Green Man Pumpkin - Part 15 - The Reveal of Green Man in Autumn

My 2025 paper mâché pumpkin is complete.  I have given this pumpkin a title.  Its name is Green Man in Autumn.  I have been working on this project since January, alternating between this project and my carousel project.  

It was difficult to paint the leaves and get them to look right.  It took multiple coats and washes of paint to get them to look anywhere near right.  One of the photos below will have a close up of the leaves. 

After two coats of gesso, I put on a coat of Cad yellow, then dotted in dabs of Cad red and Cad orange paint.  It did not look right.  The dabs looked unnatural.  I don't quite know how to describe it other than it just looked blotchy.  I repainted the Cad Yellow with some Autumn Gold craft paint.  It looked to chalky.  I added another coat of Cad Yellow over that.  The color looked better, but the oranges and reds still looked to blotch even through the Cad Yellow.  I was becoming frustrated.  

I woke up in the middle of the night and realized what I needed to do to make this look better.  What I needed were washes of paint rather than adding full color.  

I wanted to being out the veins in the leaves, so I started with a wash of Burnt Umber.  Right away this made the laves look more natural as it added dark lines to the veins and spots to the leaves in various places.  The wash was applied to the leaf and then dabbed off so that the darker color mostly stayed in the lines and depressions.

The yellow leaves were followed up with washes of Cad Orange and Cad Red in various spots.  The wash really did the trick.  It left a soft glow of color rather than the harsher dab of paint.

Next, I realized that there needed to be more contrast between the leaves.  When everything was bright gold, the leaves did not stand out well against each other.  Changing the color of some of the leaves really brought up the depth.

The background leaves were painted with Raw Sienna.  Then given a wash of Burnt Umber was applied using the same paint a wash on and dab off method.  Then on some of the leaves in various spots I added a wash of Cad Red.  This helped keep the leaves from looking so plain.

The stem of the pumpkin was first painted a dark green mix of Hunter Green with a very small amount of Dioxazine Purple, then striped with layers of Raw Sienna and Burnt Umber. with a slight dry brush of Raw Sienna over the entire stem after that. (I may have spelled Dioxazine wrong but am pressed for time, so I did not get up to check the spelling.)

The vines of the pumpkin were painted a dark green and washed with a coat of Burnt Umber.  The vine leaves were painted with the same mix of colors as the stem.  Then I added blotches of Cad Yellow and finally a wash of Cad Yellow.  I deliberately wanted the leaves to show a lot of yellow and green so as not to compete with the leaves of the face.  

I wanted an Olive Green for the face.  The face paint color is a mixture of Hunter Green, Burnt Umber, and some white.  I used Gesso rather than Titanium White.  Sometimes the Titanium White can look chalky when mixed with other colors.  I painted the face twice.  The first time it came out a little darker than I wanted after it was dry.  

As I blogged in the last post, I had a lot of trouble getting the color right for the orange of the pumpkin.  The first coat came out having too much red from the Cad Orange and Burnt Umber.  Ditto the second coat using Cad Orange and Raw Sienna.  I finally went to a craft store and picked up a craft paint called Jack O'Lantern Orange.  That worked out quite well.  

At first, I thought it might be too white, but after a trip to the Farmer's Market to look at pumpkins I decided that the color was spot on.  Now that the whole piece if completed, I am glad I stuck with that color.  I usually use artist paints, but sometimes craft paints have a place.  The color really went well with the leaves.

Finally, I wanted to show a picture of the pumpkin lit up.  I used a battery-operated light to give it a glow from inside.  The eyes are glass cabochons that have been reverse painted with acrylic paints.  I wish I had done a better job on painting the eyes.  I did not have a small enough brush.  

I thought I would mention the light because it is a bright LED light that I bought at Harbor Freight.  They were only about a dollar each when I bought them.  It has a rheostat knob, so you can adjust the brightness.  In the past I have used floating color changing pool lights to light the pumpkins.  They were pretty expensive and use more batteries than this less expensive light from Harbor Freight.

