Papier-mâché dragon. How to make a dragon from papier-mache Making dragons from papier-mache

Next year 2012 will be the year of the Black Dragon. The following master class on creating a dragon from papier-mâché will be very useful for those who want to make an original gift with their own hands. Master class by Margarita Amar.

In this master class we will try to make such funny papier-mâché dragons.

So where do we start?
We'll start by creating a sketch.
A ready-made picture can help us in this, if an image already invented by someone is created.
Well, if it is an unprecedented beast, then it would be nice to draw all the details, their location and proportions.

I want to note that in the process of work it may happen that the image itself will begin to dictate certain clarifications to its appearance and, as a result, may
the result is not quite what was intended. But if the image is already well complex and mentally polished, then the changes in the manufacturing process can be quite small.

So - the sketch is ready. On it we lay out the wire frame of the body. We need to try to convey all the curves more accurately. The expressiveness of our work depends on this.

A layer of newspaper dipped in PVA glue should be wrapped around the frame. It is better to dilute the glue with water - it will interfere with us if it quickly "sets".

The photo shows that several layers have been applied - and one of them is fabric. For convenience, you can also use a shabby fabric.
In order to make it convenient to continue working further, the workpiece must be dried.
This can be done in the summer in the sun, in the winter - on the battery, or in a not very hot oven (cooking mode for dried fruits)
The body blank must be made with a margin of volume - to be thinner than necessary - after all, a textured layer will be applied on top of it. It is for the textured layer that we will leave a stock of volume.

Add-ons must be applied to the dried workpiece. In our case, these are teeth on the back and folds on the abdomen.
The teeth are cut from thin cardboard. And for the folds, I used a dense linen fabric.
It also needs to be moistened with glue and draped. We leave everything to dry.
And we start making wings, legs and handles.
We need copper wire for them. For the legs, it is more convenient to take a three-core one - three fingers on the leg will turn out if you remove part of the braid at the end of the wire blank.
The webbing can be done by pasting the wire "fingers" with paper so that something resembles flippers.
A single copper wire is suitable for the wings.
The main requirement for the wire for the wings and legs is good rigidity and elasticity, the stability of the figure and the strength of the wings depend on this.

We also make the frame of the wings according to the sketch, fastening the pieces of wire with a thread or thin wire.

Glue a piece of guipure onto the finished frame. The glue should be thick with good adhesion. Here I am using PVA joiner's glue.
When the guipure is firmly glued, we carefully cut off all unnecessary. For durability it is possible to stitch along the guipure with a thread "in the girth" of the wire.
After that, we cover all the wings with a layer of PVA. We dry everything.

Let's start making pens.

For fingers, you need a thin copper wire, which will be wrapped in strips of paper handkerchiefs. We do not cut the strips with scissors, but tear them by hand - the torn edge will be less noticeable on thin details.
It is necessary to apply the glue to the paper tapes very carefully, and it is better if it is in a bottle with a thin spout - just pour the glue with a thin thread over the entire paper tape and immediately wind it on the wire, do not use a brush.

I also want to add

that it is better to dry the blanks of fingers by placing them vertically, sticking one at a time into a stand made of a piece of foam.

Making fingers is the most painstaking part of the job. Someone who is difficult - you can make a pen without fingers - just sculpt a simplified handle from paper pulp.

Well, whoever wants to work hard - it's worth it, you must agree - such pens will greatly decorate the work, give it a special expressiveness ...
The pens are made in the simplified technique of Natasha Lopusova-Tomskaya.

The pasted over dried blanks of fingers are collected in a brush and fastened together with the same strips of paper, which were made by the winding for the fingers.

For the head, we will cut out a blank from construction insulation ... The material is very malleable, it is easy to work with it.

Here is such a detail turned out for me. Here you need to remember that you need to cut it out taking into account the fact that
that paper layers will be superimposed on it and its size will increase in the process of work. So, cutting out, we also take into account the volume reserve for subsequent layers.

We glue the blank with a layer of newspaper. And the top layer will be textured.
Textured layer - paper pulp moistened with PVA glue. For convenience, I roll it out with a rolling pin, placing it in a plastic bag.
In this form, it can be stored for several days until you use it all.

