The Stooge Troll sculptures are all finished and delivered to be shown at the Pekin Days Art Show. Really happy how they turned out. Lot of fun to work on.
Larry – final paint, hair and tail added, and a few feathers in his teeth:
One thing that I didn’t go into in my previous posts was the hair work. I usually add fake hair for my troll sculptures. But for these three troll sculptures I wanted to do something different. My uncle sent us some feathers that he took from some wild turkeys that he hunted. Something I did not know about wild turkeys is that the toms (males) have beards! Not from their beaks of course, but from their breast.
Photo (via R.G. Bernier):
I had no idea about this, but there it was mixed in with the feathers that he sent us. It really is a big thick mass of long thick ‘hairs.’ I imagine it’s similar to the feathers in what it’s made of but I’ll leave that to the bird experts.
What I ended up doing was taking a thick beard hair and punching holes in the unbaked clay. That way when it was baked, I could then re-insert the hairs into the sculpture and glue them into each hole permanently.
It worked for the most part. Some of the holes got a little filled up when I painted it. I took some toothpicks and cleared them out. Time consuming, but it all worked out in the end.
And here are a few shots of Larry all finished:
Next up is Moe. Here’s his final paint, hair done (he had the most and it was time consuming to get them all in there!), and tail added:
I really like this painting technique that I came up with utilizing just a paper towel. I used it with many layers of thin acrylic paint and it gives me exactly the effect I was looking for:
Moe finished with his leather shorts and straps added:
Curly’s final paint with hair and tail as well:
And here’s the adorable fellow with his sagging leather shorts falling down:
Gotta hold ’em up!:
I had a blast working on these guys! They all turned out even better than I thought they would. It all flowed just right from start to finish. All three (as well as my 10 troll magnets) will be on display at the Pekin Days Art Show starting tonight at the Artist’s Reception. Public viewing starts tomorrow through Sunday. If you’re in the area and you get a chance to come by, please do! There really is a ton to see. Not just the gallery, but all the outdoor artists and demonstrations. Also music and food and more!
Josh Hagen 