How to Create a Colorful Snow Dragon
5190 Views, 6 Favorites, 0 Comments
How to Create a Colorful Snow Dragon
I am so excited about this snow sculpture, mainly because I waited literally a MONTH for it to snow so I could make something fun! I was living in FL for the past 6 months, so being back in the cold was not cool with me, so I at least wanted some of the white stuff. Once I got it, I went to town and immediately started creating, bc it was already hot the very next day. This was finished in two hours, lasted the evening and then MELTED by the next evening! So sad!
Applying color to snow is something new that I randomly thought up and tested last year. I made a snow turtle and put food coloring in a bottle and diluted it with water. I sprayed the turtle and the color held so I knew that the next time it snowed I was going to do something crazier with it!
Hence, a fully colored snow Dragon! Since you cannot find food color in such awesome shades as other dyes I decided to use some old fabric dyes I had from college. Basically that is ALL you need....the list is below.
Materials
5 different fabric dye colors (I used bright blue, fuscia, blue violet, black, yellow orange etc)
1 misting spray bottle
and of course SNOW!!
Tools
YOUR own hands and some creativity :)
Don't forget time...2 hrs at least.
Applying color to snow is something new that I randomly thought up and tested last year. I made a snow turtle and put food coloring in a bottle and diluted it with water. I sprayed the turtle and the color held so I knew that the next time it snowed I was going to do something crazier with it!
Hence, a fully colored snow Dragon! Since you cannot find food color in such awesome shades as other dyes I decided to use some old fabric dyes I had from college. Basically that is ALL you need....the list is below.
Materials
5 different fabric dye colors (I used bright blue, fuscia, blue violet, black, yellow orange etc)
1 misting spray bottle
and of course SNOW!!
Tools
YOUR own hands and some creativity :)
Don't forget time...2 hrs at least.
Creating the Head of the Dragon
This is obviously the most important part, because if you do not get the head of the sculpture looking pretty proportional and more three dimensional, people will not recognize it.
To start off I actually shoveled most of my front yard into a pile big enough and long enough to create a dragon with. I did this step all at once, that way I would not have to stop sculpting to go get more snow a million times.
I honestly am not sure how else to describe this process, but I will give it a go. It takes a lot of planning in your head before hand. If you are not good at this I would recommend sketching or building the sculpture out of clay to begin with to get it right. I just find it easier to wing it, but thats what I ALWAYS do.
Start with the head, because as I have learned from the past, it is usually the hardest and takes the longest to make.
I just kept piling on snow until I got the general shape I wanted for the head. Once I did that I actually used my gloves to carve into the snow and take away bits and pieces to create eye sockets and a mouth. It may be easier to find some kind of tools to help you carve as it was hard with the gloves, but I just prefer using my hands. Then you will actually have to add snow to created horns and eyes. I took handfuls of snow for the horns etc and kind of sculpted them in my hands before I placed them onto the head. After you have finished the look you want then move on to the arms and body!
To start off I actually shoveled most of my front yard into a pile big enough and long enough to create a dragon with. I did this step all at once, that way I would not have to stop sculpting to go get more snow a million times.
I honestly am not sure how else to describe this process, but I will give it a go. It takes a lot of planning in your head before hand. If you are not good at this I would recommend sketching or building the sculpture out of clay to begin with to get it right. I just find it easier to wing it, but thats what I ALWAYS do.
Start with the head, because as I have learned from the past, it is usually the hardest and takes the longest to make.
I just kept piling on snow until I got the general shape I wanted for the head. Once I did that I actually used my gloves to carve into the snow and take away bits and pieces to create eye sockets and a mouth. It may be easier to find some kind of tools to help you carve as it was hard with the gloves, but I just prefer using my hands. Then you will actually have to add snow to created horns and eyes. I took handfuls of snow for the horns etc and kind of sculpted them in my hands before I placed them onto the head. After you have finished the look you want then move on to the arms and body!
