Sea Life in 3-D!

Asean'ee's Leopard Seal

For our first "Oceans, Beaches, and Sea Life" Art Camp project, we created these amazing sea animals in 3-D! 

This was a two-day, mixed media project involving painting, sculpting, and assemblage. 

The first step was to decide what type of sea animal to create and to study a few resource photos of the animal. 



Then we sketched the basic shape of the animal on our substrate (white sulphite paper), and we drew a waterline.

Then we went to work sculpting the portion of the animal that would be beneath the waterline using Model Magic. We made sure the back of the sculpture was flat so it could be glued to the background.

Next, we painted the background around the portion of the animal that was above the waterline, and we painted all the the water beneath the waterline. 

After it dried, we glued the painted sulphite paper to a heavy piece of corrugated cardboard, which was cut slightly smaller than the paper, and we folded the edges around the cardboard and glued them down.



Next, we painted the top of our sea creatures (above the waterline), then painted the model Magic sculptures to match the top. Once dry, we glued the sculpture to the substrate with white glue.




We bent the cardboard at the bottom to create a base, and we proceeded to glue on seashells. 



We also attached pipe cleaner seaweed, swaying with the waves, as an option.

Finally, we attached two triangular stands to the base and sides so our scenes could stand up on a shelf or table.

Shea's Ribbon Seal

Joseph's Spotted Dolphin

My sample