3D Captain America Portrait
My husband and I both love trying our hand at fun projects; however, he's the only one who's created his own instructables in the past, and I decided I wanted to try my hand at a project of my own with his help!
A fun portrait that pops off the wall, Captain America looks as if he's about to send his shield flying towards the nearest villain. Combining sketching with paper mache sculpting, this project will help you practice basic skills that can be applied to projects of your own!
Supplies
- 2 Cups Flour
- 2 Cups of Water
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Balloon (preferably water balloon)
- 3 Sheets of Newspaper
- Utility Knife (or sharp kitchen knife)
- Permanent Marker/ Colored Pencil/ Any Other Preferred Coloring Supplies
- Acrylic Paint (blue, black, white, and red)
- Paintbrush
- Hot Glue Gun/ Any Glue
The Shield: Making the Glue
Mix 1 cup of flour with 1 cup of water to form the thick paper mache glue. The glue should be thick, but liquid enough to flow easily when poured.
The Shield: Prepping for Paper Mache
Tear up the newspaper into long strips of varying sizes. The ideal average size is approximately 6 inches by 2 inches.
Inflate the water balloon to its fullest capacity. Remember, the edge of the balloon will be the edge of the shield - if you are using a larger balloon, inflate it accordingly.
The Shield: First Layer Paper Mache
I hope you're ready to get your hands dirty! :)
Coat the balloon in the glue you made in the last step. I've found that your hands are the best tool to do this.
Lay the strips of newspaper across the balloon, pressing the paper firmly against the glued surface. When this surface is totally covered, add another layer of glue and cover it again in paper strips. Repeat for a total of 4 layers.
Hang the paper mache-ed balloon up to dry (mine took 2 days).
The Shield: Second Layer Paper Mache
Mix up another batch of the glue solution.
Add three more layers of glue and paper to the balloon.
Hang it to dry again until completely hard and dry.
The Shield: Cutting
Pop the inner balloon with your knife.
Draw a straight line completely around one edge of the paper mache-ed balloon shell. Then, cut along your line using your knife.
Draw another line straight across the middle of the piece you cut off. I used a piece of paper to help me make the line straight (see picture). Cut along the line.
The Shield: Painting
Draw 3 rounded lines around the edge of the half circle you cut out (about a half inch in between each). Then, draw a half star inside the inner half circle.
Paint the stripes as shown in the picture. (Outside Stripe: Red, 2nd Stripe: White, 3rd Stripe: Red)
Paint the star white and the area around it blue. Once the outside dries, paint it black.
Drawing: Outline
For the drawing section, it's easiest to follow the pictures and try to imitate them. However, I've included some tips and other pointers to help.
For the head, draw a long oval with the bottom part a little pointier than the top. Don't worry about exact details with the outline at the beginning - wait until you have general shapes and details for the head and body. Then, you can add little curves and lines, erasing what you don't want, to make it more and more how you want it.
Drawing: Face
It's helpful to draw a curved line down the face where you want the nose and middle of the chin to be. If the nose is tricky, just draw a straight line from where you want the top to be to where you want the end to be. Then, you can add little curves, etc., to shape it, erasing lines you don't want to keep.
For the eyes, imagine drawing two little almonds with rounded ends. Don't worry too much about the shape of the eyebrows - just try to keep the ends by the nose thicker than the ends it by the ears.
Note: One regret I have is drawing too many forehead & cheek lines. If this were just a sketch, it would work great; however, you'll see that later I tried to color the portrait and keep those wrinkles. It just made him look quite old. Don't worry about adding wrinkles or too many lines on the face.
Drawing: Body
If you're overwhelmed by the details, then don't worry about them. The most important parts are:
the star and white lines on the chest,
the brown glove (as detailed or not detailed as you want),
and brown band on the left arm (your left, Captain America's right).
Use light lines for all the details - it will be easier to color over.
Drawing: Final Steps
I colored in the eyes a bit, erased some of the lines from the star on the chest, and added a little more detail on the glove before coloring. Like I mentioned earlier, if I were to do this again, I would avoid adding so many wrinkles on the face and make it all one color (more like a comic).
I used oil pastels to color it, using an eraser/finger to blend colors, then used a dark colored pencil to outline certain features. However, you can use anything you want. My tip would be to use something quite solid (like permanent marker) and, again, avoiding too many details from the face and potentially hair.
Putting It Together
Glue the shield at a slant on the paper, covering the empty part of Captain America's arm (it looks cool if some of the shield hangs over the paper). I used a hot glue gun, but you can use any strong glue.
You're Done!
If you'd like, you can cut Captain America out and get rid of the blank white paper parts, or you can leave him how he is before hanging him up on your wall!
Hope you've enjoyed this project!