Advanced Surgery Step-By-Step Pokemon Clay Figures

What I love about being creative is that even when you think you've made an absolute mess of a piece you can always try to remedy it and adapt your work without having to scrap the whole thing. 

I've recently begun sculpting using polymer clay. Not being familiar with this medium I've had to learn a lot through trial and error. This journal is about challenges I faced while making two tiny clay figurines and how I tried to fix the issues.

This is about the Pikachu   & Snorlax  figurines I made; I encountered problems pre-baking and post-baking which I needed to remedy. Pikachu presented not looking quite like himself at all :bademoticon: and needed a full facial reconstruction while Snorlax (more so his new owner!) felt his mouth was too big and wanted lip reduction :bademoticon: 

Pikachu

It took me a good few days before I could actually start on:bademoticon:; I found his shape difficult to define so that delayed me. But eventually I started off shaping, molding and adding clay and before I knew it I had a Pika shaped figure. Although he was obviously a Pikachu I really wasn't happy with him, his face in particular. I mean where do I start with him! Just look at him below - his lack of chin; dull eyes; weak cheeks and small spots   I was so close to squishing him but I thought "hey it's late, maybe it'll look better in the morning". Morning arrived and surprise surprise he looked the very same!

                                                 

My plan of action was A) Bake him and be forever reminded of how he'll never look right. B) Squish him and delete the photos of him. Or C) Take hold of the scalpel and clay and be brave!

I picked the latter; I built up some new layers on the cheeks and chin and then thought "man wouldn't a tongue be cool!". I got the scalpel and formed the open mouth. And I then added thumbs to resemble the Naah Naah Naah funny face gesture  You can see how things worked out below. I know he doesn't look exactly like the real Pika, I can see a hundred and one different things wrong with him, but I'm learning and actually like the character in his face. I'm pleased I tried again and didn't give up 

Snorlax

I was requested to make a:bademoticon: figurine in what ever pose I felt would be suitable. So I thought - arms outstretched, mouth open wide while snoring would be fun. I made him and baked him but when I showed his new owner they weren't too keen on his expression. They felt the mouth protruded too much. In hindsight I should have cut out an area for the mouth and added the red clay. This would have meant the mouth opening would have been flush with the skin. However I added the layers of red to the surface and so the mouth piece stuck out . I was told it looked like a stoma ... I had to look that word up ... and it's pretty gross  so I had no choice but to fix it or make a new Snorlax! 


I had already baked Snorlax so my plan was to take the mouth off and add a new one. It was tough but I managed to pry the mouth piece off. I was hoping I wouldn't take his whole head off  so I was relieved to see his noggin still intact. But there was some red clay remaining on the skin, it was so tiny I couldn't scrap it off. 


I coated his face with a thin layers of clay until no red could be seen :bademoticon:


Then I made the new mouth and fangs and hey presto Snorlax no longer looked pained! Also during the process I inadvertently broke one of his claws off  No real panic - it was easily fixed with an extra bit of skin coloured clay and a new claw.

And here is Snorlax old and new compared:


Funny thing was even though the new owner was really happy with new Snorlax they actually had a change of heart about the first mouth and thought that it was actually good in retrospect ...  Oh well! 

Moral of the Story

Even if it looks wrong - don't be too quick to scrap it - take a break, persevere and you just might surprise yourself!