I guess the moral to this story is that if you are not satisfied with the painting, keep painting until you get something that works; or at least something you can live with.  I have really enjoyed this project even though it has been frustrating at times.  

Next week I will be back to blogging on the carousel project.  Check back Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.

Green Man Pumpkin - Part 14 - The Painting Continues

I would have loved to post that the painting was complete, but I am still working on the pumpkin.  I have had a bit of trouble getting the colors to work as I wanted.  I have a color mixing chart, but it really did not seem to work very well.  Perhaps it is the brand of paint, but it rarely comes out looking anything like the color chart or as I want it to look.  This has caused me to repaint areas a number of times to even begin to get it to be the colors I want.  However, I am making progress, and I think I have half the face mostly painted except for the vein detail on the leaves.

This side is the side where it is finally coming together, although the photo does not show the colors as vividly as they appear if you are viewing it in person.  I don't think I had enough light on it when I took the picture.

I wanted to paint leaves to look like the colors of autumn, showing brilliant reds, golds, and russets.  Unfortunately, what looks great in nature, did not translate well to a painting at least not with the paints I was using.  

My first mistake was I had painted the leaves green because I needed some color on them so I could determine the color for the face.  My first painting of the face came out too dark.  I had to repaint it to bring it up to a lighter color.  It took another two paintings to get the face to a color I felt I could live with.  I was trying for an olive color.  At the moment it looks a little flat, but I think once I seal the piece it will brighten up a little bit.  So, I am leaving the face as it is.

My next problem was that the Cad Yellow Medium, Cad Red Medium, and Cad Orange are transparent colors.  They did not cover over the green leaves well, so the leaves ended up looking a muddy brownish green.  I painted some of the areas with an autumn gold craft paint to try to cover the green.  It looked very chalky.  I added more of the yellow, red, and orange. It still looked chalky, and the bright colors look blotchy.  You will see what I mean in the next photo.  Anyway, I painted over the leaves with a coat of Cad Yellow Medium.  That seemed to tone down the blotchy colors and take away some of the chalky look.  I also decided to paint some of the leaves brown to add some contrast.  That seemed to help a lot.  I think this side of the face is coming together.  I just have to go back in and add some veins on the leaves.  

The side of the pumpkin not yet finished.  It is still a work in progress.

This second photo shows the side of the face that has not yet been repainted.  The gold color looks chalky.  Without some of the background leaves being brown it does not have enough contrast to help the top leaves to stand out.  

Every once in a while, I have to remind myself that this is a craft project and that I am not trying to paint the Mona Lisa.  My problem is that I get to where I want it to look alive and real and that is never really going to happen.

I hope to have the pumpkin completed in the next week.  At this point I am feeling really relieved to be close to the end of this project.  I have been working on it all year and was feeling the stress of trying to get it done before October.  

Even though I have been alternating between this project and my carousel project it has been a slog to get to the finish line on this project.  I become bored and at times just have to buckle down and work through the boredom to get a project finished.  It is difficult to stay inspired when working on a long-term project.  The immediate gratification of a short-term project is not available, so I have to set my mind to being able to accomplish the short-term goals, which re not as satisfying.

One of the things that has helped keep me going is that I have so many readers that look in on the project.  I want to keep up with adding content to the blog, so I don't disappoint them by not having something new to put on the blog.  So, a big thank you to all my readers for helping me stay on track on this project.

Check back next week for the next post on this project.  I hope to have the Green Man Pumpkin completed by then.  mâché

Green Man Pumpkin - Part 13 - The Painting Begins

 Regular readers will know that I have recently been working on my carousel project.  I switch back and forth between the carousel and the pumpkin project to keep from getting burned out from working on them for so long. This week I am back on the Green Man Pumpkin project, and I have started painting the piece.