We carefully remove the mass from the film and apply it to the workpiece. This helps us to evenly cover the entire figurine with a textured layer.
It must be applied carefully, compacting with a dry bristle brush, trying to preserve all the irregularities, not to smooth them out.

This is what we should end up with.

Connecting parts is not difficult. With an awl we make holes in the right place, drip thick glue into the hole and insert the details of the handles and legs into them. And for strength - we fill the voids in the hole with papier-mash mass.
Once dry, everything will be strong enough.

And then the most important thing begins - the coloring of the figurine.
Here you will need all your imagination and imagination. There can be a huge number of color options!
But the most important thing is to emphasize the texture of the surface of the craft. For this, a technique such as multi-layer painting is used.
The lower layers will be darker, the upper ones lighter.
In this case, the upper layers are applied on the "tops", without completely overlapping the lower ones, so that the lower layers of paint are visible in the recesses of our textured layer.
This will give expressiveness, emphasize the relief of the surface.
There are usually 3-4 layers of paint.

And for even more expressiveness, add cilia and a tuft.

You're done!
On top of the figures you need to apply a protective layer (after all, we remember that all this is just paper). Lacquer or wax will protect paper from moisture.
Any household varnish can be used to cover floors. I like wax more - the work covered with wax is very pleasant to the touch and does not have a strong gloss.
Use a wax polish to wax the figurines. After application, it must be allowed to dry and rubbed with a soft cloth.

Taken from papier-mache2010.blogspot.com/2010/11/blog-post.html

Master class by Margarita Amar

Other Master classes from the rubric

This technique, despite its apparent simplicity, has its own secrets. So, if you decide to make any paper crafts with your own hands, we advise you to tear the paper with your hands, and not with scissors or other objects. Self-torn paper is softer and has no hard edges.

In this workshop, you will learn the fun process of making papier-mâché crafts. You can make such a wonderful dragon with your own hands.

We will need: pliers, side cutters, awl, scissors, needles, brushes, glue gun. Material: papier-mâché, paper, cardboard, PVA, superglue, wire of different hardness (ideally, aluminum), paint, color scheme, varnish. Here, as you like, as you are accustomed to. I have acrylic gouache, color schemes. The varnish is also acrylic.

We decide on the type of beast. Accordingly, we choose dishes for the most important thing in my opinion - the head. I have a can of coffee. This is about two-thirds of the size of a regular pub. We paste over with scraps of paper, carefully coat with PVA. Let it dry and cut lengthwise, leaving one part slightly larger than the other.

These are the blanks. I immediately pasted on more paper, alternating with cardboard, so that later I would sculpt less papier-mâché.

The halves are dry, now you can work with them further. On the top, we sketch out nostrils, eyes, eyelids. A bit of relief. Someone makes eyes from HF, someone from plaster. I make from papier. And immediately I stick to the skull. Here, of course, I missed some points. Eyeballs need to be made much larger than they will later look. Because, pasted over with the lower and then the upper eyelids, they will significantly decrease in size.
We glue the lower jaw (as well as the upper one) with paper from the inside to the outside in order to give a more finished look and give the shape of the bow of the boat in the front part, and cut the back, since then we will have to reduce its length.

After drying, adjust the size. You want the posterior edge of the jaw to fit into the top of the head. Do not forget that it should be shorter than the top. We take out. The pieces were bent overlapping, fastened either with a stapler, but better with a glue gun with a gun.

We do not regret the glue. Then there will be less disappointments.

Now let's get down to language. I have it bifurcated. We measure out two pieces of wire, which is thicker, five centimeters longer than the lower jaw. Part of the tongue will look outward, and part will bend inside. That is why the length should be greater. An awl pierced two holes in the back of the jaw next to it. We glue the ends of the wire and fix them in them. Then we begin to wrap with paper, first at a short distance from each other, then, generally spreading the ends. We do not lower the tongue until we connect properly with the jaw. Then you can omit, but not completely. We achieve when pasting the relief. We reduce the tips to nothing. In the outlined gums, we make holes for the teeth with an awl. They do not walk in even rows, but like drunken ones - back and forth. And the slope is also "lame". Because the teeth will also be inclined.

