Elf Ornaments in Progress - Part One

Well, I have regained my focus and creative motivation. It is June already and in a short few months we will be into the thick of things so I am making as many elves as possible this year. In the past, I drew the faces on the elves. After working on the gnome this year, I decided to paint them. There is a sweetness to their faces that gets lost when just drawn so I think it was a good decision, albeit time intensive. 

 The elf heads start out as unfinished hardwood beads. The tiny elf heads measure 1/2 inch and the regular sized elf heads measure an inch. I coat them with gesso and then base coat them in 'Santa's flesh'. Believe it or not, this step alone takes a great deal of time.

 I then lay in the whites of the eyes to give me some sense of feature placement. Since the mini elf heads are so small they have black eyes where the regular sized elves have blue, green, violet or brown eyes. I also made a number of 'Eskimo' faces. I know that term is archaic and unflattering to the Inuit people but since I am inspired by the designs of the 50's and 60's, it is a rather appropriate image. I do hope that the finished 'Eskimos' will be so darling that no offense is taken.

mini elf heads (closeup)

more mini elf heads

I finished 53 mini elf heads and 20 regular sized elf heads. It took me most of the weekend and Monday to complete them.

Regular sized elf heads.

Regular sized elf heads (closeup)

Mini elf heads. 

 

All that remains is to finish all 73 heads with Lascaux Acrylic Varnish with UV filter. Then on to creating bodies and attire for each one. That will be another post. I think it is probably the part I love most about creating the little elves. It is in this step that their personality really comes out. 

The clincher is the wool roving hair. 

This year I added 3 colors to my repertoire: Lavender, Iceberg Blue and Natural.

I expect there to be some super cute elves in the near future so stop by my facebook page for the most up to the minute updates! :o)