Paper Mâché Owl Project Completed - Final Photos

It has been a long journey.  I started this project in January of this year.  I don't keep track of the hours spent because it feel as if it would be discouraging.  However, based on the date, I would estimate that all in all it took about ninety hours.  I tried to find time to work on it at least two to three hours each week.  There may have been a couple of weeks I missed due to travel; and some that I worked more than three hours, so this is my best guess.  

Below is a brief synopsis of how the owl was made, but I suggest that you go to my blog and read the individual posts if you plan to attempt this project or to view my other projects.  folkartbycaroljones.blogspot.com

I started this project with a basic curved template I drew to make a silhouette image of the side of the bird.  From there I cut out heavy corrugated cardboard pieces to create the sides, back, breast, and underbelly.  The cardboard pieces are held together by tape.  I stuffed the inside with paper just to make sure it had enough bulk inside to keep the body from shifting or collapsing under its weight.

Tape was used to cover the entire body as a waterproofing measure.  After that, the carcass was covered in a product called Press and Seal to further waterproof the cardboard.  (I have had an unfortunate cardboard project fail once when using cardboard, so I tend to go overboard on waterproofing now.)  Then another layer of tape for good measure.  

After the body was made, I added the head, which was created separately.  It took a fair amount of folding and slicing of the cardboard to make the neck fit into the body cavity.  The head began as a ball of aluminum foil.  There is also some aluminum foil in the beak.

Other than foil, the only other metal in the bird is wire used to shape the legs, feet, and talons.  The owl appears to be strutting.  I was having trouble getting the owl to balance on its feet.  I had not planned on making it strut, that is just how it worked out in the end.  Sometimes you have to know when to let the project tell you what it needs.  

Each feather was drawn and cut out individually.  I used a thinner cardboard for the feathers, but it was to heavy to cut out more than one feather at a time. The weight was about the weight of the type of cardboard that comes sometimes when purchasing shirts or poster board.  Each feather was glued to the owl individually.   Most of the time I used tweezers to hold onto the feather while I added hot glue to the back and placed it on the bird.

Finally, I arrived at the painting part of the project.  Hours and hours of painting.  Two coats of gesso were used to give a solid white for painting and priming.  Then I had a couple of painting missteps.  I started to paint the breast, belly, and tailfeathers first to figure out my painting method during a marathon painting session.  Unfortunately, I did not take a step back and look at the work.  If I had, I would have realized that it looked too uniform.   I started over again and mixed a lot of color that I hoped would give me a medium brown.  However, overnight it dried to an almost olive green.  So I had to start once again.  

At least I learned from my mistakes.  This time I mixed on the pallet instead of trying to make a more uniform color.  I was using burnt umber, ultramarine blue and white to make a gray for the background.  The next step was to try to imitate an owl's coloring by tapping on blotches of paint.  Some of the blotches are dark, mixed from burnt umber and ultramarine blue.  Other blotches are a lighter color made my mixing white gesso (titanium white looked to chalky.) and raw sienna.  Since the colors were not always mixed at the same value, they give an overall impression of light and shadow.  After all, the main purpose of the owl's coloring is to give it camouflage.   

The eyes were reverse painted on glass cabochons.  It took a couple of sets of eyes to paint some that I liked.  Patience has been a virtue on this project.  

Why did I start this project? Believe me, it took so long I was
asking this myself quite frequently towards the end of it.  Actually, there were multiple reasons.  Primarily, I was tired of making paper  mâché pumpkins and needed a change.  (Check my blog for those posts.) 

I used inexpensive home decorating glass pieces rather than the more expensive scrap booking cabochons.  They are not quite as regular in shape or size, so some care needs to be taken to make sure that they pieces match.  Other than that, they were fine. 

Another part is that I wanted to challenge myself with a complicated project.  A third aspect is that an owl is a Halloween type project, so I stayed within my comfort zone while trying something completely different.  And finally, I look at the wonderful, beautiful, diverse wildlife that inhabits our planet.  I try to reproduce what the owl looks like just to give the viewer a moment to ponder just what an amazing creature an owl really is.  People are always so busy, that most of the time that they forget to stop and look at the wild life around them.  If this sculpture can get them to think about what else is in the world if only for a moment; all this                        work was worth it. 

Paper Mâché Owl - Part 22 - Painting Continued

I tried to get this last coat of paint on the owl, but only partially succeeded.  I have one side, the back, and a portion of the front painted.  It takes a long time to paint each of those feathers individually.  I have to stop every so often and change focal points.  But I am thinking that I am closing in on finishing this project.  

The final coat of paint is a mixture of white gesso and raw sienna.  I used gesso rather than titanium white because the titanium white tends to make the white look chalky.  The gesso still has some chalkiness to it, but not nearly as badly as the titanium.  

The head came out a little lighter than I would have liked.  I may have to go back in and add some browner tones to it.  When I look at it up close I can see that it just looks a little muddy. The head is supposed to be a little lighter than the body, but this time I think I made it a little too light.

I still have to paint the face, white collar, and talons.  That will be the end of this project.  I will show my final pictures on this post hopefully next week.  

Overall, I am pleased with how this project is coming together.