The holes run somewhere from the middle of the jaw to the beak. This is more than enough.

While the tongue dries, add some papier to the top of the head, marking out the beak and thorns. It is better to glue them over with napkins so that the mass is better fixed. From the inside, we make the surface bumpy. Well, add thickness to the outside of the gum.

Here. And the holes for the teeth, respectively. Don't be afraid to make them wider. Then there will be less hassle with the insertion of teeth.

A war with teeth begins. First I made it out of HF. Everything is nothing: both realistic and pleasant to the touch. But fragile ... So far, I broke the essence and half of the case and decided to make it out of paper.

Well, here they are. I describe the manufacturing process.

Cut the wire according to the number of holes. Better about ten more. I took the wire harder to insert it more conveniently. She bit off both top and bottom obliquely. The top also sharpened. Let me explain. The pointy ends will fit more easily into the papier, and the top will be easier to pull out, so that the teeth are sharper. Now, again, sparing no glue, we begin to wind the disposable scarves torn in narrow strips ahead of time. I felt sorry for them, so at first I wrapped the newspaper in the same narrow strips. You need to grab the tip of the wire with your fingers (or pliers) and start winding from this place, thinning towards the end. All teeth are different, so we make some of them longer and thicker, some shorter and thinner. Do not overdo it with thickness. We don't want logs of wood to stick out in our mouths, do we? Do not forget to press with your fingers, giving completeness. Let it dry. The color turns out to be too white, so we shade it a little with paint ... yellow or beige. Just a little bit. Dry and varnish again. Yes, it's better this way. Because then access to the teeth will be minimal.

Let's try. This is with HF. I just couldn't help it. Well, nothing like that.

Before collecting the head in a heap, we ALWAYS paint the inside of the mouth. Otherwise, getting inside is simply unrealistic. I painted it in burgundy, someone might like orange or pink. Who has what taste. Ideally, it is better to cover with varnish at this stage.
But now we are collecting the little head. We put the lower jaw into the upper one, considering that the lower jaw is shorter. Trying it on carefully. Fine? Above? Sideways? Below? Fine! We fasten everything with what is. Have you secured it? Fine! Now we cover the joints with papier-mâché, not forgetting that the bird doesn’t open up to the back of the head.

It's time to get down to the torso. White wire is thinner, black wire is thicker. We cleanse from isolation. If you have no isolation - I envy you! However, you can leave it as it is.

We estimate the length of the neck, torso, legs. We don’t "touch" our hands yet. It is better to "sketch" it on paper with your head in the same place. I did it by eye, so there is no drawing. We twist the wire twice. It can be tripled. It was enough for me. And we bend, giving at least some similarity.

For the second leg, we twist another piece of wire. Then, cut the tail wire. I have it as long as the body + neck.

We bend the wire for the missing fingers in half, fix it on the foot, taking one end forward and the other back. We start from the neck to wrap the future body with strips of cardboard, securing it with a pistol. Do not forget to leave the ends of the wire around the neck of sufficient length in order to secure the head on them.

All fingers are assembled, the volume increases, the tail is also overgrown with "meat".
On the legs, you need to add a claw just above the foot. I didn’t bother - I pierced holes where needed, after I screwed up the volume, glued in the wire, measuring its length with the future claws on the toes. Then she also wrapped it in paper, not forgetting to grab the leg.

I am making a discovery for myself - if the cells from under the eggs are broken in half lengthwise, and then flattened, as in the photo, you get a wonderful material for a quick increase in volume. So they can still be combined with the teeth to the teeth and vice versa.

Well, now it's time to reattach the head. Having tried it on, we make a hole in it at the base and put it on the left ends of the wire. I got it too long. She mercilessly ripped off part of the cardboard and part of the wire. We put it on again. We remove it again, pour glue into the holes, put it on properly and hold it until it hardens (I glued it with a gun). Well, now we give the head a tilt so that the bird looks not like a monument, but more lively. We look this way and that. You can also take the paper so that the body is smoother under papier-mâché. We put the pieces more carefully on the joint of the head and neck.
Don't forget about the tail. He also needs to pay attention. We don’t bother with embellishments yet. The main thing is to give shape. We also build up the fingers, leaving part of the wire on the claws.

