Creating Whimsical Characters

"Gargoyle Drum Circle," S. Kay and Gerry Burnett Encaustic on paperclay, wood, wire, paper, gesso 10.5 x 18 x 18 in

S. Kay Burnett

Everyone loves a good story. This story begins with a studio visit. When the curator saw some sets I’d built for a digital project, she encouraged me to consider including a few sculptures in my upcoming solo exhibition.

I had a couple of gargoyle paintings in the exhibition and decided to create a few gargoyle sculptures. I asked my collaborator in art and life, Gerry, to work with me. He is my carpenter, photographer, videographer, and provocateur.

Early in the discovery stage, I met a very special gargoyle only 2 inches tall. Something about his mischievousness nature spoke to me, and the gargoyles took over. A couple of sculptures turned into a children’s picture book illustrated with multiple encaustic sculptures. A Gargoyle in Paris is the story of Dev, short for Tiny Little Devil. Gerry says he’s the Barbie of Gargoyles. Dev has everything.

I usually start my sculptures with a concept (a gargoyle chess set) or a story (Dev wants to sail a toy boat). Once I know the story or the character, I start doing rough sketches. How large is the character? Does it have wings? Is it painting or playing a musical instrument or riding a carousel?

When you have a clear image, you can start building the armature that provides the structure and stability for your materials. You can use any porous material (wood, cardboard, heavy paper) and/or wire mesh to support paper-clay sculptures.

This photo shows some of the supplies and materials I use – Elmer’s Wood Glue Max, unfinished wooden shapes, cardboard tubes, and wire mesh

You will also need tools for measuring and cutting wood, drilling holes, hammering nails, securing wood screws, applying wood glue, and holding parts together while they are drying.

You can download the Tools and Materials List for Armatures & Sculpting on my website. Be sure to read the guidelines about safety and best practices before you start building your armatures.

Now we are ready to look at some simple forms. The two winged gargoyles have complex armatures, each with a different style of wings.

The artist easel is made out of square chopsticks cut and glued together, and the canvas is an Ampersand Encausticbord trading card. The paintbrush is an ornate wooden toothpick covered in paper clay, and the artist pallet is card stock with a thin coat of paper clay applied to both sides.

The drums are cut cardboard tubes in various sizes with circles of wire mesh glued to the top. And the mallets are wood pegs.

Building Armatures

Drums are the perfect place to start. They are easy to build and sculpt. To build a drum:

To build a drum:

• Cut a piece of cardboard tube. • To make the drumhead, set the tube on a piece of wire mesh and use a permanent marker to trace a circle slightly larger than the tube.

• Use tin or multi-purpose snips to cut out the circle of wire mesh. • Wrap the circle around the opening on the tube and bend down the edges. Glue the bent edges to the tube and let it dry for 24 hours.

Simple characters:

You can use a small wooden figure form to sculpt chess piece size characters. For larger characters, you can buy 3 1/2 inch and 5 inch figure forms.

To build a stand:

• Use a hobby vise to secure the wooden form and drill a hole for a dowel stick in the bottom of the form. • Use a doweling kit or drill press to drill a hole the same size in the top of the stand. • Cut a dowel stick the length required to have the wooden form fit securely on the stand. • You can glue the dowel into the stand, but don’t glue the character onto the stand (or the dowel) until you have sculpted and painted it.

Complex characters:

Decide the size of your core body piece. Is it a square dowel or a round one? Is it thin or thick? How long is the body?

Next, determine the size of the limbs (legs, arms, wings, etc.) and how large they are in relationship to the body. Is the thigh larger than the calf? What’s the position of the leg (standing, sitting, crouching)? Is the leg inline with the base of the body or attached on the side of the body?

Now find and assemble the materials that fit your requirements. First, cut the body piece and limb pieces to your determined length. In the main body piece: • Drill a hole for the neck dowel.

• Drill a hole or use a round file to make a groove for the arms. • Drill a hole or use a round file to make a groove for the legs. If the arms and legs have multiple parts: • Use a round file to groove arms at the elbow and/or legs at the knee.

• Apply glue at the groove and use blue painters tape to hold the upper and lower limb together while the glue is drying. For larger size pieces, use small finishing nails or small wood screws in addition to the glue. • Place the limbs on clean wax paper, and let them dry for 24 hours.

