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!
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:
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!
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.
One day, I was looking at some flowers, and imagined how to draw them. I decided to try to draw daisies based on the real ones I had in front of me. I tried sketching them in different ways with different mediums, filming my attempts. My favorite version of the daisy was the one I drew with pen. I edited the footage of me drawing the pen version into a how to draw video, and posted it on YouTube a few weeks ago.
I was going to post photos of other versions of the daisies I drew in marker, acrylic paint, and colored pencil in a blog post similar to the one I made surrounding my clay strawberry video. As I looked for places in the daisy footage to save photos from, I realized I had enough clips to make a second video. I am not sure if the repetition interested my viewers or not. At least it gave a larger glimpse at the other drawings I had made than photos could have. Here is the daisy video with multiple mediums:
I post videos to YouTube on every other Thursday on my channel Varietygirl1. You can watch more how to draw videos there. Please comment below about what you think about two videos on the same subject, or tweet me @Varietygirl1.
Read about how my lace drawing, and video, came into existence:
One day, earlier this year, I was sitting in school with all my work done. There was still more than ten minutes of class left, so I decided to take out a piece of paper and draw. The only paper I had at the time was lined or graph paper. I chose the graph paper because it had lighter lines.
At this point, I did not know what I was going to draw. First, I needed a writing utensil. All my pencils needed sharpening. I managed to find a pen that barely worked. I moved the pen in circles to get the ink started.
When I took the pen away, I noticed that these squiggly lines looked like stitches in cloth. I practiced making this type of line a few times, as you can see in the photo on the left, and then decided to draw lace.
I was not able to finish my drawing before I had to switch classes. However, when I got home, I decided to work on it. My camera and tripod were already nearby, so I filmed myself drawing. I didn't notice that there was a smudge on my camera until after I finished the drawing. I didn't have time to start over. Instead, I saved the footage on my computer, and debated whether to turn it into a video.
Months went by. I soon forgot about the lace video. When the school year ended, I took all my papers and folders home. The other day, I was flipping through one of these folders when I found my lace drawing.
The corner had been damaged from one day where I had to walk through heavy rain, but luckily the water had not reached the ink.
Looking at this paper again, I decided to finish the video I had filmed months before. The footage was a little shaky, but I felt that since this drawing had survived the rain storm, it was worth finishing the video.
For my Spanish class, I had to preform a restaurant scene. We were allowed to use props, and I decided to make clay food (rolls, flan, and a strawberry).
Dinner Rolls:
I made clay rolls by making aluminum foil balls, and covering them in a thin layer of baking clay. I wanted to paint the rolls with different shades of brown, to make the rolls appear baked. I used watercolor paints, until all the colors started to blend together. When I tried to add a second coat of paint, the first coat became wet again. In the end, I painted the entire roll with one shade of brown. I placed the rolls in a wicker basket.
Flan:
I thought it would be easier to make the flan out of paper mache than clay. First, I tried to make the flan out of a yogurt container covered in paper mache. The next day, the paper mache dried, but the yogurt container smelled like spoiled milk, even though I had washed it with soap and water. I decided to throw this flan away, but I didn't give up.
I looked through the recycling for a container shaped like a flan. I found a plastic applesauce container, which didn't smell of spoiled food. Due to lack of time, I decided to paint the container without covering it with paper mache. I covered the entire container, inside and outside, with yellow acrylic paint. After the yellow paint dried, I covered the top of the flan with light brown acrylic paint.
Once all of the paint dried, I placed the flan on a plastic plate. Then, I placed a clay strawberry on top of the flan.
The Strawberry:
The strawberry was the only piece of food I was able to make without any problems arising. It was made out of baking clay, which I covered with acrylic paint. To see how I made the strawberry, click the video below:
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. 