Yes, I stick my claws wherever I want. You need to bend them in the direction you want. We build up the fingers, bending them (look at the paws of the same chickens).

When we have dealt with the paper, we glue the papier over the entire body. We mean that the bird will have to be balanced until it is stable on its paws. It's good if the tail is also a fulcrum. We try to give the body the outlines that can be seen in a plucked chicken: ass, chest ... My bird is more a runner than a flyer, so my legs, together with their upper part, should be powerful. In addition, the bird is a predator, which means that it is also a means of attack ...
The mass has dried up, you can take up the wings. Again, roughly compare with chicken. About! We make the wire in two or three folds up to the fingers. There you can also single. We bend in two places. Roughly speaking, in the elbow and in the hand. The length to the elbow is the shortest, the next piece is longer, and where the birds have the end of the wing - the longest. On the elbow from the outside we fasten the wire for the claw. You can do without it, but it's more interesting this way. We also glue the toes on with papier-mâché, highlighting the tendons starting just above the foot and ending somewhere in the middle of the toes. You can also increase the claws a little. It will be clearer what to do next.
For the wings we make holes in the body of the bird somewhere in the middle between the legs and neck. A little closer to the neck. Trying on. Fine? Then glue it in. If it’s almost not so, it’s not scary. Then all the same with papier to work.

Well, the wings are in place. Add fingers to them. Roughly speaking. I have only three of them, so I had to add two. Each of them is shorter than the previous one. We take the wires with a margin and simultaneously wind the fingers and claws from the resulting joint. Then we cut off the excess.
The papier is already dry, and here you can see that the beast is standing on its own feet.

First we wrap the entire skeleton of the wings, and then we cover it with paper, including the claws. Claws - without fanaticism, so that they do not look like stumps afterwards. More carefully - the joint. Still, the wire is not firmly fixed, everything dangles slightly.

Do not forget to thicken the shoulder while gluing it to the body. To keep it like a glove.

Do not bring the "wings" tightly to the body. Leave room for "meat" and "skin".

From time to time we return to the claws. Do not forget that they are not stubs either, they should not be thick and pointed at the end. At the very tip of the paper, literally to "cover up shame." Otherwise, then she will hesitate and the claws will be blunt.

So I wanted to try on teeth, already itching in my fingers. I tried it on. Great. Only in my opinion, rather small. And it was then that I realized how fragile they are.

The tail keeps growing and growing. I needed it to be a fulcrum too, so I had to glue an additional weight into it - gas cans. But again, I will have thorns on my tail, so we expect the tail not to touch the table a little.

We continue to create the shape of a bird with the help of papier-mâché, adding there, crushing there.

You see, the claws are thick. Then we'll figure it out. We sculpt the wings. Each finger is visually divided into three parts in ascending order, the longest - to the edge of the wing. And bend it slightly, highlighting the joint. We thicken it a little, winding it up with strips of paper.

We spread the skeleton to the sides and sculpt the plane of the wings from paper. Be sure to top and bottom, overlapping the bones. We carefully glue the tips so that they do not interfere. Bones should stand out less from above than from below. We leave the edge more than necessary. When dry, cut out in a semicircle. Paste the edge with paper.
On the already formed tail, in the holes made with an awl, we begin to add "spikes" - pieces of wire. For me, they go from the feline and just a little short of the end of the tail, at first shorter, then a little longer and again shorter. But not much. At the end we insert a wire for a thorn.

The wings are dry. Now we make the "folds of the skin". The same paper. We lubricate both the wing and the PVA paper, apply the wet paper to the wing and "shrink" it, trying to arrange the folds as on real skin, in a slight mess. The beginning to dry out - we bring the wing to the desired state, straightening the folds between the fingers, with the convex part up.

Well, here you can see more clearly that the thorns "move out". Of course, because for real, not pretend.