Check back late next Tuesday.  I usually try to get the post up by early morning, but lately my schedule has not been working well with this.  I hope to do better with the upcoming post.  Apologies to those who have checked early on Tuesday mornings.

Paper Mâché Owl - Part 21 - Getting Closer to Finishing the Paint

The owl is still a work in progress.  The initial underpainting came out a little more of an olive green rather than an olive brown, so I had to paint over that with a second coat of paint.  The body is painted, but I have not had time to work on the face area yet.  However, I am much happier with this layer of paint.  

The new color is a smoke gray.  I worked it into the feathers; leaving the previous dark spots.  The gray took away some of the hard edges from the dark paint.  This color has a nice camouflage effect to it.  The dark patterns make a great background for the next layer of paint.  

I am still working on bringing up the color.  The next layer will be spots of dark brown paint, probably burnt umber.  After that, there will be a layer of off white paint, probably a mixture of white an raw sienna.  I have not settled on that last color yet.  I will have to experiment to see which color combination looks best.  

It begs the question of how many coats of paint I plan to add to the bird.  Once the white paint is finished, I will start the final painting of the face, throat, and talons.  The face and the white feathers at the throat look a little chalky.  I had initially used titanium white.  It just did not look as I wanted so I brushed over it with some raw sienna.  It looked better, but still chalky.  I plan on using a different white on the next attempt.

I think it will be one or two more weeks before the project is finished.  I am looking forward to its completion.  I have spent seven months on this project so far.   

 

Paper Mâché Owl -Part 20 - Underpainting Completed

The holiday has passed and I have finished the underpainting.  We are having some really hot weather here and it has been conducive to staying inside.  Earlier this week we had temperatures at or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit with heat indexes sometimes going as high as 110 degrees.  It has been pretty miserable outside.

So, I have been working for hours to try to get the underpainting finished.  Some of it came out as I liked and some did not.  I mixed up a lot of paint, because I wanted the color to be consistent over the while body of the owl.  I knew that it was going to take multiple days to paint the owl because it takes a long time to paint each individual feather.  I worked and worked to try to get the color I wanted for the painting.  I used the better part of three tubes of paint trying to blend the paint to get the color to come out a brownish color.  It looked right when I first mixed it, although I expected it to dry darker.  When dry the color came out a brownish-olive color.  Not exactly what I was hoping for.  However, it is only the underpainting.  There is going to be another layer or two of paint on it before it is finished.  At least it looks a little more like an owl now.  

I have already started on the next paint layer, but do not have any photos of it yet.  I actually hope to have the owl finished by time for the next blog post on Tuesday, July 16th. 

Paper Mâché Owl - Part 19 Painting Progress

I have not posted in a couple of weeks.  I apologize to my regular viewers.   We had family visit, took a trip, and an elder care issue and it had me tied up for quite a while.  Today, I am still trying to catch up after all of that.  However, I did manage to do a little painting on the back of the owl.  

The painting on the back is not finished.  It only has the initial coat of dark color on it.  I will be painting in a yellowish/brownish gray to fill in the white areas of the back and head.  

The paining on the front of the owl does not match the back at this point.  Earlier posts showed a reddish color that I was never satisfied with.  I had also tried to match the pattern of owl feathers, but as I remarked earlier, it appeared too uniform.  I tried to dab on darker spots of paint to change to a more random look, but it just did not seem to work.  Once I found a dark color for the back it was clear that the values were not compatible.  I plan to repaint the front of the owl once I have the back completely painted.

Photo:  Failed painting of front.

I found that randomly dabbing the paint did a better job of imitating an owls pattern than trying to paint each feather the same pattern.  It just looks more natural.  If I can just get the right value of gray for the rest of the back, I have some hope that this owl is going to look a lot like I anticipated.

Anyway, once again, sorry for the delay in posting and for such a quick post this week.  I have a lot going on, but it is starting to settle down.

Paper Máché Owl - Part 18- Painting Progress

 I wanted to get the paint on the feet before I painted the bird.  I did not want to be dropping a different color paint on top of feathers that had been painted.  In fact, I have painted the feet four times to get something I think I can live with.  The pictures of great horned owls that I have been looking at show that their feet are a yellowish brown color. That color was hard to match.  And then, I ended up with a contrast problem once I did start painting the feathers.

The first time I painted the owl's feet, it seemed close to what I wanted, but needed a second coat because the paint did not cover well.  I painted a second coat, and thought all was well.  Then, once I started painting the feathers, the color of the feet did not look right.  So, it was back to the feet once again.  I think I can live with this color.  In the long run, if the feet still look off, I am going to take some artistic license and paint them gray/brown as some other owls feet look.

I am about 10 hours in on painting the owl.  The painting is somewhat labor intensive.  Each feather is painted individually.  On the belly and breast of the owl each owl has three brown streaks and two streaks that are white(ish).  I tap in the three brown streaks (raw and burnt sienna and white) and then come back in with white and tap against the brown edges to create an off-white color.  

I will say that this part of the owl is not finished.  I will next go back in and tap in some areas of dark and light color to break up the pattern a little bit.  That was always the plan, but when I was taking some pictures for this post, I noticed that the pattern was a little bit too uniform.   I did not realize that sooner because I was focusing on one feather at a time and trying to paint a jagged chevron shape.  Because I did not step back and take a look while I was painting, I just did not see how the chevrons evenly the chevrons were lining up.  

