Hats Made of Clay

 How To Make a Clay Hat Out of Baking Clay

From My YouTube Channel: Varietygirl1

 

 

After I made my first clay dragon, I had some extra clay. I looked around for something to make, and decided to make a hat. At first glance, I knew I could make a hat with two cylinders; a thin one for the brim and a thick one for the top. I also wanted to add a ribbon and flowers. I had to experiment with shaping the clay in order to add the flowers and ribbon. I made about two hats before I filmed myself making one.






I made the clay hat video before I decided to re-make the dragon. Both videos are from before I started using Adobe Audition, so there is some background noise.


I still have some extra clay. If you have any suggestions for what I should make, please leave a comment. Thank you!

Creating Clay Dragons

A few years ago, I needed a three dimensional piece of art for a portfolio. Usually, my art consists of two dimensional drawings in different mediums. Then I remembered working with clay when I was at a summer camp. I had not worked with clay in years, but I decided to try it again.

I wanted to make a clay version of a dragon I had drawn. I started by making a smooth base, and then added lots of scales. I could not get the dragon to stand, so I made it in a sitting position. I was so short on time, I took the dragon to show people without baking it. The head fell off a couple times, and I tried to repair it with scrap clay at the last minute. I was so nervous that the whole thing would fall apart as someone looked at it. Luckily, the head did not fall off again until I took it home :)



I had another chance to show my dragon about a week later. This time I baked it. Someone suggested adding some type of wiring to the inside of the neck in order to hold up the head. I added toothpicks instead, and it worked! The ears were a little burnt, but it looked good.

Multiple people who saw the dragon asked how I made it. I described the process, but they thought it was difficult. I remembered getting the same reaction when I brought a bigger version of my model house in for a school project. In both


cases, people thought it was hard to make, so I made a how to video. I made a baby dragon for the video, just like I made a second, smaller house.

The photo on the right shows the baby dragon:

Here is the video that shows how to make the dragon:

How to Draw Simple Eyes is Now Published

Earlier this week, I posted about my ideas for a video that showed ways to draw simple eyes. Now this video is on YouTube, although you can watch it from the blog post.

The video shows how to draw three different types of simple eyes, eyes looking in different directions, and eyes that show emotions. It also shows how to use the simple eyes as an iris in more detailed eyes.

For many of my videos, I used a single shot from the video as a thumbnail. For this video, I decided to experiment with the thumbnail. I cropped multiple shots from the video, and edited them together. I was having trouble getting the cropped photos to be the right dimensions for a thumbnail, so I added a blue border. The colorful border may draw someone's attention when they are looking for videos to watch. I might change the thumbnail to something less cluttered later, though I want to see how this one does at gaining views/watch time.

The Thumbnail:

 



 

Photos I combined:

 

 

 

 

Please comment below if you enjoyed the video or like the thumbnail. You can also leave questions, requests for future how to videos, etc. Thank you!

Drawing Simple Eyes: A How to Video Coming Thursday August 13, 2015

My latest how to draw video featured realistic looking eyes. Days after I filmed this video, I was sitting in geometry class learning about circles and arcs. I began to doodle using the types of lines I was learning about, and realized I could create eyes with circles and arcs! When I got home, I redrew the eyes with my camera recording.

The photo above shows the three types of eyes I came up with. The one on the far right has straight lines as well as arcs. I will go into more detail of how these eyes contain circles and arcs in the video this Thursday.

After a while, I worried that these eyes might be too simple for a how to video. I wanted to add something else about eyes. One idea I have is to show how to use these types of eyes as an iris, and turn them into more complex eyes. My second idea is to talk about eyes looking in different directions. The photo below shows a sketch of the second idea from my whiteboard. Please comment below if you think I should add either of these two ideas to the video, or both.

 

Announcing: Future Posts about My How to Draw Videos

 

 

 

Right now, I have multiple ideas and footage for upcoming how to draw videos. The picture above shows some of the drawings that will be featured in future videos. I would like to write a few blog posts about my ideas in order to get feedback before I post the videos.

 

Also, there are a few videos that I posted to my channel before I created my blog or did not post about. The photo below shows some of my artwork from my published how to videos. I am going to write posts about old videos as well.

 

Between old and upcoming videos, as well as sketches I did off camera, I hope to be able to update my blog more often. The posts will probably still be published on random dates, though I have been uploading videos on YouTube every other Thursday. My channel name is Varietygirl1.



 

Please comment below about what you think of having more posts about my videos.