And, of course, they do not stand upright, bent: the first slightly forward, then smoother and from the middle of the tail - to the tip.

Here the legs are closer. We still roll up the claws, not striving for stumps. They should not be rounded, so we give them a shape. If cut across, it will look like a gnarled triangle with squeezed sides, apex down. To do this, with the index and thumb of one hand, we press down at the base of the nail and so slowly, squeezing, we lead to the tip. With the finger of the other hand, simultaneously squeeze from above.

Wrap the thorns with softer paper. I have handkerchiefs, because the thorns are not claws, not so thick. We make it thinner at the base, gradually sharpen it towards the end.

This is how they turn out: curves, like a "Turkish saber". And this is just wonderful! MANDATORY - splicing paper with the tail itself.

We made spikes on the tail, we do the same on the neck. And we glue it with paper so that the tips remain outward, pushing, so that the sides of the thorns show themselves in all their glory. We sculpt bone growths on the back from papier between times. In three rows. The side rows are lower and narrower. We cut the paper between the thorns in a semicircle, cut off the excess, and carefully fold what is left, grease it with glue and shape it. The left wing could not resist - I smeared it with putty. Densely. I had to dilute a little, otherwise the relief is completely overwritten.

The teeth staggered, because they turned out to be fragile, they broke off. Nothing, let's insert others, more beautiful than the previous one! But this is a difficult case ... From now on I will only make paper. But this is my personal choice. I decided to fit more thorns on the head. The processing is the same as on the tail and neck. During this time, everything has already dried up there. You can make it look like the skin, like on the wings, only softer, with low folds.

Add papier-mâché on the wing bones, trying to build a semblance of muscles. From the elbow to the center of the chest. Dried up - let's take care of the scales. I did it in the palm of my hand. I decided that it shouldn't be smooth. We open the palm, bring the little finger and the big one a little. We get a hollow - this is the form.
We sculpt, starting from the legs, given that the size of the scales is different: on the legs and chest - larger, under the wings and closer to the head - smaller. And further. In the fold, it fits tighter to each other. On the other hand, where the neck arches, it bulges.
Even on the palm of the tailbone, my bird has pseudo-wings - very elongated scales. We sculpt them simultaneously with the scales on the legs. I applied immediately, did not dry out. I waited until it was half dry - and trimmed it a little. I put "bone" plates on the throat and in the lower part of the chest.

And again add the relief on the muzzle. And again I can't stand it - I put putty on the thorns on my head. Fine!

I do not cover everything with scales. This is my idea. This is where it ends. Below there will be a skin, like on the wings. On the tail there are pseudo-feathers and also a skin.

We bring the "backbone" to mind.

There are no pseudo-feathers here yet. I just stuck them after, but I had to before ...

At this stage, we give the claws and thorns a finished shape using sandpaper. At first, medium roughness, then fine.

Now we putty, we prime (I did it with PVA), and then we apply a thick layer of dark paint. I have not yet decided what color the bird will be, so I chose this one. But it should be black. Just then I had to tinker more.

We try not to climb especially on the spikes. Then paint them separately, but it is better when they remain light.

We paint over properly so that there is not a drop of lumen. Including under the scales.

We no longer look at the teeth. The paint has dried. We select the color that your animal will have. I have it - swamp. We apply the main tone, not really going into the grooves. We take a lighter tone. Apply in the most prominent places.

Before painting around the eyes, paint the eyes themselves. Here it is better to wander on the Internet, I cannot explain it as needed - I myself suffered for three days to achieve at least what happened. Well, finally, a little animal with teeth! They need to be given a slope inside the mouth. Looks differently like prostheses. Highlight the dark area around the eyes. I am black.

We add shades in different places: on the pseudo-feathers - beige, on the wings - a little pinkish, on the sides of the neck - emerald or blue. In general, as fantasy tells. At the bases of the claws and thorns, I first added a thin layer of brown over white, and then a little redness, immediately smearing it, or how to correctly say it with a wet brush, so that the color transition was not sharp.

Everything seems to be! Once again I covered the whole "lady" with PVA, waited until it was dry. And if I cover the body with the varnish that I could find (that is, acrylic semi-gloss), then the eyes MUST! Glossy, and only glossy. Only then will they be alive! I have a glossy ship.