After taking the pictures, I went back and over painted some of those linear patterns to break it up a bit.  Now I am thinking that maybe that was a bit too much of the brown color.  However,  I can correct that if necessary while I paint on some more of the patterns for that area.  I have not taken any new photos since then.  

It is going to take a while to get this bird painted.  I will keep blogging about my progress.  Check back next Tuesday.  I will try to have the post up earlier.  I try to get it set up and ready to publish early Tuesday mornings, but this time it did not work out.  At least it is up on Tuesday.

Paper Mâché Owl - Part 17- The Painting Begins

I am back from a vacation, and I have just caught up things enough at home that I have time to sit down and paint.  But before starting to paint, I had to experiment with paint colors, strokes, and color combinations to determine how best to paint the owl.

I began by coating a piece of cardboard with two layers of gesso.  I drew a few rough feather shapes on it and started trying different colors and patterns for the feathers.  I stopped to take a picture during this phase.  I did more testing after that, but I wanted to make sure I snapped at least one picture of the tests.  Sometimes I get too busy and work to the last minute and forget to take a picture.  

 I needed to experiment a little more on just how I wanted the feathers to look.  I spent some time on the internet looking at images of owls.  It was surprising just how individual the feathers of owls are.  It made me feel better to think with that much individuation that I was not going to be doing it "wrong".

After I decided what color combinations I wanted to use, I started painting the owl on the underside of the feathers of the tail.  That area is the least likely to be seen when the bird is standing upright.  This gave me a little time to determine where the colors should be placed and how to create the striated pattern before it made it up to the more visible areas of the owl.  

I settled on a mixture of 5 parts Burnt Sienna, 4 parts Raw Sienna, and two parts Titanium White for my color pallet for the brown portion of the feathers.  The lighter part of the feathers is straight Titanium White.  (I had originally tried a mixture of Raw Sienna and Titanium White, but it kept coming out more of a pink color than I cared to use.)  It was important for me to have a formula as it will take quite a few days to paint the owl and I needed to be able to reproduce the color mixture over multiple days.  

The next thing I had to consider was texture.  I felt that if I just painted it flatly, it would not look as much like real feathers.  I decided that even though I was using acrylics that I would use inexpensive oil and enamel paint brushes.  I don't know where or how I ended up with these brushes.  I think I may have purchased them by accident when I went to look for some cheap child watercolor brushes.  I use them for applying glue sometimes.  Anyway, here were these paintbrushes with stiff plastic bristles and they seemed just what I needed at the moment.  I have been using these brushed to dab on the paint.

For each feather, I would tap the paintbrush into the brown mixture and tap on some of the paint in four uneven stripes across the feather.  Then I would wipe out the brush and tap in some of the plain white on the rest of the figure.  The white would mix a little bit with the brown in these areas to form a lighter brown color.  Once all the paint had been tapped in on the feather, I would brush upward with a very light stroke.  The stiff bristles would smear the paint and make it look less like distinct bands of color.  Sometimes, if I had added too much white, I would go back and tap in a little more brown paint.

After a feather was painted, I used a small pick tool (think dental instrument) and scratched in a few lines.  The lines helped give the feather the illusion of more texture.  It also visually broke up the bands of color. All in all, I think it makes the feather look a little more dimensional.

I am actually a little further along than is shown in the picture above.  This was my first stopping point.  Since then, I have given the owl's feet a first coat of paint and completed two more rows of the feathers.  Since each feather is treated individually, it takes a few minutes to paint each one.  

I will be working on the underside of the bird this week.  The challenge is going to come when I get to the smaller feathers of the head and legs.  I will have to do a little more experimenting for those parts.  The head is not the same color as the body.  However, the paint will have to coordinate with what has previously been painted.

Check back next Tuesday to see the next update on this project.  

Paper Mâché Owl - Part 16 - Priming for Painting

One more step on the owl is complete.  I made some test pieces to make sure the cardboard was not going to come apart when painted.  It held up well, so it was on to giving the owl a primer coat.  I actually did two coats of gesso to prime it for painting.  It takes two coats to cover over the newsprint on the paper  mâché on the beak and feet.  That way no words or pictures are showing through.  Some acrylic paints are transparent so the coverage really needs to block out everything.   Also, I made sure that the cardboard was well coated along the edges of the feathers so they would not curl.  

Priming the owl was a two day project.  I was laying the bird on its side and back in order to paint from all angles.  I used a medium weight gesso.  All of the brush strokes were made from the top of each feather to the bottom.  I am hoping that the heavier gesso will hold some of the brush marks, which will give each feather from texture.  Now I am giving it a couple of days to make sure that all of that is completely dry, then the painting will begin.  I am really hoping that I can make some reasonable facsimile of what owl feathers look like.  

I plan to experiment with colors and painting techniques before I begin to paint on the owl.  If I can figure out a combination of strokes that can blend the paint before I start; I will have a better idea of how the owl should look.  

