Available now in my Etsy shop!

This beautiful Dragon Snail was born blind. No need to pity him, though…. He more than makes up for his lack of sight through his other senses, and “sees” the world more completely than you or I do with our eyes wide open. His curved horns and shell help funnel sound vibrations, and his tongue and other organs give him a plethora of sensory information. He is renowned among his fellow Dragon Snails for being a cunning and efficient hunter.

First Sight is #16 in my Dragon Snail™ series. He is 4″ (~10 cm) long and 2.5″ (~6 cm) tall. His eyes are white tiger’s eye beads, and he is painted in several layers with Genesis Heat Set Artist Oils.

Polymer clay and real seashell.

He’s available now in my Etsy shop!  You can see more pictures of him at my gallery site.

In other news, I picked up “Mean Old Goat” and “Candy is Dandy” from the exhibit!  It felt a bit like a mom picking her kids up from camp.  I missed them.    The Mean Old Goat is ready for a new home though — she’s available in my Etsy shop now.

Candy is Dandy will take a bit longer to get into my shop. I learned something new this week! Acrylic paint is like a dust magnet, and it doesn’t let go easily. Since it was sitting on a pedestal out in the open for six months, it got pretty well dustified, so I will need to take care of that before I list it for sale. Nothing got broken though! I am relieved. I was terrified that little hands might not be able to resist. (EDIT: Candy is Dandy is cleaned up good as new, and in my Etsy shop!)

I heard from more than one person that Candy is Dandy reminds them of Dr. Suess. This makes me happy.

I got the above question today, and I’ve gotten it a few times before about my painted critters. So I figured, hey, what’s a blog for, anyway? My latest finished piece being the Dragon Snail Kinoko, my answer is specifically in reference to him.

OOAK polymer clay sculpture, Dragon Snail Kinoko, by Erin 'Eirewolf' Metcalf.

I think the difference in the way I paint is that I do it in several layers. I don’t try to get all the color on in one or two layers. When I look at my own skin, I see that it’s made up of several colors, with some translucence between. I can see blue-green veins in my hand, for instance, because my skin is translucent. It isn’t just one solid color, even besides the veins. The palm of my hand has some pink, some yellow, some almost-brown, some nearly white, and then some blue-green where the veins are.

In the case of my critters, I usually lay down a base color first. For Kinoko, that was the salmony-orange color. Then I’ll do a few translucent layers over that, usually with similar but slightly different colors. Often I will not do a solid layer, but I’ll do sort of a dry-brush technique with small amounts of paint, not in long strokes but almost like stippling or dabbing randomly with the brush. That gives the sort of mottled look that creates believable flesh tones (for my critters).

The yellow spots were painted in a more solid color, to mimic the spots on the shell. Not much translucence there. I added translucence to that color for the brow region.

As for the midnight blue on his “foot,” that color is opaque up until it blends into the orange. Translucence was added for the blending, the throat, the beak, the horns, the crown, and around the eyes. I wanted a softer look there.

By the way, this piece was painted with Genesis Heat Set “oils.” These paints remain workable until you heat them. The technique would (in practice) be slightly different with acrylics, but functionally it’s very similar. For some examples, Mightier Than the Sword, Stormdancer, and Candy is Dandy were all painted with acrylics. The Wizard’s Foundling was painted with Genesis.

I hope I’ve explained it clearly enough. If not, please do ask specific questions and I will try to clarify!