Lluhnij on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/lluhnij/art/Axel-the-Axolotl-83438889Lluhnij

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Daily Deviation

February 15, 2010
From suggester: "Axel the Axolotl by *Lluhnij is simply amazing. It looks realistic and playful, with movement you can almost see. Its subject matter is also an interesting thing that you don't see every day."
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Suggested by DiscordantDoodler
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Axel the Axolotl

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Description

This is my entry for :iconcatharsisjb:'s contest (making a sculpture with polymer clay on the theme "Water Life").

Please full view!

I thought for a couple of days about the subject, and then got it: what could be better than a weird kind of salamander that spends its entire life cycle in water (instad of getting out of it as an adult), to represent the concept of "Water life"? :aww:

In facts, Axolotls keep for all their lives the external gills, that are typical of tadpoles.
There are also dark grey and brown axolotls, but the albino version in the most common among the "pets" of this species.

Real axolotls have slightly smaller limbs, and are a bit more slender (not much, they still look pretty goofy), but having to make it with polymer clay made me go for a "baby-proportioned" one.

It took a lot of work to make this one, I think something around 20 hours or so, but it was lots of fun... I used to play with polymer clay a good number of years ago, and had forgotten how nice it can be... and also, I didn't know that it can also be very hard and nasty, if you let it into a closet for something like 10 years (no jokes, I have some packets that say "1995"... ^^; ).

Anyway... the core is made with wire and tin foil, whereas all the body, gills and eyes included, are made of polymer clay (Fimo and Cernit, also mixed together).
I added powder makeup to give some soft shading to the body, and glossy varnish to make the eyes more alive.

Well, I hope you like my new little creature, and please wish me good luck for the contest! :D :giggle:

(p.s. this is a WIP of this work: [link] )
Image size
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Nutbuckets's avatar
Arrrgh i love it, would you make one of these on commission? I have a wild type axolotty :>