I will not have a post on Tuesday, May 28th.  The weekend before this is Memorial Day.  I have to get ready for the holiday festivities on the days leading up to the holiday, so I doubt that I am going to have very much time to work on the project this week.  I really hate to work on painting it when I am feeling rushed.  Look for the next blog post on June 4th, 2024.  

 

Paper Mâché Owl- Part 15 -Quick Post

I have just a quick post and no new pictures this week.  The photo below is the same as last weeks picture.  I have been out of town, and had very little time to work on the project.  The best that I could do was to finish the layers of paper mâché on the beak and feet.  I will be starting the painting this afternoon.  

After two coats of gesso, I will begin painting.  I am both excited and stressed about this part of the project.  I am hoping that I will make a good job of painting the owl.  I have put so much work into the project that I start to stress over perhaps messing it up at this stage.  

I have looked at a number of owl pictures for great horned owls and long eared owls.  I really had no idea how individual the plumage on owls actually are.  In some ways that is a relief.  There is so much diversity in the plumage that I can't feel that I am "doing it wrong".  Of course there are many similarities around the face of an owl, but I can readily say that you could tell individual owls from their markings.

Anyway, that is about as far as I have taken the project.  Next week there will be time for me to work on it.  Check back next Tuesday to see the latest on this project.

Paper Mâché Owl Part 15 - Finally Starting the Paper Mâché

It has been another busy week, but at least it has been busy in an enjoyable way rather than a good way rather than a stressful way.  However, that has left me a little behind in working on my project.  At least there has been a little progress.  I have started to put paper mâché on the beak and feet.

I have two layers of the paper mâché added onto the beak.  I used a sharp pick shaped like a dental tool to push the first layer under the feathers of the beak.  The second layer was pasted onto the feathers in order to give the layer a better hold on the cardboard. 

So far, I only have one layer on the feet.  The feet were more difficult than the beak.  I was trying to paste paper on the feet while keeping the rest of the bird free from the paste.  Both the owl and I were standing on our heads at some points while trying to keep clean.  The feet look bigger even with just one layer of paper mâché on them.   

At least I made some progress on the project.  I don't know if I will have much time to work on the owl this week.  Spring has brought on a slew of new activities.  Trying to keep up with it all has left me feeling like I have been shot out of a cannon; rushing headlong from one event to the next.  I expect to finish up the paper mâché  within a week.  Then it will be onto painting the figure.

In case you missed the previous blog post, I switched my plan from covering the whole owl in paper mâché and am planning on painting the rest of the owl.  Many of my family and friends who have watched my progress think that I should only use paper  mâché  on the beak and feet rather than the whole owl.  I am not so sure that is going to work, but I thought I would give it a try.  If things do not go well, I can still go back to the original plan of covering the entire owl in paper mâché.  If worst comes to worst, and the cardboard starts to curl, I can tear off everything back to where I waterproofed the carcass and begin again from there.  I really doubt it will come to that.  When making an experimental project, it is good to have a Plan B and even a Plan C though.

Check back next Tuesday for the next post on this project. 

Paper Mâché Owl - Part 14 Building up the Feet

Unfortunately, I have had very little time to work on my owl project this week.  I only managed to add some talons to the feet.  Owls do not tippy toe around like Sandpipers.  They have large rough feet with sharp claws built for grabbing and holding their prey.  I needed the toes to be larger and add the claws.

I had already given the toes a little bit of bulk by dripping some hot glue along the top.  That helped give the toes a rougher look.  That only worked a little bit.  By the time I was ready to work on the feet, some of that had peeled up.  I ended up pulling some of it off.

To create the claws, I cut small crescents out of cardboard.  I needed two for each claw I was trying to create.  Owls have three toes in front and one in the back, so I needed a total of sixteen crescents for this project.  I taped the front of the downward facing crescents together, then opened up the back of each crescent to form a wedge.  This wedge was then hot glued to the existing toe and then covered with tape.  I lost a bit of the crescent shape when I added the tape.  The main idea at this point is just to make the toes look like sharp talons.  More detail will be added with paint.

I also bulked up the legs by wrapping them in some aluminum foil and tape.  I may yet add more to the foot.  Sometimes I have to walk away from the project and come back to it before I make a decision on adding more.  Adding too much is as bad as not adding enough.  

Extending the toes had an added bonus.  It gave the owl a little more stability.  The owl does not rock back on its tail as much as it had before.  I may need to make one correction on one of the toes, as it does not sit quite touch the ground.  This is an easy fix.  I'll just add a little more tape to the area.

Last blog post I had mentioned that there was a change in direction in the project.  I wanted to give readers a heads up.  My original intention for this project was to cover the entire owl in paper mâché and then paint it.  And herein lies a cautionary tale as to why showing your work before it is complete can be problematic at times.  

The cardboard "feathers" of the owl really give the bird its shape.  All of the people I have shown it to have said I should not cover up the feathers.  They think I should just paint it.  In any case, I will still need to put paper mâché on the beak and feet. I admit, by the time I had come this far with the project and saw how nice the owl looked, I wished I had done it in balsa wood rather than cardboard. I am torn between sticking to my original plan or switching horses in mid-stream and going a different route.  Am I prepared to potentially wreck a project?

