Crafty little Beanut!: Paper Mache Teddy Dragon

Saturday, 16 June 2012

Paper Mache Teddy Dragon

This little guy took me a few weeks to complete. I wanted to make something that was a cross between a teddy bear and a dragon. I started by making the body bits out of paper Mache. Once they were dry I assembled the body.

Paper Mache Teddy Dragon - shell

Next I gave him some fangs and claws and then some eyes. Using Dan Reeder’s cloth Mache technique I gave him some skin.

Paper Mache Teddy Dragon - cloth skin

I wanted to give him some scales but a tried a few different things before I settled on these.

Paper Mache Teddy Dragon - scale things

Paper Mache Teddy Dragon - more scale things

Once he was dry I started to paint. I had only done a little of him when I decided it wasn’t working for me.

Ahh my eyes...the horror!!!!

no no no!!! grrrr

So I tried something different…

hmmm, not what I wanted!

looks like a rainbow threw up on my teddy dragon!

He wasn’t looking terrible but I still wasn’t happy so I tried to make his face a bit darker.

how not to apply makeup!!!

Hmmm, that looks bad again. I don’t like the face or the scale things at all.

I was getting rather frustrated! I can’t seem to paint very well at all.

So I decided to paint it black all over and start again. I noticed after I had painted it that some of the previous colours bled through the black. I liked that!

I added layers of reddish browns and greys and then added to more blues and purples to the scale things. Finally I was starting to feel happy with him. I took him outside and the colours really stood out in the daylight. Yes, now I’m happy.