The Doodle that became a Monster

I found this doodle in an old sketch book a few days ago. 

Okay, so maybe it's not the most original idea. A quick image search will turn up plenty of examples, such as this terrific piece of work by Sarah Trummer on Pexels (used with permission).

But I thought it might be fun to build. So, out came the junk boxes and I started work.

The shape of the house was dictated by what I had to hand - which was mostly old boxes, lots of card packaging and wood such as coffee stirrers, chopsticks and tongue depressors.

I made the basic shape of the house and covered it in thick card for strength. I then added lots of Tudor style beams using the wood, and roof tiles made from card. Then, on a whim, I added a loo roll tower with a base made from a plastic powder scoop.

Then I sprayed the whole thing with white primer before turning to the snail/slug thing.

Mr Slug was going to get very expensive if I made him entirely from something like Super Sculpey. So, I found a suitable piece of dead wood while out dog walking, bulked it out with tin foil and masking tape and then covered the whole thing in a cheap air-dry paper clay. It took a couple of days to fully dry but, while I waited, I sculpted the head. 

However, once I'd placed it, I realised that it looked better upside-down! So I remounted it, added a couple of extra eyestalks and then sculpted the neck and baked it onto the clay body. Slug Part 1 completed!

Now, back to the house. I decided on blue roof tiles as I figured they'd go nicely with the colour scheme I had planned for Mr Slug. Then I painted the walls with actual wall paint (upcycled paint samplers thrown out by a DIY store).

I finished covering the slug in Super Sculpey and baked it. Then I added some teddy bear eyes and gave the thing a white primer coat followed by washes of green with highlights in pink and cream. 

I then made a kind of saddle for the house to sit on. This was made from coffee stirrers, twisted wire to simulate ropes and 'bones' - Super Sculpey over a wire armature.

And he's done! Hope you like it.