I was not sure how the cardboard is going to react to being painted.  It could curl up or separate into its many layers if it gets too wet.  It might be fine.  I'll never know unless I try it.  I have some options here.  If the paint works as hoped, the project is close to complete.  If the cardboard curls, I may still be able to cover it with paper mâché. In any case, I will still need to put paper mâché on the beak and feet at a minimum as they are only covered with masking tape at this point.

My last resort scenario if the cardboard fails beyond use, I could strip the project back to the layer where it was waterproofed with a layer of Press and Seal and start over from there.  It would not be a complete rebuild.  If I end up doing that, it might be worthwhile to pursue the balsa wood angle.  However, I don't think it will come to that.  I have done a few test pieces of cardboard to see how it responds to the primer.  It has done just fine.  I think it is going to be okay to paint.

So, I plan to go ahead and just use paint.  It may be for the best as the feathers give it a lot of texture.  But, for all of that, if I had waited and showed off a finished paper mâché  project, they would still have looked at it for twenty seconds and said, "Wow, that looks cool."  

Paper Mâché Owl - Part 13 Fixing the Beak

I have finished adding the cardboard "feathers" to the owl, and it was time to do fix the beak.  If you have been following along, you might have noticed that the beak was not particularly owl-like.  I left fixing the shape of the beak until the end for two reasons.  First, I was not exactly sure how much of the beak could be fixed by adding feathers to it to slim it down some.  The other reason is that once the shape was fixed it might get knocked around as I was turning the bird this way and that while working on it, causing it to lose its shape.  To fix the beak, it took some surgery; some of the beak had to go.

The owl's new beak.

An owl's beak is rather narrow and has a long hooked point.  To get rid of the excess width, I used a craft knife and cut down along both sides of the beak and removed some of the cardboard and tape.  Then I added some hot glue to stabilize the area and prevent future moisture invasion from the coming layers of paper mâché.  

After the beak was narrowed, I added some folded up layers of aluminum foil to develop the hooked shape.  This was attached with hot glue.  More foil was added over the upper part of the beak to make it look even with the hooked shape.  This was also attached with hot glue.  Then, The entire area was taped with masking tape.  A craft knife was used to trim away overlapping edges of tape.  Lastly, a layer of feathers was glued over the edges of the beak.

Front view of new beak.

The last part of creating the beak will be covering the area with layers of paper mâché over it to make it solid so it will not bend.  I have not gotten to that yet, but my next plan is to cover both the beak and talons with paper mache.

My next blog post will be show that and also talk about some changes coming to the owl.  Check back next Tuesday.

Paper Mâchê Owl Part 12 - Finishing up the Eyelids and Feathers

I have made a fair amount of progress this week.  I wish I had been able to complete this phase of the project.  I have about an hour's worth of work to finish adding the cardboard feathers to the back of the head.  Once that is completed, I will be ready to add some more layers of waterproofing before adding the  paper mâchê paste.  This is waterproofing to prevent the paper mâchê paste from soaking the cardboard and causing it to lose its shape and holding power.  A later blog post will address how to waterproof the paper mâchê layers.  That is a different method from the one used at this point in the project.  Check back on this blog in a week or so for that information.

I also added the eyelids, which give the eyes a more realistic look.  The first picture shows the eye without the eyelid.  The second picture shows the eye lid added. 

 

Owl without an eyelid.  

It was not very had to make the eyelids.  I cut out a circle from very flexible cardboard.  Then I cut the circle in half.  After checking to find the best position, I glued on the eyes with hot glue.  Since I was not using completely round cabochons for the eyes, I just had to pick what looked best.  The glue was giving me a little grief.  At first the eyelid wanted to slip while being held while waiting for the glue to dry.  I had to do some scraping to get excess glue off the areas where it slipped.  I will probably do some more scraping at the end of this project.  

I needed to do a little surgery on the lid.  It actually covered more of the eye than I wanted.  It was probably alright as it was, Owls blink.  However, I preferred a more open eye, so I used a sharp craft knife to cut back some of the lid.  I think it looks better for it.

Owl with eyelid added.

After adding the eyelids, I started working on the feathers around the face.  The face and head feathers are really quite small compared to other parts of the bird.  The initial size of the feathers are 3/8 of an inch (9.53 mm) by 1/2 inch (12.7 mm).  (Note: I checked these figures on a conversion table.) They were small enough that it was no longer feasible to wear my silicone finger protectors while using hot glue.  They just made my fingers to clumsy to hold the small pieces.  Rather than burn the dickens out of my fingers, I held the bottom of each feather with some sharply pointed tweezers.  This helped a great deal, but it was more difficult to place the pieces.  I had to hold the tweezers, add the glue, flip the tweezers over and place the feather in the correct spot.  There is a lot more glue showing on the head feathers compared to other areas of the bird.  No matter, I will pull off as much as I can before starting the next phase of the Owl.  No one will see it in the finished project.

I tried to lay the feathers in a pattern that resembles the way the bird will look once it is painted.  The texture and directionality will give the bird a more realistic look than if it is just flat.  Each layer adds shape to the Owl.  It will also give me some visual cues when I start to paint the bird.