Creating the Body of the Sculpture
The rest of the adventure is basically just sculpting away to get a full dragon body. Its very similar to the head, except you are using massive amounts of snow and continuing to pat it all together to get what you want.
Once I have a general shape made, just like the head I go to work with my gloved hands and carve out the bottom of the dragons belly so it looks more three dimensional. I also add arms by piling up snow in little sculpted oval shapes, then I carve into them to get a more dramatic curve for arm and the claws. Same goes with the tail, just piled and patted down snow eventually carved into until some kind of dimension is created.
The last thing I added before coloring were the spikes on the dragon's back. Each of these were created by taking handfuls of snow and sculpting them to look triangular before applying them to the body. With every spike I just altered the size a little so that it would seem more realistic and be more interesting to the eyes. Now its time to apply COLOR!
Once I have a general shape made, just like the head I go to work with my gloved hands and carve out the bottom of the dragons belly so it looks more three dimensional. I also add arms by piling up snow in little sculpted oval shapes, then I carve into them to get a more dramatic curve for arm and the claws. Same goes with the tail, just piled and patted down snow eventually carved into until some kind of dimension is created.
The last thing I added before coloring were the spikes on the dragon's back. Each of these were created by taking handfuls of snow and sculpting them to look triangular before applying them to the body. With every spike I just altered the size a little so that it would seem more realistic and be more interesting to the eyes. Now its time to apply COLOR!
Applying Multiple Colors to Snow
This is the fun part, though it really hurts your hand and wrist after awhile due to squeezing the bottle a million times to get out the color. At this point I wish I had an airbrush or some form of automatic sprayer!
The first color I applied was a blue violet shade. With the fabric dye, it is best to put about half water and half dye into your mist spray bottle. This way it is diluted and the color seeps into the snow a little better instead of making it all spotted looking when applied.
Remember...unfortunately this color will not last long. If you had a lot of money and time to dye the snow all the way through then that would be great. Otherwise, the colors will fade and sometimes pretty fast. Some of my colors had started fading within the two hours...others lasted until the next day!
After you have your half water half dye mixture in the bottle start spraying! Keep a couple feet away just so that it sprays more evenly. I applied purple to the bottom half and then fuscia to the top half in order to give it more realism!
Once you have applied each color you HAVE to rinse out your bottle and color so that you can put the new color in the bottle. If the color is not rinsed out of the bottle well it will mix with whatever new color you put in, probably giving you a pretty nasty color. This step is probably the most annoying but essential to getting good colors.
When spraying the spikes and facial features come in a little closer to avoid getting the color all over the rest of his body so that each detail is more defined.
Last, add black dots to the eyes as pupils and your done! Take pictures as soon as you can because like I said before the color will fade and it will begin to melt!
Feel free to post on here and comment! Hope you enjoy making your own snow creation!
The first color I applied was a blue violet shade. With the fabric dye, it is best to put about half water and half dye into your mist spray bottle. This way it is diluted and the color seeps into the snow a little better instead of making it all spotted looking when applied.
Remember...unfortunately this color will not last long. If you had a lot of money and time to dye the snow all the way through then that would be great. Otherwise, the colors will fade and sometimes pretty fast. Some of my colors had started fading within the two hours...others lasted until the next day!
After you have your half water half dye mixture in the bottle start spraying! Keep a couple feet away just so that it sprays more evenly. I applied purple to the bottom half and then fuscia to the top half in order to give it more realism!
Once you have applied each color you HAVE to rinse out your bottle and color so that you can put the new color in the bottle. If the color is not rinsed out of the bottle well it will mix with whatever new color you put in, probably giving you a pretty nasty color. This step is probably the most annoying but essential to getting good colors.
When spraying the spikes and facial features come in a little closer to avoid getting the color all over the rest of his body so that each detail is more defined.
Last, add black dots to the eyes as pupils and your done! Take pictures as soon as you can because like I said before the color will fade and it will begin to melt!
Feel free to post on here and comment! Hope you enjoy making your own snow creation!