DIY Baby Groot

After watching Guardians of the Galaxy, I (like most people) wanted my own little dancing baby Groot. So naturally, I hit my office and decided to make one! I owe a lot of this to Darren Carnall's work, so credit to him for being a great artist. Like always, this was done on a super low budget, with you only needing very few items to complete this. Less typing, more working! So lets dive in!!

I got everything from a local craft store, but any art store should have what you need. Being that it's all very basic stuff.

1. Flower pot (if you can't find a white one, just spray paint it)

2. Wooden dowel

3. Mop

4. Molding Clay

5. Paint (Green/White/Brown)

6. Fake grass/twigs

7. Super Glue

8. Little bag of sand

There is a few more little things that I'll mention later, but it's things you probably have laying around the house.

Ok, so this is about 80% of the project. I was able to get the base/body done in about a little over an hour, this also isn't a super time consuming project. So after painting the flower pot white, I cut the dowel to the height I wanted. This may vary depending of what your going for, so you'll just have to eyeball it. Once cut, I super glued it to a small piece of wood that sits in the bottom of the pot, to act as a base. I then filled the pot with sand, and covered it with a round piece of Styrofoam wrapped in brown felt, kind of like a lid. After that, I took a pipe cleaner and wrapped it around the body to be his arms. After wrapping the pipe cleaner in thread, I super glued it to the body at a height I was happy with. Now the fun part.. From the top, I glued pieces of the mop head all the way to the bottom. Now you can wrap then any way you like while gluing, it'll give it a more "tree" look. Also, I'd use smaller pieces of thread for the arms. Not only does it look better, but you don't want the arms too heavy. When the body looks like you want it to, the painting begins!! I did a coat of dark brown, then many layers of lighter tones, with white and green mixed in to give it that textured/moss look. There is NO right way to do this, paint (with normal acrylics) until your happy with the look. When you finally get the body looking the way you want, let the paint dry, and get ready to mold the head!

I grew up sketching, and eventually started making things. But molding is by no means something I'm even a little good at. So if I can make his head, have all the confidence in the world that you can to! For his head, I used Super Sculpey. If your good at molding, please, use whatever your comfortable with. I find Super Sculpey extremely easy to work with. I made a small ball with the sculpey, and would hold it to the body, to make sure it's the right proportion to the body. When I felt it was right, I used my two thumbs to push in where the eyes would be on the face. This gave the ball a "face" look, with the gap between my thumbs not touched left to look like a bridge of a nose. It's hard to explain, but you'll understand if you play with it a bit. After that, I used some earrings I had laying around for the eyes, and a little clay (rolled out thin) to put above the eyes to be the lids. Once you have that, use a knife to carve his smile in. With the blade still in, work the knife up and down to really open up the mouth. Once you have those steps in, you can play with the clay to get a shape you like, bigger cheeks, smaller cheeks, bigger mouth, etc.. After that, use your knife to put some lines in the top of his head, you can do the same for the head al the way around. Again, there is no right way. When your all done, throw the head in the oven for about 275 degrees for 15 minutes. Be sure you have a hole in the bottom for the head before you do this, and also make sure it fits. Baking times may vary depending on what clay you used or how much clay you used, so I'd check the instructions before baking. Once he's out of the over, and cooled off. Hit him with a coat of primer (I used Gesso) and a few layers for brown/green/white until your happy with it. Don't forget the eyes, I went black.

No we attach the head!! I put some double sided tape in the dowel, to secure the head. I'm sure you could use hot glue, or maybe noting if it's already a tight fit. I had thin thread, painted it green and glued it to his body for a little vine look. I then coated the felt with the fake grass/twigs as well as his head. And there you have it, your very own baby Groot!! This is a super easy project, with a really cool result at the end. I hope everyone finds this helpful, or takes something away from this tutorial that could help if you went a different route in making Groot. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your new little dancing friend.