I also worked on the ears.  The ears were covered with very tiny pieces of cardboard.  The little pieces I used were scraps left from cutting out the small cardboard feathers for the head.  I added a little bead of glue along the front edge as there was not any cardboard covering that tiny area.

Next week will be the big reveal of the end of this phase.  Check back next Tuesday.

Paper Mâché Owl Part 11 Painting and Adding the Eyes

This week I worked on painting and adding the eyes to my owl.  I needed a break from adding the cardboard feathers.  It can get a little tedious to work hour after hour on essentially the same thing.

The eyes are glass painted with acrylic paints.  I used some glass decorative glass pieces to paint the eyes.  The pieces of glass I used were some rounded pieces that are for decorative purposes.  They are not exactly round.  Fully round glass cabochons (found in the scrapbooking section) are expensive relative to bag of inexpensive decorator cabochons that are available for a dollar or less.  I buy a small bag and hunt for the most regular looking ones I can find that are the same size.  I can usually find two or three pairs of cabochons that will work well for a project.  

There are a few different ways to paint glass eyes. Many of them use enamel paints or fingernail polish.  The enamels look really nice, but I try not to add expensive elements to my projects if I have something at home that will work.  Nail polish can run from about a dollar to about eight or nine dollars a bottle or even higher.  I opted for acrylic paints that I already had at home.

 I first tried painting glass eyes on my last paper mâché pumpkin project.  I found various methods for painting the eyes.  By doing reverse paintings on the back side of the cabochon, it really looks like an eye.  That is, if you can get it to look right.  Some methods require multiple layers and scrapings to make the eye look as if it has depth and dimension.  After trying a few approaches on the pumpkin eyes, I finally settled on a method for painting eyes with acrylics.  I want to give a shout out to the guy who put up a YouTube video on the method.  A link to his video is provided here for anyone who wants to learn more about it:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkYtDUIa3BQ

When I make eyes for a project, I usually make at least three pair.  Then I pick the best set out of the three.  After a few tries at painting completely round pupils, I found that the method described in the video above worked the best.  The method for the pupil part is quite simple.  Basically, it is just putting a dot of paint in the center of the back of the cabochon and lightly pressing on another cabochon to spread the paint in a circle.  

If I had wanted to add a highlight to the eye, I would have added a dot of white paint at about the 1:00 o'clock position.  It would have had to been put in place before the pupil was added because this is reverse painting.  The last thing you would normally paint on a flat surface has to go first.  However, I did not put one in because the rounded glass surface of the front of the eye reflects light and creates its own highlights.  I think it would take someone with more experience than I have to get the white dot in the right position and then add the pupil.

For me, it was not quite so simple to determine the center of my irregularly shaped cabochons.  The first few eyes seemed a little off center.  I finally drew an X on a piece of paper, and place what appeared to be the center of the cabochon (rounded side down) on the X.  This at least gave me a target to aim for with the drop of paint.  Once the paint was on the first cabochon, I pressed the other cabochon onto it.  It still took me five tries to get it right. I actually had it right the first time, then dropped the cabochon and ended up getting paint all over my myself and the plastic I had down to protect the table.  It was a mess, but persistence paid off and I had two usable eyes.  So be forewarned, wear clothes that you don't mind getting pain on and protect your work surface if you try to do this.

The cabochons were set aside for the black paint of the pupils to dry.  After that, the outer edge of the cabochon was painted with a non-metallic antique gold acrylic paint.  They were set aside to dry again. 

Once the eyes were dry, a varnish was added to the back to protect the paint.  This was allowed to dry completely.  

Because of the irregular shape, the pupils are not exactly centered.  That still works for this project.  The upper edge of the eyeball still needs to be covered by the eye lid.  The eyelid will also cover part of the pupil.  The lower edge, which has more area of gold paint will be the most visible.  I did not do any scraping on the gold part of the iris.  

After painting, the eyes were glued onto the owl with hot glue.  More of the cardboard feathers and layers of paper mâché which have yet to be added will add more holding power to keep the eyes in place.  

For people who do not think they are ready to paint glass eyes, there are a few other alternatives.  At doll supply websites on the internet, you can purchase paper eyes that can be glued to the back of the cabochons.  Be sure to research your glue for that will dry completely clear and not yellow. 

It is also possible to buy plastic eyes for stuffed animals that look very realistic.  These eyes may come with a shank, that would need to be cut off or a hole punched in the head of the owl to accommodate it.  I actually had some of these eyes on hand, but my project was too large to use these eyes.  I may have to do some ravens or something at some point to try to use them up.  

A third, and the most expensive option would be to purchase glass eyes from a taxidermy supply company.  They are going to look the most realistic of all the options.  It would also be expensive compared to any of the other options.  

I have still been adding the feathers to the body this week.  I also added the ears.  I had not added them before because at some points I had to have the bird lying upside down and I did not want to damage them.  I am hoping to have the feather portion of the project finished by the next blog post.  

Check back on Tuesday.