1 For work we need wire, newspapers, toilet paper, flour.

2 Work begins with the torso. Take a piece of wire 80-90 cm. We begin to wrap it with newspaper to get the shape of an egg. We dilute the flour with water and glue it with small pieces of paper. After every two layers we let it dry and again glue it to the desired shape. Unfortunately, I have not photographed this process, there is only a torso with a neck.

3 We pass to the head. From the newspaper we form a small egg and also glue it with small pieces of paper.

4 To shape the forehead, take larger pieces and glue them on the upper part.

Here is the form that suits me

5 cut my head in two

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6 For the teeth, I cut pieces of wire and wrap them with paper. In all subsequent processes I use water diluted with PVA. I took paper towels, they are denser. I glue them to the jaws and let them dry well

7 For the nose, I roll a knuckle out of paper, wet it with a PVA solution and smooth out my nostrils.

8 Now we need to make the tongue. Cut off two pieces of wire, wrap them with paper and connect.

I glue it to the lower jaw and paint it immediately. I also paint the upper part with the teeth.

9 When the head is dry, mark the place for the eyes, gently make small depressions with a knife and glue the eyes. Then, with two shanks dipped in the solution, I shape the eye, making the eyelids

10 We pass to the paws. We form them from wire, wrap with paper

Claws inserted not wrapped in paper and then dung with them.

And the finished front leg. The photo could not be translated.

And here is the hind leg.

We also do the tail.

11 I make two knuckles out of paper and glue on the face. Then we make two more knuckles and glue them from the horns to the center of the nose.
In the upper part of the head we make two holes for the horns, we wind the paper on two wires in the form of a cone, leaving 7 mm at the ends. wires. We put the horns in place. Then we make another hole and form a third horn out of the wire.

12 This is how the upper and lower jaws turned out.

13 On the body with the neck, mark a place for the paws on it, then cut holes with a knife

14 Take the front paws and stick the ends of the wire into the body stuffed with newspaper.

Pressing a paw to the body, we wind strips of paper dipped in PVA on it. In order for them not to disperse, we twist them with a wire together. Make a layer of winding thicker, let it dry well, they will stand stronger.

15 In the lower part of the head we make a hole and put it on the wire that comes out of the neck, again glue with strips of paper, smoothing out the scars.

16 In the back part we make a hole for the tail. And now the body is ready.

17 Wings remained.

For the base, cut off a wire of about 35 cm.

We wrap it with newspaper and thread, then with white paper and make four holes for the veins and glue it with strong glue
We cut the wire for the wing of different sizes 4 pieces.

Glue the wings with strong glue.

18 Cut out a piece of fabric larger than the wing, moisten it in a solution of PVA with water, glue it on the upper part of the wing and let it dry well. Then cut off the excess fabric. Under the wing we take a piece of paper towel moisten it in PVA and glue it on the lower part of the wing, then trim.

19 Ears Cut 6 wires, wrap with paper and do in the same way as for wings. Pasted over with paper.

20 Then we cut the squares, make triangles out of them

Glue on the face

On the front legs

And all in scales.

Then we paint.

So the dragon is ready.

This dragon is made from newspaper, papier-mâché paste, duct tape and paint. This is a budget option, as the cost for the dragon has risen to only $ 5.

Look at the photos, borrow ideas and create your own dragon.

Step 1:

The first step in creating a dragon is creating a small papier-mâché dragon sculpture. For this project, I took a newspaper rolled into a common dragon shape, and then I fastened all the pieces together with duct tape. For inspiration, you can check out some dragon drawings to get an idea of ​​what they look like.

Please note: practice papier-mâché away from books and other things, as it is a very messy activity.

I made the dragon's two hind legs separately, then attached them to the body to make sure both legs are the same size. The legs are attached to the body so that the thigh is close to the dragon's spine.

At this stage, I don't pay much attention to details like fingers, for example. I'm just trying to build an overall dragon shape and give it an interesting pose.

