Step 4 - Wings

I re-done the wings three times. The first time I followed the turtorial and used sheets of mesh for the web of the wings. I cut the mesh to the size of the wing and used 0.5mm wire to attach it to the armature, I then covered the wing in a thin layer of super sculpey using sheets just like in the tutorial, but I wasn't happy with how it looked, it was very flat on the back of the and I had cut the mesh wrong so it didn't fit the way I hoped. I striped the wing back and started over. I done the wings the same way as before cutting the mesh to the correct shape this time, and to avoid the flat surface I used another piece off 2mm wire on the back of the mesh. I then covered both wings with super sculpey. 

I also used a short length of wire to attach the two wings together to stop them from drooping from the weight of the sculpey, but, this didn't work.

After looking at the both wings done, I decided that I hated them. The extra piece of wire on the back of the wing stopped it from being flat but this was too much armature and the back looked the same as the front, so did not look realistic. Furthermore, after looking at some more photos of dragons I noticed that most dragons had four spines in their wings, mine only had three.

During my years in education I finally learnt that if you don't like something then start over, I knew that if I left  it like this I would be really annoyed with myself and would not be happy with the finished sculpture so I striped the wings right back.

Step 3 - Scales

I wasn't going to do the scales until I had finished shaping the dragon and building up the muscles but I was wondering how I was going to do them and then got a little carried away. I used a short length of 2mm wire and bent it into shape this was used to cut the scales. I then started playing about with a few practice scales and then the tail just formed from there. I didn't stick the scales directly to the tail I actually put them together on a flat surface then wrapped them around the tail like a sheet.

Step 2 - Super Sculpey

Once I was happy with the shape and size of the model I covered the entire thing with a layer of super sculpey between 1mm and 2mm thick, this was just to cover the model I was to build on this later.

I then went on to make the head and build up the muscles on the chest a bit.

Step 1 - Armature

Before using any super sculpey I needed to build a wire armature and pack it out using foil, this was to get the shape and size of the dragon and would also help to keep it's shape when baking it in the oven. I followed the tutorials closely when doing this and used the same measurements, this was a fairly simple stage.

Super Sculpey Dragon

I have a lot of spare time at the moment and decided to use this time do something creative. I have never used super sculpey before and it's a material I have wanted to try for some time. I wanted to build something which was not too complicated but also not really simple as it would be my first time using the material and I do like a bit of a challenge. I decided to build a small sculpture of a winged dragon because my partner has an interest in dragons and it was something we would keep.

I browsed the internet for tutorials and found one which was quiet useful to get me  started.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aebiteoqqgE&list=PLA57C91659D2F83E6
There are ten parts to this video which takes you through a time lapse of the building of a three headed dragon using super sculpey, of course mine would only have the one head. The first few were very helpful to get me started.