Paper Mâché Owl Part 10 - More Feathers to Give Owl Some Shape

I have made quite a bit of progress on my owl this week.  I have been adding more cardboard "feathers" to give the bird a more birdlike shape.  The feathers are cut from thin cardboard that had enough flex in them to be able to be glued down to the armature.  A heavier cardboard could have been used, but it would not have been as easy to cut or to bend.  I was fortunate enough to have received a lot of thin cardboard recently.  You know when the universe is behind your project when exactly what you need comes your way at just the right moment!  

Front view of the owl.

The feathers are in different shapes and sizes, so I was only cutting a few at a time until I had a good idea of how many feathers of a certain shape I was going to need.  Each of the feathers were hand cut with scissors.  I am sure that there is some type of die cut machine that could have done this, but I prefer to be hands on for every part of my project.  

The feathers also cover up a lot of the dents and divots in the armature.  The form has to be built up in stages.  The first stage of a project looks so unlike the envisioned project that it takes a lot of will power not to toss the whole thing into the trash.  I have to make each layer look a little more like the shape that I want.  Today's bird looks better than last weeks layer.  

Rows of feathers waiting to be cut.

The feathers were a little less pointed once they were cut.  It was easier to cut them out by moving the cardboard around the scissors and cut in a continuous line along each horizontal row.  You can see two of the feathers cut out above the piece of cardboard.

The feet will not be worked on until the entire bird is covered.  At the moment it is a little tail heavy and tends to rock back onto its tail.  I expect the weight to shift once the glass eyes are added and the head is covered with feathers.  I may need to adjust the wire feet once everything else is finished.

Side views of the owl. 

The wings are not quite finished yet.  I still have to put on the cap of the shoulders.  Once the last of the shoulder feathers are on I will pause work on the feathers and paint the glass eyes.  They will need to be in place before the last of the feathers are added.  

Check back next week on Tuesday for the next installment.

Paper Mâché Owl Part 9 - Adding the Feathers.

I am sorry I am late getting the blog post up today.  It has been a very busy week.  Spring is here, and I have been spring cleaning.  This year my husband and I have started clearing out the attic.  We have kept so much over the years that we no longer use.  We have been very busy getting it sorted and taken to donate or trash.  It has kept me from doing as much work on the owl as I would have liked.

I have started adding the feathers.  In this case the feathers are made out of cardboard.  I drew a rough feather shape for the bottom of the feather, but left the tops squared off.  The feathers are laid down individually using hot glue to keep them in place.  

The feathers are different sizes and shapes depending where they are on the bird.  I started with the legs and tail and have been working my way up.  The small feathers on the legs were difficult because they were so small they were hard to handle.  I have some silicon finger protectors that really helped save the day.  They kept me from burning my fingertips.  However, the trade off was that the tiny pieces were hard to place.  

After the legs, I started on the tail.   I have been working my way up from there to the rest of the body.  I am actually a little further ahead than these pictures show, but I have not had time to take any more new pictures yet.  Next week I should be pretty close to completing this portion of the project.

I guess readers are wondering at this point if I am every going to put any paper mâché on this bird.  That will come after I finish painting the eyes made and the feathers all in place.  

Some paper mâché projects are just building up layers of paper.  An example of this would be putting layers of paper  mâché over a cardboard box to make a stiff box.  An example of this would be an early project of mine for a pumpkin jack in the box.  Hopefully my painting skills have improved since then.

Painted box that was made by covering the box with layers of paper mâché. 

Some projects are building up layers of paper mâché over a mold and then removing the layers from the mold.  An example of this would be my pumpkin series or the goblin heads.  After the project is completely covered with multiple layers, a sharp craft knife is used to cut the item off of its mold and then more layers of paper mâché are used to cover over the cut edges and form a three dimensional project.

Pumpkin removed from the mold.  I also made the mold for this pumpkin.

This owl project is a different type of project.  First I completely hand made the armature for the bird and it is an integral part of the project.  It will remain inside the bird to from and maintain the structure.  This project has been more about creating a sculpture; with the paper mâché being the glue that will be the final coat that will keep everything together.  

Armature for the owl.

You can view my other projects by scrolling back to see earlier posts or by going to folkartbycaroljones.blogspot.com    .   

Paper Mâché Owl Part 8 Adding Some Bulk and Feathers

Last blog post I said the most of the armature was complete.  I guess the key word there was "most".  Once I had the owl standing, I decided that it needed some padding around the thigh.  So I added some foil and tape to fill out the thigh.  I used foil to create the shape.  After that it was covered with more tape.

                                                             

Padding the thigh.

After the thigh was padded, the wing did not seem to have enough shape, so I added some shaped layers of foil and tape on both wings.  Building up the armature is a multistep process.  With each layer I try to make it look a little more like an owl.

                                      Adding more shaping to the wings.

The feet needed some bulking up before I start to add the layers of paper mâché.  Owl's feet and claws are covered with thick skin, much like chicken feet.  They are bumpy and very rough.  To mimic that shape, I used some hot glue to give the foot some texture and make it a little thicker.  This will also reduce the amount of layers of paper mâché needed to fill out the feet.  

Hot glue on the feet to add some bulk.

This completed most of the armature, but it needs feathers to make it look more like a bird.  Next blog post I will show adding the "feathers".  Check back next week for the next segment.

