Thread: Spooky tree tutorial

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This product is made primarily with dry/silk floral foam (3 or 4 blocks)
1lb to 1 1/2 lbs of Celluclay instant mache (purchased at Michaels)
10 thick pipe cleaners
1 pkg Sculpey clay
approx. 5 ozs. Sculpt or Coat from this link http://www.sculpturalarts.com/
Acrylic paints

First, carve out a block of foam to look like a bent hand and arm using a paring knife and bend a piece of pipe cleaner in half and insert into the foam, forming the fingers. Don't worry about the length of the fingers at this point. Start adding the Celluclay to the hand portion only and the base of the fingers. Let dry before doing the next step.


Next, insert the arm/hand forms into a piece of Saran Wrap covered foam with toothpicks. Decide how wide at the base this needs to be depending on what it will be supporting. Now add pieces of leftover foam into the middle to form the center of the tree (this doesn't have to be solid because you'll be carving some of this out to form openings in the trunk.

This pic shows how more mache was applied and holes were carved out and features were added. You can now start building on the length of the fingers (this usually takes about 3 or 4 steps because of the drying time required for each length and thickness)

This pic shows the fingers almost completely formed

Next, make some little twig/snake like forms from the Sculpey clay as well as claws (if desired) and bake according to the instructions. Then just add those where desired on the tree using more Celluclay to hold in place.

Once that is dry, add a 1/4 to 1/2 inch of Celluclay and flatten on the foam piece you used to hold the form (if dry, remove the sculpt from the base) then replace the sculpt on top of that flattened piece as this will become the bottom of the base. Push down slightly on the sculpt and trim away excess from the roots around the tree.

Again, wait until that dries almost completely and gently remove the sculpt and set upside down to dry the bottom of the base.

Next, I coated the entire sculpt with Sculpt or Coat. It dries to a slight gloss so it's easy to see where more needs to be added. Once that dries, the real fun begins....time to paint!

This pic shows a base coat of black acrylic...followed by two other shades of gray and brown. I mostly used a stencil brush after the base black was applied.

And here's the results after a bit of green was added for moss.



I wouldn't consider this an easy project but it certainly kept me busy for about 30 hours...I had lots of fun with this and please pm me if you have any questions....I'm always happy to help.

You can view additional and larger pics at this link http://s133.photobucket.com/albums/q...tree%20how-to/

I like this SO much. With spooky lighting, low lying fog and an army of these, that would create one great display!!!

Excellent job and very creative. Keep up the good work!!!

graveyardmadness

LB, you just gave me an idea for my haunted forest. Oooh, this is going to be cool!!

Youre so freaking awesome LB, i loved it. Great job.

Hey how much did this cost to make anyway?

Originally Posted by turtle2778

Hey how much did this cost to make anyway?

I still have to put all the costs together, and thanks for the compliment

OK Laurie, I was impressed by your ability when I first saw your monster heads and hands. Then I was amazed at your creativity when I saw the posessed pumpkins and the latest guy, and completely blown away when I saw them in person. But I gotta tell ya my friend, you're creepin' me out a little here... no one person should have this much talent! It's just not fair!
Where will it end? Infinity I hope...

Love it, great job, again...

Awwww, thanks house that's so sweet of you to say. It's kinda funny though, when I started this prop, it was just going to be three hands holding the head....I may still do one of those. However, once I started working on it, all these memories of spooky trees came to mind and inspiration just took over. I couldn't stop! I'd work on this thing 6 or 7 hours at a time. I planned on having faces in the tree, but I pretty much let the sculpt tell me where to put them. I think I had more fun with this sculpt than any of the others.

omg i soooo love this!!! i LOVE haunted forest type things and this is just perfect!!!!!
i see many uses for this. i will make a face in mine. and place by my haunted house i just made hehehe. im even envisioning a lil skelly peeking out from behind the tree too ok and maybe i can figure out how to make a lil owl and place in the tree. maybe a bunch of rotten apples with worms hanging in the tree too ......very very fun ideas here for me