Heads can be made with wooden beads, balls, knobs, or eggs.

• Before drilling a hole in the head piece, you need to determine the angle of the head in relationship to the neck. For round heads, this is simple to determine, but heads made from wooden eggs need to be matched to the final pose (is the chin down or up, the head looking forward or to the side, etc.).

• Once you’ve determined the angle, mark it on the form and use it as a guide when drilling the hole. • Use a hobby vise to secure the wooden head and drill a hole for the dowel stick neck.

• Glue the head to the neck and use painters tape to hold them together. When it is dry, you can glue the head to the body. If the character has wings:

• You need to determine the kind and size, develop a paper pattern, and cut and bend where required. • Don’t attach the wings until all parts are assembled, glued, and dry. • If the body form is large enough, you can tack the wings in place with a metal wood staple and then apply wood glue. • If the body form is too small to tack with a metal wood staple, use wire thread or thin wire and a push pin to secure the wings in place and then apply wood glue.

Designing wings:

Simple wings that are fairly flat are usually easy to design. Designing complex wings with special folds takes a lot of trial and error. To create these patterns: • Use printer paper to sketch one side of the wings, then fold it in half and cut out the pattern. • Fold one side of the wings to see if it looks the way you want and if they are scaled to the correct size.

You can download instructions for Designing Wings and examples of Simple Wing Patterns and Complex Wing Patterns on my website.

Sculpting with Paper Clay

I prefer the ease and consistency of Creative Paperclay®. It’s a water-based, air drying, modeling clay. It’s nontoxic, odorless, and easy to use. And it feels similar to clay, even though it doesn’t contain any clay. It can be sculpted, molded, or shaped while it's moist. When it dries, you can mist it with water and add moist clay to fix cracks or add additional details.

When the clay is dry, it’s very lightweight and durable. And it feels like a cross between paper and soft wood. It can even be carved or sanded after it’s hardened.

To set up a simple sculpting area:

• Cover a large cookie sheet with foil. Place a layer of wax paper on top of the foil. Change the wax paper as needed. • Put an inch of water in a glass jar with a lid (I use a jelly jar). Use the water for wetting and cleaning sculpting tools and the lid as a place to set your wooden sculpting tools and your clean up tool when you’re not using them. • Cut paper towels into small squares and rectangles and place within reach. Use to clean tools.

• Fill a spritzer bottle with water and use it to mist water on the paper clay to prevent it from drying out while you’re sculpting. • Wrap miscellaneous pieces of wood in wax paper and secure the wax paper with masking tape. You’ll use these for propping up delicate sculptures that need support while drying. • Disposable gloves - If you prefer to use bare hands, keep a bowl with a wet rag in it for cleaning your hands frequently. Be sure to let the glue dry for at least 24 hours before you start adding paper clay to your armature.

To sculpt drums:

• Cover the outside of the drum in a thin layer of paper clay. I use a piece of 1-inch round dowel to help flatten the clay on the underside of the drum head.

• I roll a long skinny piece of paper clay and wrap it around the head of the drum to make a rim. I use a damp wooden sculpting tool to form a seam on either side of the roll and then shape it.

Simple characters can usually be sculpted in a single setting.

To sculpt characters without wings:

• If the character has a stand, wrap it in wax paper secured with masking tape. Be sure to leave the dowel for holding the character exposed.

• Coat the armature in a thin layer of paper clay.

• Start fleshing out the character and adding details. I usually start with the body and limbs and use the head as a handle for holding the sculpture while working on the body. If the character has a base, you can use it to help hold the character when you are adding a tail (if your character has one) and sculpting the details of the head.

• Once the character is sculpted, let it dry completely. Once it is dry, you can touch up areas and add more detail by misting the dry areas with water and adding new wet paper clay.

Dev was sculpted on a small wooden figure-child form. I had to make sure there was enough room for the sculpted paintbrush and palette to fit in his hands.

If the sculpture has wings, be aware that the wet paper clay gets heavy and can tear the wings if they are not supported properly while sculpting and drying them. I always do these sculptures in phases, starting with a base coat.

