Made by Linda Crawford
Finally finished “Barry” the squirrel. The armature was made from a round plastic sweet jar (cookie / candy jar), cardboard roll and garden wire. His head from aluminium foil. I then covered him in paper clay and he is painted with acrylic paint. I had to first spray paint his tail before finishing with a paint brush as it would have been impossible to get a paint brush in all the nooks and crannies. His tail is covered with approximately 3500 to 4000 tiny rolls of paper clay which was sooo time consuming and very boring at times but I think worth the effort in the end. It was the only way I could think of doing it to get the fullness in the tail that I wanted. I had to fix him to a mount as he is tail heavy but with his moss covered rock and a few strategically placed nuts he is now quite stable. Hope you like him!
Your squirrel is amazing, especially that tail. I can’t believe you made each of those “hairs” on his tail and attached them separately. WOW! It looks great and Barry has so much personality. Great job!
I love the commitment to that tail!
Reminds me of making the 2000+ suckers I made for a large octopus sculpture. I enjoyed having something “to do” with my hands during the summer’s never-ending Zoom meetings! 🙂
Lovely – I love his tail ….and the entirety of this guy!
Many thanks for your lovely comment. Yes, that tail! Once started, that was it, I had to ‘commit’ to finishing it. It took ages and ages and at times I wish I hadn’t started it but I am pleased that I stuck with it. I don’t think I will be doing any more animals with a bushy tail for a long time to come though!
Fantastic texture and brushwork, the hairs and ah! – the tail is stunning. He has personality too, he is not just any squirrel, great!
Thank you Marina. I used the same technique for the body fur as I did on my hare. One brush stroke at a time. I used five different shades of brown one on top of the other, one stroke at a time and then finished off with a burnt orange wash (or glaze as some call it). The wash ties all the layers together and is a must to finish it off. The chest hair again is layers of different coloured creams, greys and yellows finished with a pale brown wash to tie the colours together. I put clear nail varnish over his eyes to make them shine after I sprayed him with a satin finish varnish. So pleased you like him and thank you again.
Linda, you’re nuts! Barry won’t be needing those extra ones; he’s a chubby little cutie. I love him. I have two little plastic squirrels outside, and maybe they need something closer to this. Wonderful little guy and full of character.
I rolled about a hundred spikes and thought I was being heroic! I can’t count to 4,000, but they do work. His tail is amazing. Stellar. And I love your paint job. Barry is the best. Thank you very much.
Your acorns were a good foreshadowing of who was to come.
Thank you so much Rex. Coming from you, I take this as a great compliment. I love your work, you are an inspiration. Not sure what to do next, maybe it will be a pig who knows but it definitely won’t be anything with a bushy tail!
Thanks. I appreciate that you explained how you painted Barry. That is very interesting to me, and the paint looks great.
Yes, I always recommend a pig. Just don’t break off the tail like I always do.