Sharing some of my art and sculpture with you guys.

casey012293 · Feb 25, 2021

It would be cool if they were painted reef safe and could be set in a tank as decoration while waiting for the tank to be cycled

revhtree · Feb 25, 2021

I need one!

Mr_Knightley · Feb 25, 2021

casey012293 said:
It would be cool if they were painted reef safe and could be set in a tank as decoration while waiting for the tank to be cycled

I'm sure it could be done if the whole thing was coated in an animal safe clear resin, and I may try it in the future but as of now I don't really have a setup for it. Thanks for the idea though, I may have to try it in the years to come!

Mr_Knightley · Feb 25, 2021

revhtree said:
I need one!

I've got one up for sale currently, but if that's not your style feel free to PM me if you'd be interested in a custom one and I'll get back to you soon. Thanks a lot for the interest!

Mr_Knightley · Feb 27, 2021

Got a few more sculptures in the works ATM! All three will be acanthophyllias like the first one in the thread, and after these are done I'm going to make a few trachies and scolies.
If any of you have an idea for possible color palettes for these or other future sculptures, feel free to PM me pictures or post them here in the thread for reference! All of these will be going up for sale shortly, probably by Tuesday.

Have a nice Saturday and God bless!

Mr_Knightley · Feb 28, 2021

The new projects are going along steadily and should be ready for sale by Tuesday or Wednesday. Check out the Indophyllia sale thread for more info.
Have a wonderful Sunday and God bless!

Mr_Knightley · Mar 2, 2021

I'll be releasing my next wave of art by tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled for those. I may repost the indophyllia thread and just include all of my sale-ready artworks within it, it may be easier to manage.
I really appreciate the support and enthusiasm you folks have showed, it has been very inspiring and motivating for me in a slightly dim time. Most of why I make art is to express my creativity and release stress, so I'm very glad I've been able to make people happy with it and hope to expand my horizons to include even more different species and forms. My next experiment will be relating to SPS in a way so keep your eyes peeled for that!

Mr_Knightley · Mar 4, 2021

A bit of a delay getting these next three put together, they should be done tonight though and ready for sale in the next day or two. I'm currently working on getting a website set up, as though R2R is fine to sell through it would honestly be more trouble than it's worth if I ever get a larger following. Luckily I have some experience putting sites together so it should be a breeze.

Rhoads238 · Mar 4, 2021

I looked at the photos before reading and i was like OH NO WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR ACANTHOPHYLLIAS!!! Lol great job they're really convincing

Mr_Knightley · Mar 4, 2021

Rhoads238 said:
I looked at the photos before reading and i was like OH NO WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR ACANTHOPHYLLIAS!!! Lol great job they're really convincing

Thanks a lot! Oh gosh lol, I couldn't imagine doing something like that to my corals

I'm glad I could fool you though, I appreciate the complement!

Sarah24! · Mar 7, 2021

Hello,

I do pottery also and here are some of the vases I have made. Do you underglaze your work or just paint them. Do you bisque first them, then high fire then paint them?

Mr_Knightley · Mar 8, 2021

Sarah24! said:
Hello,

I do pottery also and here are some of the vases I have made. Do you underglaze your work or just paint them. Do you bisque first them, then high fire then paint them?

Wow, those are amazing! I think there must be some misunderstanding, I sculpt these out of polymer clay (like that oven bake stuff but higher quality). Sorry I didn't clarify that. The polymer clay is a bit more sturdy and handles shipping a little better as well (especially with the tiny feeding tentacles), but ceramics are on my list of things to try! Again sorry I failed to communicate that properly.

Sarah24! · Mar 8, 2021

Mr_Knightley said:
Wow, those are amazing! I think there must be some misunderstanding, I sculpt these out of polymer clay (like that oven bake stuff but higher quality). Sorry I didn't clarify that. The polymer clay is a bit more sturdy and handles shipping a little better as well (especially with the tiny feeding tentacles), but ceramics are on my list of things to try! Again sorry I failed to communicate that properly.

Hello,

Aww thank you

. No need to be sorry, at first glance I though you were using throwing clay (which is also sculpting clay). Some of the colors looked under glazed so I was that’s neat, wanted to see what’s the cone level was and reduction rate. For the oven baked style clay those turned out great. Isn’t clay fun. Not sure if you have thought of this, but what about a slip cast mold? Once you make one, you could always use slip cast and make them, and do different colors. It would need a bisque fire, but it’s much stronger also. You could do the basic form, then (with the small details), use dental picks to etch them in deeper into the plaster mold. Then when you pour in the slip, and let it set up, you can pull the mold apart. With the clay still soft, you can add even more detail, but this could allow you to make several. The nice part is, because you can add and remove clay before it dries, (and it’s hollow), each one is still unique, there’s only one.

Mr_Knightley · Mar 8, 2021

Sarah24! said:
Hello,

Aww thank you . No need to be sorry, at first glance I though you were using throwing clay (which is also sculpting clay). Some of the colors looked under glazed so I was that’s neat, wanted to see what’s the cone level was and reduction rate. For the oven baked style clay those turned out great. Isn’t clay fun. Not sure if you have thought of this, but what about a slip cast mold? Once you make one, you could always use slip cast and make them, and do different colors. It would need a bisque fire, but it’s much stronger also. You could do the basic form, then (with the small details), use dental picks to etch them in deeper into the plaster mold. Then when you pour in the slip, and let it set up, you can pull the mold apart. With the clay still soft, you can add even more detail, but this could allow you to make several. The nice part is, because you can add and remove clay before it dries, (and it’s hollow), each one is still unique, there’s only one.

That sounds interesting! I was actually considering trying something similar to the slip cast technique except with clear resins (so I could mimic the translucency effects of real coral flesh, IE clear tentacles and vesicles). It would be a similar technique in that I would sculpt the main piece out of opaque oil clays then cast the sculpture in silicone. When I have the silicone mold empty and clean, I could then fill it back up with resins of varying colors and paint them to mimic corals more closely. As I mentioned previously, Ceramics and porcelain are two art forms I would love to get into, so maybe this year I'll get my mother's kiln working and try them out.

JamesBrown89 · Mar 10, 2021

wow, is it very cool for you, do you plan to continue doing this? if yes, then share with us! Very interesting to watch!))

Mr_Knightley · Mar 10, 2021

JamesBrown89 said:
wow, is it very cool for you, do you plan to continue doing this? if yes, then share with us! Very interesting to watch!))

Thanks a lot, I appreciate it! Yes, I plan to continue making these for as long as possible and have four new pieces in the pipeline that should be ready for sale by next week! So that's exciting. I plan to make a few smaller sculptures for a while before I begin making pieces in the 6-10" range, which are what I'm looking forward to the most.

Mr_Knightley · Mar 16, 2021

Sorry for the delays! Just so you guys know I'm not stalling, here is a sneak peek of the latest three sculptured, ready for mounting.

I also did a new colored pencil artwork, this is my preferred medium and I've been using them for a few years now. This piece is of one of my favorite carnivorous plant species, Nepenthes burkei. For those of you who do not know, I keep carnivores as a secondary hobby.

I hope you guys have had a nice week thus far! As mentioned the sculptures will be ready for departure some time soon, and I am currently experimenting with some corallimorphs so stay tuned for those.
Have a nice day and God bless!