One of the art programs I watch on television repeatedly talks about covering the entire canvas with a base coat of the large shapes and then working to bring the values into line.  That lesson was really brought home when trying to paint this pumpkin.  It was impossible to tell what the right values would be when the entire pumpkin was bright white.  I had painted it with two coats of gesso to cover up the printed newspaper that I used for the paper mâché.  I wanted to make sure no words or pictures were showing through.

The photo on the left shows the base coat for the pumpkin and the pumpkin vine leaves.  Actually, this is the second coat.  I was having trouble getting the orange right.  For my first attempt, I had mixed Cad Orange and Burnt Umber.  That brand had a lot of red in it and the pumpkin looked too red orange.  For my second try I mixed Cad Orange and Burnt Sienna.  It was still not right.  After that I tried a test patch of Cad Orange and Cad Yellow.  It looked streaky.  I finally gave up and went 

to the craft store and bought their last bottle of Pumpkin Orange paint.  At first, I thought it looked a little flat but decided to live with it.  In retrospect, I think it was an improvement. You will see that color in the photos below.  

I have not finished painting the piece.  I have not yet added a base color to the face.  I decided to work on the pumpkin vine and leaves first to try to make some type of value decisions on the back first and save the face for last.

I wanted this piece to reflect the colors of leaves in autumn.  After all, that is when pumpkins are starting to ripen.  I painted the leaves a dark green basecoat, mixing Hunter Green and Dioxazine Purple.  It was really dark but covered the white well.  (You can see that in the first photo.)  Then I lightly brushed on a coat of Sap Green.  When that was dry, I started tapping in some Cad Orange mixed with Burnt Umber in spots here and there.  And finally tapped in some Cad Yellow Light in spots.  This is about as far as I have gone with the painting.  I may add some orange highlights to the leaves just to bring up the color a little bit more.  I will try it, but I don't want to add too much color because I don't want to compete with the face.

The vines for the pumpkin were base coated with Sap Green, then painted with a mixture of Sap Green and Burnt Umber.  I wish I had made the vines a little thinner, but it was hard to make them smaller with the paper mâché clay I was using.  I also painted the stump at the top of the pumpkin with the same mixture of Sap Green and Burnt Umber.  The stump of the vine is not finished yet.  I want to go in and add a lighter color to contrast with the greenish brown.  That color will probably be Burnt Sienna, but I have not tested it yet.

I have painted in some of the darker shadows on the face with the dark green/purple mixture I mentioned earlier.  The glass eyes are protected with some Press and Seal to protect them from getting paint on them.

Anyway, the painting is well underway.  In another week or two I will have this project completed.  It just depends on how much time I have to work on the project this week.  It seems like I have been working on it forever, but it has only been nine months.  I started this project in January of this year.  

Check back next week on Monday or Tuesday for the next post.  I try to have it ready for my readers on Monday, but sometimes life just gets too busy.  

Paper Mâché Carousel Animals - Tiger - Part 10

It took three days, but I have added all the cotton clay fur to my tiger.  I have not yet added the tail.  The cotton ball clay was not going to be strong enough to hold the tail on its own.  I have cut a piece of heavy gauge wire to support the tail.  You can see it lying next to the tiger in the picture below.  It will come off his backside and attach to the near side of the back leg for support.  I have to mix up another type of clay to cover the wire.  After that dries I will add more cotton ball clay.  The tail may not be attached until I start adding the saddle and reins.  I will be using a homemade air-dry clay for that.  It is a matter of finding the time to do it, as I plan to add the accessories to all the animals at once, so I don't have to store the clay too long.   

 

I also added a jaw to the tiger so it will have its mouth open to roar.  I have not yet decided on how to do the teeth.  I want to put in at least the sharp teeth in the front.  For the moment I am thinking I will use the sharp tip ends of wooden toothpicks.  The animal would be too small to use bits of plastic fork, I think.  Time will tell.  

The clay dried to a nice hard finish.  Although on one level it looks a little wool, I think it is going to look a lot better once I get around to painting the animal.  