Paper Mâché Owl - Part 7 - Owl Now Standing On Its Feet

Last week I blogged about making the legs and claws.  This week I am pleased to say that the owl is now standing on its own two feet.  Getting the owl's legs attached and the owl balanced was not an easy task.  I had to move the legs forward from where I had anticipated they would be placed to make it stand up. All in all it took a little over an hour to get it to stay up.  The owl leans a little bit, but in a way it makes it look as if it is strutting rather than being still.  Sometimes I just have to work with what is there rather than making it look exactly as I would like.

Owl legs and feet.

The "thigh bone" is a little longer than it would be on a real bird.  I had to make sure that the wires of the upper legs would have enough length to support the weight of the bird.  They were almost too long.  I actually tried cutting them back a little bit, but the four doubled wired in each leg proved too difficult to cut.  It was easier to use them as they were.  Otherwise, I would have had to start over making the legs again.  I would have liked the upper legs to be about half an inch shorter, but such is life.  

The first leg went on easily enough.  I figured out the balance point I was trying to achieve and hot glued the leg into place. You can see a small mark that showed where I originally thought the balance point would be versus where it needed to be. Then I glued in some heavy cardboard supports to keep the leg from slipping.  The close up picture of the supports is from the first side.

Close up of mounted leg.

The second leg was where the trouble came in.  Just trying to match the first leg's position was not enough.  It took a couple of tries to get it in the right place.  What looked like the balance point was a little off.  I had to remove and re-glue the leg a couple of times to get it to stand up.  It made me glad that I had multiple layers of tape on the body.  One of the layers pulled off during the removal of the leg from the failed attempts.  

The second side is somewhat messier than the first side. It was difficult to try to balance the bird on one leg while using one hand to hold the glue gun and also make sure the second leg was in the right place.   It took a lot of glue to get the leg to stay on the bird. However, the messy glue is not something to worry about at this point.  There is still plenty left to do before the armature is completed.  No one will see the messy glue once it is covered with paper mâché.

Owl side view.

In order to get the owl to stand without wobbling,  I had to bend the wires of the claws a bit.  The rest of the feet will be built up with layers of paper mâché.  The important thing to remember when making something using an armature and paper mâché is that it is built up in layers.  Where you start is not where it will be when it is finished.  It just takes a lot of patience to get to the finish line.  

I still have a bit of work to do on the armature.  I need to add some padding around the legs.  Since there are cardboard supports, I also want to add another layer of Press and Seal and some tape over that area to prevent the cardboard from becoming soggy when I start to add the paper mâché.  

Owl strutting.

Other than padding the legs, the armature is pretty much finished.  Then the real work begins.  I still have to create the eyes and I have to start considering the feathers.  I would like to build in some of the shape of the feathers before I start adding the layers of papier mâché.  I think that creating some feather definition will make the feathers stand out more when it comes to painting the owl.  More on that in a future post.

Check back next week for the next post.

Paper Mâché Owl - Part 6 - Making the Legs

Yesterday, I started working on the legs.  I guess I should say the legs and feet.  An owl has three claws on the front of the foot, and one toe that faces towards the back.  Why aren't the all called claws?  I don't know. But now that I looked up owl's feet, I have started on the legs and feet.

                                                      I needed the legs to have some strength, because the bird's framework

is fairly heavy since it is made from cardboard.  I have made the legs and made sure they actually stand up.  The next step is to attach the legs to the bird and get it balanced.  

First things first: safety.  When working with wire, wear heavy work gloves and eye protection.  Where the wire is cut, it can be very sharp and give a bad cut or scratch.  And since the wire comes coiled in a package, it can also be very springy. Coiled wire can whip back and potentially hit you in the eye.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Since I expect the bird to be fairly heavy, I made the legs out of 16 gauge galvanized steel wire.  Although it may not look like it in the picture, since I did not line them up well, the legs pieces are all the same length.  I started by cutting eight pieces of wire 16 inches (40.64 centimeters).  Each foot had four pieces of wire, one for each of the three claws and the toe.

After the wires were cut, I bent them in half using a pair of needle nose pliers.  Once they were bent more or less bent to an equal length, I topped off the cut ends with some masking tape to shield the cut edges.  I say more less because this wire was very stiff and getting to bend was not easy.  Then I bundled four of the wires together and finished covering the wires all the way down to where I expected the feet claws and toe to start.  Next I bent the claws and toe to their planned positions.  The rounded part of the bent wires were the ends of the claws and toe.  After that, those areas also were covered with masking tape.  

Next came the bend in the upper part of the wire to allow for the thigh.  That was pretty tough.  Trying to bend all those wires at once was almost too much for my hand strength.  Getting the legs to match the bend on each side was even harder.  Eventually I was able to get things to more or less the same angles.  After that, I had to fiddle with the feet until I was able to get everything balanced.  

All in all it took just about an hour to make the legs.  That was as much crafting time as I had at the moment.  The next blog post will show how the legs will be attached to the body.  If the bird stands on its own, I will be on to the next stage and working on the feathers.  If the owl does not stand, I will be back to working on legs again.  When everything is an experiment, you are glad when it works out.  Sometimes learning what did not work is the lesson.  The main thing is to persist until it does work.

Check back next week for the new blog post.