3D Clay Picture

Have you ever looked at a beautiful picture or painting and wished it could come to life? In this instructable you will learn how to easily make a 3D Masterpiece of art.

You will need,

• Clay (lots of colors)
• Paper (graphed or hard paper)
• Something sharp (butter knife)
• Light pencil (for sketching)
• Picture frame (optional)

We decided to make a tree with a bird perching on it, so what we did is we sketched out an outline of what we wanted to make. Do not make the outline to dark or you will see it through the clay, you could just use a lighter pencil. For easier sketching use graph paper, for better quality use a harder paper. When you are done with your outline you can go to the next step.

To make the background you will need to make a thin layer of clay. We did this by spreading a blue piece of clay (for the sky) over the paper. Make this layer as thin as possible. In our picture we wanted to focus on the bird, flowers, and leaves. That meant that the tree was also in the background. If you want clouds in your picture (like we did) you can spread some white clay over the blue.

After the background is finished it is time to make the subject. On our picture we decided to have a perched bird to be the subject. For a feathery look we made some very thin clay strips and put them together, Fig.1-2. But sometimes it just takes to long so you can get a knife or anything sharp and sculpted some lines that look like strips, Fig.3. These strips make a perfect look for fir or feathers on any animal. When you are finished with the subject(s) it is time to add some little details that will make the picture even more beautiful.

Small details can be a Big change to the picture. We added some leaves and flowers to our tree which were above the background. We made leaves by pinching green clay into leave forms. You can use your creativity to add whatever you want to make your picture colorful. If you made a beautiful picture and want it to be extra special put on a picture frame like we did. It takes time but on the end it is amazing!