Step 2:

So, the hind legs are in place, now we attach the front ones. I continue to cover the paper with duct tape, this will give more strength to the inner shape of the dragon.

Step 3:

Now add a tail, spikes on the back, and then gently attach the tail and hind legs to the board.

Step 4:

We have now added the wings. First, the wings are made from newspaper using the papier-mâché technique in the same shape as the front legs. And then from the box for breakfast cereals we cut out something that looks like a fan and attach it with adhesive tape to the wings.

Attaching the wings to an animal that already has front legs is not an easy task, because the front legs are attached where the wings should be placed. Let's hope that the final figure will be quite bearable.

Step 5:

And now the dirtiest thing to do. I dip the pieces of newspaper into the flour and water mixture, squeeze out the excess and apply to the dragon. You need to do this as carefully as possible so that the surface is smooth.

Continue until the entire dragon is covered. I also covered the papier-mâché and duct tape that keeps the dragon on the board.

Step 6:

The weight of wet paper can distort the dragon's shape, so prop it up with, for example, a toilet paper cylinder until the first layer is completely dry.

Once the first layer is dry, apply the second and prop up the dragon again and let it dry.

Since this dragon is not a toy, two layers of papier-mâché will suffice. Once the layers are dry, the mold will be strong enough to stand unsupported.

Step 7:

Then we add details using small pieces of paper towel, which we also dip in papier-mâché. In the photo you can see that I have added the mouth, eyes, nostrils and chin.

We also leave these parts to dry. Then cover the entire sculpture with a layer of papier-mâché paste diluted with a small amount of wood glue. This will help us even out the texture and give the dragon's skin a smooth, bumpy surface.

Step 8:

Now paint the dragon with copper paint. The base itself is painted with black paint.

Step 9:

Using a relatively dry paint, I start to add color to the dragon. The first coat was applied with green paint. The photo shows that the copper color is still visible. You can stop at this stage, but I want to continue. Mix green with silver paint and add a little copper color, paint black and silver on the sides of the dragon to get spots. We paint the eyes last.

When the dragon was painted, the paint was dry, I finished the sculpture by painting it with varnish mixed with a little copper paint. Copper will help bring all the colors together so they look harmonious.

For a long time I wanted to do something unusual. Once I came across a photograph of a dinosaur head on the Internet, which was placed on the roof, it was made of a metal frame, on which paper and sticky tape were glued. Since then, I have been on fire with the idea of ​​doing something of this kind and placing it on the roof of my house. After looking at a lot of pictures, I decided to make a dragon. Unfortunately, large wings had to be sacrificed, otherwise the wind could break them. Well, in general, the dragon retained the outlines of its brothers, from whose pictures I collected the image. It came out quite decent size: 170 cm long and 75 cm high, weighing about 4 kg.

The papier-mâché technique allows you to make the sculpture lightweight and strong enough. This material is the best suited for "roof sculptures". In some source I read that the church, made of papier-mâché, stood for 35 years. So I made up my mind. But bad luck, I was engaged in the papier-mâché technique even in primary school, a lot has been forgotten since that time. Then my dad and I made New Year's toys from light bulbs. They pasted over the light bulb with paper, and when it dried up, cut it open, took out the light bulb, glued the cut parts with strips of paper, polished, painted. The bulbs were used to make pears with a red barrel. A note was placed inside almost every toy. At one time, I took a lot of these pears to the New Year tree at school. But now I was faced with a much more difficult task than a pear from a light bulb. As always, I turned to the Internet for tips. There were step-by-step photos of how to make little dragons, but there was not a word about one that could be placed on the roof. You can find videos on YouTube, but there were papier-mâché dragons not for the street. I decided to correct this injustice, so I post 47 photos in this article with a detailed description of how and what to do.

So, let's get started, but first I will list the materials that we may need in our work:

1) newspapers, magazines, toilet paper;

2) PVA glue;

3) plastic bottles of different sizes and yogurt cups;

4) large and small bamboo toothpicks;

5) adhesive tape (regular and masking tape);

6) threads, needle, scissors, lining fabric;

7) baby powder;

8) blender;

9) deep penetration primer;

10) water-based and gouache paints;

12) ship varnish.

