Dianeville

Felted Small Dog makes his Debut

I am sincerely embarrassed. Months have elapsed with no word on the felted model of Small Dog. Maybe the gorgeous winter weather in Florida kept me outside in the garden rather than adding to this blog. But really the reason is that I abandoned using the felted model as an actual model. I think he turned out cute and of course he moves and holds his poses for an unlimited amount of time. But I found a different approach to character development (which I will share soon) that does not use felted models. So for now, this Small Dog toy sits nexts to my Mac and nudges gently.

Small Dog continues to develop

Okay, okay, okay, I know I have been extremely negligent in posting to Dianeville. But just because I didn't post for these last several months, don't assume that Small Dog has been idile. He has grown a lot of fur and a nose! I sculpted the nose around a baby hook button. Then I painted and varnished it so that it would look wet. Small Dog also has a mouth (which of course moves). His little black eyes are getting covered up with fur just like he wants. He enjoys browsing the pages of the AKC breed identification book to show me the look he hopes I can create. He seems to have a fondness for the Dandie Dinmont and the Norfolk Terrier.

Personally, I feel the fur treatment is taking far too long. I am anxious to get drawing. And yet, Small Dog keeps reassuring me that my diligence and patience will pay off in the long run. Somewhere in my past I read this quote, "Do not tarry, do not rush." I don't know who said it, but I often live my creative life with this philosophy. I feel that if an artist rushes, then details get missed and the glorious contemplation from studying an image gets lost as well. So I slow down and work steadily. My relationship with Small Dog deepens.

 

Small Dog's fur is taking a lot longer than I thought it would. I suppose I could run over to the yarn shop and get a different yarn, one a lot thicker and therefore faster to complete. But, I am about half way done now and so I will finish with this yarn.

Good things happened with my illustration career, and I sort of neglected my little dog character. Luckily he does not harbor any sad feelings. I got accepted into 2 illustration annuals and created a winter scene for a DVD Christmas Music package. That was so much fun, working on snow in South Florida in April. I also continue to prepare detailed lessons on the tools and tricks of Adobe Illustrator for all my students at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. Are these excuses for leaving my small dog alone for so long?

He still needs a nose. I know I can sculpt one out of the Apoxie Clay (LOVE this stuff, so much better than polymer clay). I am just a little unsure how to attach the nose once I sculpt it.

My real small dog, Kennedy, gave us a scare. A couple weeks ago he lost the use of his hind legs. He was in extreme pain. The vet diagnosed a herniated disc and assigned total bed rest. After two weeks, Kennedy is almost back to normal. He wags and plays again, but climbing even one step is an effort.

I hope to never go through a night like the one we did before he was diagnosed. Kennedy is so much a part of my heart. He is the inspiration for Small Dog (sort of). My felted dog and Kennedy don't look that much alike, especially since Kennedy is a spaniel and Small Dog is a schnauzer type. But when we adopted Kennedy, Andy kept calling him Small Dog and asking him why he was so small? Not that Kennedy is that small at 35 pounds, but if you are used to labs and retrievers then I guess a spaniel is small.

Small Dog, why are you so small?

Now that the holidays are over and the exhibit I curated, The Storymaker's Art, is also over, I have time! I have delicious, scrumptious time to draw and work on the felted Small Dog. Putting on an exhibit with 60 artworks is a lot of work. I promise to not do that again. I promise to give my all to Small Dog.

As you can see in the photo, Small Dog is "growing" fur. Each strand is hand stitched. I love the way it looks and he will be an awesome model for my story.

Ears sure make a difference

I added some ears to the little guy and it is amazing how that one small addition can do so much. I need to add the fur, but can't decide whether to go purchase a special fiber or to untwist the one I have. Untwisting the yarn I have looks great, it's just time consuming. Of course with my budget being what it is at the moment, purchasing more fiber is not an option. Answered my own question didn't I.

So, as I watch The Amazing Race tonight I'll untwist fibers. There is no rush anyway. Each step of Small Dog's creation is a moment of bliss, so lingering over the feel of fiber is glorious.

I think his ankles are too thick though. I'll try to carve away some of the Apoxy Clay to help Small Dog get rid of his cankles.

And now for the felted wool...

I took a deep, deep breath and started felting on top of the armature. Why the deep, deep breath? Because I want this to work so much. I love the story and I want Small Dog to stay with me for a good long time. Since writing the story, I have come up with an entire series of Small Dog episodes. I also hope that once I learn Flash Catalyst that I can animate Small Dog (and of course his best friend Chimp).

Anyway, back to the felting. It is amazing how fast the felting process is (theraputic too). This part of the felting is the underlying "skin". Just like Triscuit, I plan on adding fiber as fur once the basic shapes and forms are set.  Don't be too alarmed that Small Dog has no ears, eyes or nose yet. He will.

I'm falling in love again! Don' you just love the subtle shadows and texture.

Small Dog gets his "Bones"

Once the metal armature was completed, I experimented with Epoxy Sculpt and Epoxy Clay, both come from Aves Studio, LLC. I ended up liking Epoxy Clay better than the Epoxy Sculpt because it really feels like polymer clay (good ole Sculpey), BUT you do not have to bake it!!!! The Epoxy Clay has a work up time of about 2 hours, which is plenty long enough for making "bones." What I really wanted to do with the Epoxy Clay was to bulk up some areas like the hips and skull; and also to protect the ball-bearing joints from the wool fibers to come. Small Dog looks a little freaky at the moment, but once the needle-felting is applied I think that he starts to take on a personality.

Small Dog's Progress

Many people have asked me how Small Dog is coming along. I was a bit nervous trying out my new stop-motion armature and the Epoxy-Clay. Now I can gladly report that I think the little guy is going to work out nicely. I ordered a "Dog" set from the Armaverse people. Yes, it was expensive, but well worth every penny. Each joint moves and stays in position perfectly. Take a look at the "skeleton" of Small Dog.

Wait stop

After having completed the armature for Small Dog, a friend of mine mentioned that stop motion animation uses armatures with complete articulation. So I did what I always do, I hopped on to Google and searched. I found an amazing site that sells pre-made fully articulating armatures, http://www.armaverse.com/. And, they just came out with dog armatures. So, I placed an order and now I am waiting impatiently for my new Small Dog armature to arrive. I will have to build it. I think this will be sort of like an amazing erector set!

On another stop motion site I learned about Apoxie Clay instead of using sculpey. I'll order some of that too, so that I can build up the muscles without having to bake my critter, like we must with polymer clay. I don't know if it will work or not, but I am very excited to experiment. I plan to felt the wool and "fur" on top of the Apoxie Clay. Cross your fingers.

Small Dog Begins

I know it has been a really long time since I last posted. Here is my excuse. I started teaching for both The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and The Art Institute of Pittsburgh/Online Division in January, 2010. Each quarter I have new preps and lots of new things to attend to. Now that there is some sort of normalcy to my life again, I plan on posting more often. I sure missed Dianeville.

Triscuit was a great beginning to a model, but with his armature wire he could bend too much. Triscuit could bend in ways no normal dog could. I set out in search of way to build an armature for Small Dog that allowed movement but also stopped certain impossible gestures. I know it looks sort of weird, but I decided to use simple materials that were easy to find. Small balsa wood pieces glued together with good old Elmer's glue, and the smallest hinges I could find made the basic structure. Then for his spine I took small plastic beads and threaded the armature wire through them. The beads sort of give the spine more stability and yet lots of supple movement. For Small Dog I wanted his mouth to move, so I sculpted the skull and jaw bone out of Sculpey. The whole thing is held together with a combination of Liquid Nails, Auto/Plumbing Epoxy and framer's tape. As odd as this little skeleton looks, it really works. I have a fully articulating armature for Small Dog.