After this week, I am going to take a break from the carousel animals.  (Scroll back to previous posts to see the horses and ram that I have already made or visit the blog at folkartbycaroljones.blogspot.com).  it is already a week into September, and I need to start painting on my other project for this year: the Green Man Pumpkin.  I need to have this finished by October.  It will take just about all of my crafting time to get that finished.  

Once I have finished painting the pumpkin, I will be back to the carousel project.  I need to make two more animals.  I have two horses and one ram, and one tiger.  I want to make a cat, which will be pared with tiger.  The other animal will be some type of ungulate (hooved animal) to pair with the ram.  Once all the animal forms are completed it will be time to start adding the saddle, reins, and such flowers and ribbons (made with air-dry clay) as I might decide to put on the animals.  So, check back often to see the progress on those parts of the project.  There is still a lot to be done on this project even before I start to think about how the carousel will be put into motion.

In the meantime, check back next week to see how the painting of the Green Man Pumpkin is going.

Paper Mâché Carousel Animals - Tiger - Part 9

This week I have been working on covering my tiger figure in cotton clay.  How is it going?  Well, it is a work in progress.  I am not really enamored with this type of clay.  It is working but not as I hoped it would.  I guess I should start at the beginning of this saga.

First, you have to pull apart a bunch of cotton balls.  I would recommend that you wear a dust mask if you do this.  The tiny fibers were everywhere, on my clothes and face.  It is probably not a good idea to be inhaling these particles. 

Next, the original recipe I found said to boil the fibers.  I did not think it necessary, so I just soaked them overnight.  The next day, the fibers that I had spent so much time tearing into little pieces had matted themselves into a piece of fiber.  After draining the water, I had to pull the tear the pieces apart again.  Then I added the new water and flour to make a loose paper mâché mix.  I also added some glue.  By the tie it was thoroughly mixed, the fibers had matted up again.  I suppose that this might be okay if you wanted to add a large swath of clay as one piece over something, but it did not do all that well for my purposes.  However, I continued on with the project, pulling little pieces of fiber off and sticking it onto the tiger form.  I should mention that I would put some PVA glue directly onto the tiger to stick the piece of fiber on.  The fiber tended to slide around and needed some sturdier glue to make it stick.

I had to work one section at a time and sit in front of a fan for several hours to let it dry.  I was concerned that it would develop mold if it was allowed to dry on its own.  When I had the entire figure covered the fur looked more like a sheep than a tiger.  And I still have not figured out the tail.

Anyway, I decided that another layer of the cotton clay was in order.  I used the same method for the second layer, laying down glue and then adding some of the cotton fiber.  This time, once the fiber was on the form I used the tip of a wooden skewer to press indentations into the fur.  This flattened the cotton a little more and gave it some directional lines to indicate fur.  I am still working on that part and expect it will take me a few more days to finish.

This photo shows the fur along its back where I have added the second layer.  I wanted the fur to look a little rough.  

Many people see pictures of tigers, and they have beautiful soft looking coats.  Most people do not know that tigers do not look like that in the wild or even in zoos.  Tigers tend to look a little dusty and scruffy.  The pictures that many people are looking at are shot at special animal sanctuaries that cater to photographers.  The tigers have been washed and groomed for the photos.  (I read this in a photography magazine.)

I watched the tiger at our local zoo for quite some time.  Our zoo has an albino tiger.  He or she, I am not sure which had white fur with black stripes and blue eyes.  I actually plan to paint my tiger figure in the well-known orange and black.  but it was nice to see such a rare and magnificent animal.  

This tiger was very smart too.  There was a place you could stand and observe the animal in its outside enclosure through a plexiglass window.  The tiger kept running up to the window and launching itself at the plexiglass, striking it with its paw.  It was smart enough to understand that this plexiglass was such a large piece that it would flex and bend just a little bit when it was hit.  It kept jumping at the glass and hitting it dead center over and over.  It was actually beginning to develop a small spider web shaped crack in it about the size of a dime.  I have never heard that the tiger escaped, but I am sure that they had to replace that piece of plexiglass before there was trouble.