First you need to grab yoghurt cups and bottles. Glue them together using thin tape, as in this photo:

Now all this needs to be collected in one pile using duct tape:

In the place where the tail will be, insert a cut 2L plastic bottle, as in the photo above. I will explain later what it is for. The entire structure must be well fastened with the same adhesive tape. We need to make the outlines more rounded, so we need to place the paper:

The paper is attached to the base with adhesive tape, as shown in the photo. After that, using PVA glue, the sculpture is pasted over with paper. These can be various newspapers and magazines, that is, what you do not mind. To do this, I pour glue into a bowl and add a little water, mix and use for pasting.

You see, in front, where the dragon's chest will be, there is a depression. To fix this, I crumpled the magazine and secured it with masking tape (it is wide and can be easily torn off with my hands), after that I pasted it all over with paper.

As a result, this is what happened:

Now we need to make the head, tail and wings. For this I needed the following balloons:

To make a head, you need to inflate a round ball and form the outlines using paper and masking tape. Then all this is pasted over with paper.

The tail is also done quite simply, we inflate a long ball, bend it a little to give it a shape, fasten the paper, giving the required volume, paste over the finished shape.

When the tail is dry, it is inserted into exactly that cut 2L plastic bottle that I talked about earlier. Thus, a sufficiently long tail is securely fixed. From above, it is also pasted over with strips of paper. Now it will sit firmly and will not fall off.

You can also create a graceful bend in the neck using a 1.5L plastic bottle, as in the photo below. As it turned out, it fits perfectly and fixes on yoghurt cups:

Now is the time to think about limbs. The principle is the same:

When the limbs are dry, they need to be carefully glued to the dragon. This is very important, because it is in the limb that self-tapping screws will be drilled or slate nails will be driven in to securely fix the sculpture.

After that, I decided to additionally paste over the dragon with thicker paper.

Now it's the turn of the wings. I inflated a long balloon and bent it in half. Further, the principle of action is the same as with the tail.

When the wings are dry, use a sharp knife to cut out the holes for the wings. When I cut the hole, I was pleasantly surprised by the density of the paper. To fix the wings securely, you need to cut the bottles inside.

Take long bamboo toothpicks, or rather kebab skewers. Tie several pieces together with duct tape. Cut a hole with a knife and insert them there. Cover with paper on top. Small thorns are made according to the same principle, only ordinary small bamboo toothpicks are taken for this.

You can sculpt small parts using this mixture: take PVA, add water, a little baby powder there, tear toilet paper into small pieces and grind it all in a blender. This mixture is applied to the entire sculpture. When dry, it will give the sculpture very good hardness and strength. TIP: apply the resulting mixture in parts, under its influence the sculpture will get very soggy. I didn't know that, so my dragon's head was slightly deformed, and it almost fell off!

Before you completely cover the sculpture, you need to insert the fabric into the wings. I used a regular green lining fabric. Cut a line with a knife along the entire length of the wings.

Adjust the fabric with a knife:

The best way to fix the fabric to the thin part of the wings is to sew it on:

We do the same with the other parts where the fabric needs to be applied:

After that, you need to carefully stick the fabric with a mixture, as in the photo below:

When everything is dry, stick around the dragon completely, paying special attention to the lower part where the dragon will come into contact with the roof.

After complete drying, the sculpture is covered with a deep penetration primer, preferably with an anti-fungal additive.

When dry, coat the dragon with water-based paint. It is better to take the one that is intended for facade work.

I gave the green color using the usual gouache paints:

Well, now a little fantasy. I covered the spikes with golden acrylic decorative enamel. Painted with interesting ornaments and glyphs, which mean happiness, health, prosperity, success. In general, I applied only hieroglyphs with good meaning. I present photos from different angles:

After you paint the sculpture. It needs to be covered with 2 coats of ship varnish. Pay special attention to the bottom part, it will be in contact with the roof. The fabric on the wings is also varnished. Ship varnish protects well from the negative effects of the external environment, has special additives that protect against ultraviolet radiation. In simple words, your sculpture will not fade quickly.

This is how the dragon looks now on the roof of our house: