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Description
Here for your viewing pleasure, is My Little Pony custom Tutorial 2: Sulptin' With Apoxie. This is part of my work in progress pictures from making my Baby Moogle custom:

Note: This tutorial is just how I go about doing things, and many artists find different ways of making customs.

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1. Ah, so your pony is prepped and ready for some sweet sculpting action. Well, what I always do is make sure I have all my supplies on hand. On my lovely craft table I have my prepped pony, some water, hand lotion, paper towels, various tools (mostly dentist tools), and Aves Apoxie Sculpt. You of course can use all kinds of fun things to sculpt with, but these are my basics.

A note about Apoxie: 9/10 when you see something sculpted by me, I use this stuff. Why? Mostly because its nice to work with, air dries so I don't risk melting a pony in the oven, it doesn't shrink or warp like some clays so, and it dries very sturdy. Other popular options for sculpting on a pony are Sculpey, Fimo, Lumiere Clay, and other craft clays. But for this tutorial, I'm working with Apoxie. :3

2. Mixing the Apoxie! Its a two part solution- and once its well mixed you have about 3 hours to work with it until it dries. This of course varies on location, time of the year, etc, but as a general rule of thumb its about 3 hours. So first I start by rolling little balls of each part to equal size.

3. Then I roll the balls of clay into "snakes"...

4. Then I make a "caterpillar" by twisting the snakes together.

5. And then SMASH THE CATERPILLAR!! Yeaaaaaah! I usually work the clay for a few minutes. You want to make sure to blend them evenly, if you don't the clay won't dry correctly. But if you knead the clay around for a few minutes, I find I rarely ever have issues.

6. While letting the clay start to cure, I decide I'm going to give the clay a bit of an armature. Two popular things to use is wire mesh and wire. In this tutorial I'm only using the wire.

7. That doesn't look comfortable! I'm making a hole for the wire with a push pin.

8. Then I inserted the wire with pliers.

9. I also added a glob of apoxie to the inside of his head where the wire came in, to keep it from falling out later. Do be careful, you don't want to cover up the hair plug holes if you plan on rehairing the pony!

10. Using the same method, I also gave him guide wires for his wings.

11. Next I'm working on giving him some bigger hooves. On his right side you can see the clay before it is blended in. I use the water to blend it in at this point.

12. Adding more details- this time his pom pom and nose

13. And adding his fuzzy jowls.

14. Before drying, make sure to smooth out the clay. Here I am smoothing some out with a tool, but I also use my hands with hand lotion. This saves on sanding later.

15. Here he is with his wings! He's almost ready to dry!

16. And while he is drying, since he is going in my car, I stuffed him with dryer sheets for that April Fresh smell.

Part one of this series:

More tutorials to come soon. Be sure to check out my gallery for other custom my little ponies and toys! Comments and faves appreciated!

Description
Here for your viewing pleasure, is My Little Pony custom Tutorial 2: Sulptin' With Apoxie. This is part of my work in progress pictures from making my Baby Moogle custom:

Note: This tutorial is just how I go about doing things, and many artists find different ways of making customs.

************
1. Ah, so your pony is prepped and ready for some sweet sculpting action. Well, what I always do is make sure I have all my supplies on hand. On my lovely craft table I have my prepped pony, some water, hand lotion, paper towels, various tools (mostly dentist tools), and Aves Apoxie Sculpt. You of course can use all kinds of fun things to sculpt with, but these are my basics.

A note about Apoxie: 9/10 when you see something sculpted by me, I use this stuff. Why? Mostly because its nice to work with, air dries so I don't risk melting a pony in the oven, it doesn't shrink or warp like some clays so, and it dries very sturdy. Other popular options for sculpting on a pony are Sculpey, Fimo, Lumiere Clay, and other craft clays. But for this tutorial, I'm working with Apoxie. :3

2. Mixing the Apoxie! Its a two part solution- and once its well mixed you have about 3 hours to work with it until it dries. This of course varies on location, time of the year, etc, but as a general rule of thumb its about 3 hours. So first I start by rolling little balls of each part to equal size.

3. Then I roll the balls of clay into "snakes"...

4. Then I make a "caterpillar" by twisting the snakes together.

5. And then SMASH THE CATERPILLAR!! Yeaaaaaah! I usually work the clay for a few minutes. You want to make sure to blend them evenly, if you don't the clay won't dry correctly. But if you knead the clay around for a few minutes, I find I rarely ever have issues.

6. While letting the clay start to cure, I decide I'm going to give the clay a bit of an armature. Two popular things to use is wire mesh and wire. In this tutorial I'm only using the wire.

7. That doesn't look comfortable! I'm making a hole for the wire with a push pin.

8. Then I inserted the wire with pliers.

9. I also added a glob of apoxie to the inside of his head where the wire came in, to keep it from falling out later. Do be careful, you don't want to cover up the hair plug holes if you plan on rehairing the pony!

10. Using the same method, I also gave him guide wires for his wings.

11. Next I'm working on giving him some bigger hooves. On his right side you can see the clay before it is blended in. I use the water to blend it in at this point.

12. Adding more details- this time his pom pom and nose

13. And adding his fuzzy jowls.

14. Before drying, make sure to smooth out the clay. Here I am smoothing some out with a tool, but I also use my hands with hand lotion. This saves on sanding later.

15. Here he is with his wings! He's almost ready to dry!

16. And while he is drying, since he is going in my car, I stuffed him with dryer sheets for that April Fresh smell.

Part one of this series:

More tutorials to come soon. Be sure to check out my gallery for other custom my little ponies and toys! Comments and faves appreciated!