Anyway, as I said earlier, the tiger is still a work in progress.  I still need to add more clay to the sides and legs.  It may take most of the week.  All in all, if I had to do it over again, I would use a different clay.

The only other thing I might add is that when laying on the clay, you have to consider the direction of the fur.  For the back of the animal, I started at the rear and worked my way up towards the head.  For the sides, you should work from the stomach to the shoulders to make the fur look like it is laying in the right direction.  

Check back next week for new photos of the (hopefully) competed animal.

Paper Mâché Carousel Animals - Tiger - Part 8

I am still working on the tiger for my carousel.  I had hoped to have the cotton clay layer added before this post, but that did not work out.  Unseasonably cool temperatures allowed my husband and I to get some work done we had been putting off because it was just too hot and humid.  So only a small step forward on this project.

Two layers of standard strip paper mâché have been added to the tiger.  I wanted to have some extra layers of protection for the figure before adding the cotton clay.  That clay will be moist for about twenty-four hours.  I did not want it to soften the cardstock and cause the animal shape to sag or collapse.

Right now, the animal almost looks like a bear more than a tiger.  It will look different after the tail is added.  The face still needs a little work also.  The front of the face looks a little flat.  I plan to work on that when I add the clay.

I had figures collapse on a project once years ago.  I was making some fairly tall figures that I wanted to paint for a Christmas scene.  My paste was too moist, and it permeated the tape and made the underlying cardboard soggy.  Over the course of a few hours, I kept hearing thuds coming from my studio as one by one the figures collapsed and fell from the worktable to the floor.  It was pretty disheartening.  I never did get back to that project. 

Anyway, today I plan to try to work with the cotton clay.  I have spent a couple of hours tearing cotton balls into small shreds of cotton this past week.  With twenty-twenty hindsight, I will say that I probably should have been wearing a mask while I did this.  Little fluffs of cotton kept flying up to my face.  Keeping a lint roller handy would be helpful as well.  I was covered with little strands of cotton by the time I was finished.

I found the recipe for cotton clay on the internet.  It calls for boiling the cotton with flour and water.  I keep an old pot that I don't use for food for these types of projects.  I am really not thrilled with the whole boiling and waiting for it to cool thing.  I once did a project where I had to boil some wool.  It really stank.  Cotton may not do the same thing, but I want to try something else first. 

Boiling the cotton may cause the fibers to open up more to accept the paper mâché mixture better and make the clay a more cohesive clay, but I am not sure that it is totally necessary.  I have some paper mâché clay recipes that called for boiling the paper first but really worked just as well by soaking the paper over night.

I think I would prefer to just soak cotton until it is damp and then squeeze any excess moisture out of it. Then mix it with flour, water, and diluted glue.  I may try that first to see if it works.  

So that is about it for today.  I will be blogging next week on what happened with the cotton clay.  The worst that could happen is I have to start over on the tiger or the clay (or both).

Check back next week (Monday or Tuesday) for the next blog post.

Paper Mâché Carousel Animals - Part 7 - Tiger Build Continues

I am still working on creating the paper mâché tiger.  It was a busy week for me, and I did not have a lot of time to work on it.  However, any progress is better than no progress. Besides being busy, I was distracted while I was working on it and made a mistake or two.  Fortunately, it was one that could be recovered from as I continue to work on the animal.

Bad crafting days, everyone has one at some point.  Whether it is catching up thread or fabric under a sewing machine foot, having to pull out some rows of knitting because of misreading the pattern, or making a bad cut on a piece of wood; sooner or later any crafter is going to make a mistake.  This week was my turn.  I bring this up because I want people to know it happens and that not every project goes perfectly from start to finish.  It is easy to become discouraged when things do not go well.  

