part. Whenever that happens, I feel it’s time to reconnect with that aspect of my art.
This has been a very hot week here in Eastern Oregon. I had to move some of my work from the front porch to the back deck. Before the move I was cutting into my early morning reading time and rushing into my studio to get work done before the sun’s heat drove me out, usually before 8am. In the photo above you can see the five animal sculptures that are now in process.
I also made a few changes to this blog. I noticed that many of the paper mache tutorials are old enough that they were falling out of the “recent posts” section in the sidebar. To make it easier for you to find the tutorial you’re looking for, or to just “shop around,” I put together a separate tutorial page, which you can reach from the links at the top of each post. Now you can just find the image of an animal sculpture you’d like to try, click on it, and go directly to that tutorial.
I’ll soon be putting together a gallery page to show the animal sculptures that are available for sale. My small house is quickly running out of room, and the materials are beginning to be expensive. (Relatively expensive, of course. Compared to other sculptural media, paper mache is very inexpensive.) My bulldog-type pound pooch I’m now working on, for instance, used up more than $5 worth of masking tape – and the Australian shepherd behind him in the photo above needed even more. I also bought some roll-ends of newsprint so I’d always have materials to work on without raiding the local want-ad paper stand. And I purchased some new paints online (why are art supplies so dang expensive?).
So – if I want to keep making these critters, I need to find new homes for some of them. If you’re interested in owning one of these sculptures instead of making one yourself, watch for the new gallery page, coming in the next few days.
I like the works here
I too am a paper mache sculptor
Watch my videos on YouTube at https://youtu.be/_AiI_l4zeK4
Hello, Namanya. Your Kebisoni Cow sculpture is beautiful. Do you have any tips for other people who would like to make a large sculpture like yours? Also, you might want to repost your comment on the Daily Sculptors page, because many more people would see it. There’s a link to it at the top of the blog. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and passion for paper mache! You are a gifted artist and I can only hope to get to your level at some point.
Hi Jenn. Thanks for you kind comments. 🙂
Im a beginner….doing bits and bobs for school events and bowls for parties .. ..just believing i can do anything once i put my mind to it. Its so versatile.
That’s so true – do you have any photos of the work you’ve done, so we can see?
wow, que bonito!! ¿tienes peces?
silvia
Hi Silvia. There’s a fish in my book How to Make Animal Sculptures with Paper Mache Clay. I don’t think we have any tutorials on the site for fish…
I made these masks for a local production of the Lion King made from Paper mache and plaster. I’ve never tried this before. It was a learning experience. I’m interested in sculpting classes now because of it.
Hi Laketa. If you tried to upload an image, it didn’t work. There’s a size limit for the file, so please edit your photo and try again. We really want to see those masks!
I tried to upload from my phone but it didn’t work. Here are three of the hyena masks and I have a mufasa mask that I will upload later.
It still didn’t work. Have you edited the images to make the file sizes smaller? They need to be under 250 kb. I don’t have a fancy system like Facebook that will shrink them automatically.
Okay. I think these should work
one more
I love your sculptures, I started using paper around 3 years ago. I never looked up recipes, just started forming a clay from shredded paper, water ,flour. I sculpt on a huge scale. Thanks for all the hard work.
I tried to leave a picture but couldn’t, not sure why!
Hi Kimberly. Your picture was probably too big. You can make it smaller with this tool: http://www.picresize.com/#
Thank you, I did and I posted a photo of my life size horse.
Here is one of my horses.
Hi Kimberly. Your horse is amazing. It looks really heavy – how will you display it?
I plan to have it on a Rolling platform, we joke that I need a horse trailer to move it, but it likely will have to be moved by one.
Since you like large sculptures, I think you’d love Monique Robert’s book. She does large paper mache pieces that are installed on walls or hung from the ceiling, so they have to be really light. I should have used her techniques when I made my dragon, in fact. It would have been so much easier to move around.
I like the idea of a rolling platform. Would the ones made for large planters work?
As a sculpturer and potter I think you animals are great. I am glad to see someone other than myself using mache’
I am trying to get more people involved with this type of art since schools in my area are cutting more and more art out.
Great ideas
Thank you
Thanks for your comments. I’d love to see your artwork. Do you display images online so we could take a look? I’m always happy to find other paper mache sculptors.
The polar bear is great! You captured his cuddly ferocity perfectly. I must admit though, that I am intrigued by the bulldog in progress I can’t wait to see the finished sculpture!
ADORABLE… comme d’habitude une réussite… et quel travail, quelle patience..Merci encore de nous faire partager tout cela… et sorry I don’t speak english to say you BRAVO.
Marie de Nice en France