Saturday, September 23, 2006

Children's Books Display - Part 9



Like the bear, the rabbit's frame was built of a cardboard silhouette (in this case a profile view) built up with newspapers, and cardboard ears and feet.


What appears to be the simplest character was actually the most difficult to do. The initial priming revealed all manner of flaw, and because I knew I wanted the rabbit to be white, I knew that I had to completely eliminate all of them. I ended up building layer after layer on this form trying to even, and smooth it out. I used the newspaper pulp mixed with wheat flour paste to even out the form as I built it up, and carefully layered varying tiny newspaper strips over it with paper mache in order to smooth it out.


The results weren't perfect, but I could live with them.



The inner ears, nose and paw pads were painted pink over about six coats of white paint. The inner mouth was painted red. Black plastic eyes, and some batting for the tail completed the look. I opted not to add whiskers as I didn't think they'd be visible in the finish piece and would be more of a detraction than an addition.

This final closeup is before final paint touch-ups.

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