I continue to build the neck and shoulders up in layers of epoxy clay. I sculpt the final layer of epoxy clay to mimic the feather texture on the head. The join looks obvious in this photo, but after it’s been primed and painted it’s nearly seamless.
On the front side of the neck, I have planned to glue actual feathers to form a sort of neck ruff. Ravens tend to puff out their neck feathers like this, so I think a neck ruff will help them to look more raven-like. I sculpt little holes all over the front of the neck so that I’ll have an easy way to glue all the ruff feathers in later.
At this point, most of the hard-sculpting is done, and it’s time to paint the sculpted features. I use enamel primer, and then paint over it with acrylics. I use a few different washes, to try and pick out some of the feather detail, then give it a final coat of acrylic varnish (matte except for the eyes where I use gloss to give them a wet look).
Next, it is time to start making the clothing. Usually, I start with the shoes and then work my way up. I want the clothes to look vaguely Viking, since these are characters from Norse mythology, so I did a lot of research on the web and came up with something inspired by 11th century Viking garb. I’m not trying to go for historical accuracy, but I do want them to have a historical feel. For the shoes, I found a pattern online for skoles, a kind of ancient turn-shoe. I have adapted the pattern to my ravens’ feet, and cut little shoe patterns out of very thin leather. I found a leather with a nice pebbled texture to it that I thought gave the impression of scaly bird feet. I glue these leather pieces directly onto the foot, basically constructing the shoe around the foot form (as opposed to constructing the shoe separately and then trying to slip it on the foot). I even give the shoes a tiny little bit of knotted leather lacing to look like a tab closure.