To sculpt characters with wings:

• Coat the armature in a thin layer of paper clay. Be sure to apply the base coat to the wings last.

• For rounded wings, use paper tubes and/or pieces of round dowels wrapped in wax paper to prop up the wings and help them hold their shape until they are dry.

• For large wings, carefully lay the character on its back on top of some wax paper covered boards with the wings carefully positioned into place and don’t move it until the clay is dry.

• Once the clay is dry, the wings are frozen in place and quite sturdy. Now you can add all the detail work and the tail (if your character has one) by misting the dry areas with water and adding new wet paper clay.

Painting Paper Clay Sculptures

Be sure the clay is completely dry before painting it. You can paint your sculptures with any kind of paint that can be used on wood or paper. If you’re using water-based or oil paint to finish your sculptures, you should seal them with a coat of lacquer or varnish.

I always paint my paper clay sculptures with a single coat of R&F Encaustic Gesso before painting them with encaustic medium. Painting drums are like painting on a smooth gessoed surface with curves. You can use mixed media and many of the methods, techniques and tools you use for doing encaustic painting.

Many of the drums in the Gargoyle Drum Circle are inspired by paintings in Emails from Paris with patterns created in Photoshop. I printed two copies of the pattern to scale on card stock and used one as reference and the other as a guide for sketching the pattern on the “canvas” with watercolor pencils.

Painting small characters with lots of delicate details adds a new set of challenges.

Before painting, secure the sculpture in a way that will allow for steady heat on the sculpture while continually adding and thinning the paint. Most of my sculptures have holes drilled in the bottom. This makes it easy to secure the finished sculpture on a stand with a dowel stick.

I build paint stands with extra long dowels to hold the sculpture. I use large wooden blocks to hold the stand in place. I usually wrap the stand and wooden blocks in wax paper secured with masking tape to protect them from wax drippings. I hold the heat gun with one hand and apply the wax with the other. I’ve found that an Enkaustikos 1/2 inch Angled Hog Bristle Encaustic Brush works best for me.

I keep the heat gun set on low air flow and medium heat. Since most of my sculptures replicate stone, I’m using a very diluted white glaze for my base coat. The goal is a very thin coat on all the surfaces, including the grooves and delicate details. For the feet and underneath the bottom edge of the wings, I take the post out of the base and hold it while I apply the wax glaze to the hard to reach areas.

I then place the sculpture back on the base and use the heat gun and stiff brush to remove any excess wax.

I use a 1-inch Chip Brush for stippling small amounts of color to selected areas. To apply a color, I dip the end of the brush in the tin, run the tip of the brush against the edge of the tin to remove any excess, and then gently dot the tip of the brush on the sculpture. It should just leave small scattered dots of color, not large blobs or splashes.

You can use a heat gun set on low air flow and medium heat to lightly fuse the wax. Or you can use a heated tool with a horn tip (my preferred tool) set on a low setting.

I use a small paint brush to enhance the details.

Splash and Dev Painting, S. Kay and Gerry Burnett Encaustic on paperclay, wood, wire, paper, gesso 7.25 x 12 x 6 in

Now it’s time to tell your own story. Will it include gargoyles, animals, or other fanciful figures? I hope this process provides unlimited ways to expand your imaginary world and your creative repertoire.

About the Author

S. Kay Burnett worked in the computer industry for 34 years. During that time, she worked as a scientific programmer, developed interactive software for children, and wrote online documentation. She’s published and presented scientific papers, been a guest artist at the CSU Summer Arts program teaching interactive creative writing, and taught several interactive multimedia workshops.

In 2013, Kay began pursuing her love of art and creative writing fulltime. She’s the author and illustrator for Emails From Paris, a digital memoir/art book that includes over 30 encaustic illustrations and co-author and illustrator of A Gargoyle in Paris, a children’s picture book illustrated with encaustic sculptures. The original artwork in both of these books was featured in her solo exhibition of encaustic paintings and sculptures at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art.

You can view Kay’s work at www.southofharmony.com www.instagram.com/southofharmony www.facebook.com/s.kay.burnett

You can download a list of tools, materials, and wing patterns at southofharmony.com/news

S. Kay Burnett

All rights for the artwork in this article are reserved by the artist.