horse art

sculptor Jen Pratt

Creating Animal Art: Art Project Ideas, Helpful Articles, Reviews, and Guides

Here you’ll find helpful articles on creating animal art to support the art classes section of this website:

  • working with clay and ceramic kilns for creating clay animal art
  • art book reviews focusing on animal art anatomy
  • art study guides including relative measurements for creating animal art
Creating Animal Art: Sculpture Books Reviews - Lanteri Modelling and Sculpting Animals 2

Helpful Guides, Reviews, and Articles Supporting Animal Art Projects and Classes

One of my favorite subjects is animal art: horses being my favorite, followed by other wildlife art.  Many of the art classes on this website are animal art focused, as are the book reviews and art study guides.

If you’re new to creating animal art from clay, then a helpful sample order to follow would be:

Feel free to browse this site, take a free class, and learn the wonderful medium of clay sculpture at your own pace.  As always, I’m happy to answer questions or hear comments/critiques regarding this site and these art classes, so feel free to contact me!

 

Login is required for some art classes, including some free classes and all paid/premium courses.  Login is useful for keeping track of the classes you've taken and your progress, and if you'd like to be notified when new art classes are available.

 

You can use your WordPress login if you have one, and your data will not be shared or sold!

Absolutely - I've been contacted by a number of teachers who've used these online art classes in their lessons!  Unfortunateley with the site locked down due to hacking and theft, printing the classes from the website isn't possible.  I'm currently working on downloadable versions of my classes for this purpose - for now, please contact me and I'll get you the information you need.

Water based clays are made from clay and water; oil-based are made from oil and clay. Water based will dry out and must be kept moist until an artwork is finished, whereas oil based isn’t reliant on being covered to keep it wet and pliable. It is up to each individual artist or clay sculptor to decide which type of media they prefer, and at this time water based is by far my favorite.

Clay doesn’t have a lot of structural strength when wet. Larger pieces will deform, sag, and can completely destroy themselves from their own weight without some sort of rigid support. However, that rigid support must be removed before firing.

If you’re not planning to mold/cast the artwork, then kiln-fired water based clays really are more structurally sturdy than unfired water based clays. You can’t dry out an oil based clay. Oil based won’t vitrify like water based. While heating it can reduce pliability and viscosity, you can’t create a “finished” oil based clay sculpture.

 

If you're working with water-based clay, then a kiln really is essential.  You can use air-dray clays, but they're not as durable as kiln-fired clays.  While having your own kiln is wonderful, it's not always necessary if you live near a school or teaching studio, as many of these venues are willing to fire ceramic artworks for a small fee.

I love the texture and work-ability of water based clays. I can develop incredibly highly detailed artworks when molds and casting aren’t involved. While the finished product can be delicate, the same is said of fine porcelain – these are works of art, and not meant for utilitarian purposes, so a bit of fragility is okay when the piece should be handled delicately anyway.

Unfortunately, this is not something I can fit into my schedule at this time. Clay sculptures especially are very time consuming, and can take weeks to complete just the unfired sculpture. This is why I’ve created the demonstrations in an online format – so others can learn at their own pace.

 

Though I don’t give personal instruction, I’m happy to answer questions! Feel free to comment or ask questions on individual posts or contact me.  I love to hear your questions, and I've modified some of my classes over the years based on artists' questions!

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