Many people have what are referred to as UFOs.  No not flying saucers, it stands for Unfinished Objects. It is not uncommon for people to have incomplete craft projects hanging around because of some problem that caused them to become discouraged.  I used to have those too, but as I became a little better at the crafts, I made the decision that I would no longer leave a craft project unfinished.  I will complete the project even if it is never going to meet my expectations.  Most of the time it comes out better than I thought it would.  

Once you make a mistake you have to decide whether that piece of the project is ruined beyond fixing and you need to start over or if you can come up with a solution to fix the problem.  Sometimes the fix may take your craft item in a completely different direction from what you envisioned.  You will be surprised at what you can come up with to fix a problem

Last week I stopped working after drawing the images of the Romance side (The side that faces outwards.) and the inward facing side. I also transferred the images to some cardstock by tracing over the images with carbon paper underneath the drawing.  Then I cut them out using a sharp craft knife.  All seemed well at the time.  It was not until later that I discovered a problem with the drawing, but that was not the worst of the mistake on this animal.  There were a couple of mistakes.

The first error was that when I returned to work on the animal I did not stop to think through where I was on the project.  My next step in creating the three-dimensional figure is that I stiffen the blue cardstock by gluing toothpicks on the inside of the animal to give it a "skeleton".  It is not an actual skeleton, just toothpicks glued on where needed to make it sturdy.  

In my defense, I will add that not only was I distracted by other things going on, but I was also in brain fog because I had spent the morning converting the American units of measure to centimeters and millimeters while determining the lengths for the internal cross piece supports.  It was easier for me to work with the metric system as my rulers are difficult to read when looking at 16ths and 32nds of an inch.  

I neglected to take a photo of the cross pieces and the strips of folder that covered the top and bottom of the animal.  If you would like to see the full explanation as to how these were installed, you can scroll back to my carousel horse or goat blog posts to see that part of the process.  If you are not able to see them, you can look at them by going to my blog IRL: folkartbycaroljones.blogspot.com.  I am adding a photo of the horse cross pieces here for quick reference.

Anyway, long story short, I cut the cross-pieces out to my converted lengths and started to glue them on.  When I finished gluing them on, I held the animal up and thought, "Why is this animal so flimsy compared to the others?"  That was when I realized that I had glued in the cross pieces before I had added the toothpick skeleton.  My choices at this point were either to undo the work that had already been done, or I could glue the skeleton to the outside before I covered the animal with tape.  In this case, I chose to glue the toothpicks to the outside.  As you could see from the top photo, they are quite visible at this point.  However, when the animal is completed, they will not be visible because I plan to cover the animal with a layer of homemade clay.  More on the clay in a moment.

So, on to the second mistake.  Apparently, my interpretation of the tiger pattern was not exactly right.  (The size of the tiger pattern was large compared to the horses, and I needed to make a reduced pattern) I made the legs on one side were too short.  I did not discover this until I had the animal skeleton on, and the piece was all taped up.  The tiger had a distinct lean to the left when it was stood up on its four legs.  It was not a lot too short, only about a millimeter or two, but it was very noticeable.  I suppose in the overall scheme of things it might not have been noticeable when the animal is put on its poll on the carousel, as I could have compensated for that, but I knew it was there.  It was just unacceptable to me.  Fortunately, I was able to rectify the situation by hot gluing on some small bits of toothpick to the bottom of the feet and then covering it with masking tape.  Once the tiger is covered with layers of paper mâché strips and clay, no one will ever know it was a problem.  The tiger now stands well balanced on its feet.

This week I will be working on covering the tiger with clay.  I have run out of the commercial paper mâché clay that I had been using for the other animals.  I wanted the tiger to look as if it had fur, so I plan to make some homemade cotton ball clay.  I have not made this before, although I had previously made some clay out of dryer lint for another project.  I have high hopes that this clay will work well in this application.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  I will let you know how it works out in my next blog post.

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.