Scratch Built Sculpture: Tabby Cat Lab Scientist Mycologist Full WIP and Gallery

 I recently made this sculpture for a special someone as their retirement gift. I had a clear vision when I made the Snoopy sculpture but I wasn’t sure what to do at first. In the end I decided on a cat lab worker just about to do a scotch tape prep on a mold growing in culture. Of course there would need to be the biosafety hood the cat is working under, but we can suspend belief. Working time was about a month. Sculpture is made out of living doll polymer clay and hand painted with Vallejo acrylics. Full WIP below.  

This sculpture was a complete scratch build. I started with a tin foil armature and then layered the polymer clay on top. At this point, I finalized the pose and baked to harden the clay so that I can start adding the detail layers on top. 

Next I wanted to finish the face before working on the rest of the sculpture. I did not look at any cat pictures at this point. So I thought the face was looking more like a wolf or something else besides a cat. The middle bottom two pictures were almost how the face was going to be. Something about it seemed too sinister so I softened the expression up a little bit more and looked at some cat pictures.

With the face finalized, I moved on to the rest of the sculpture. Next I worked on the lab coat. The cat is supposed to be a Scientist or Laboratory worker. I was not sure if I wanted to add more clothes or just the lab coat. 

While I thought about clothes or fur, I moved on to the mold part. Because we are specifically in the Mycology department I wanted to do a mold and not bacteria.  I was not sure what I should do for the mold. For the petri dish, I bought the smallest petri dishes I could find on amazon. Clear objects are a bit tricky, and it was going to take too much sanding, mold making, resin casting to make a more in-scale petri dish. I think the larger than life one looks cute. 

As for the mold, I used felt pads. One of the sizes happened to fit perfectly into the petri dish, so I went with that. The smaller one would be alright too, but I would have had to use something for the agar, so the larger one was just easier too, since it just filled the plate, and I don't have to worry about the missing agar. 

So I went for clothes and started with the shirt. I also started to detail fur on the tail. I baked this and then moved on to the pants. 

I added fur detailing to the head, added more clay to the paws, and finished the pants. At this point the sculpture is done. 

I used a 1/16 pin to attach the cat to the wooden base. At the same time I mixed some magic smooth and also did a grass style base, with the magic smooth acting as an adhesive. I also used magic smooth to attach the petri dish to the paw. Normally I use gorilla or some other type of super glue, but I figured that magic smooth was the strongest thing I got. It was angled so that it would stay in place while curing. Magic smooth takes many hours to cure rock hard, like 24ish hours. So its not something to be used where the two halves have to be held together. I have in the past applied super glue first to make the initial bond and then added magic smooth for reinforcement, but making sure none of the parts were under stress. 

I used Liquitex white and black gesso mixed for primer. I recently got new folkart chalk paints to try out and they state they can be used without primer. Probably I'll still prime though. 

I'm using Vallejo model color paints, which are original intended for model kit building. The coverage is excellent. The white lab coat only took 1-2 coats of paint for full coverage. 

All the base colors are down, so I focused on the face more. I had some trouble painting the eyes. I wasn't sure what style I wanted to go with. I liked the middle style but they look sort of like a vacant expression. 

For a while the eyes looked like this. I painted them with oils. I thought maybe it would dry in enough time but that wasn't the case. I still needed to do the ID badge and Scotch tape parts and for some reason my finger kept on touching the eye. So I wiped the oil away and just want back to acrylics. 

I was not sure if I wanted to have the scotch tape piece bend over the finger but I thought it was better to have it hanging loose so you see it more. Also I messed up by have the tape over the "thumb" I meant to have it over the index finger. I used the clear pouch material that the frixion erasable pens come in and just cut want I needed. This material has a slight spring to it. I had the big pack that came in multiple colors, im not sure if the smaller packs have stiffer casing. 

So these are the final eyes. The same material of the scotch tape I used to make whiskers.

The shirt is supposed to be fusarium but it’s not super clear.

The mold itself I put some green chalk pastel and bended it in the felt. I didn't want to just leave it that cream color. I didnt want to add too much color either, because there was no do over at this point. 

I used clear acetate for the ID badge that is more firm. 

This was a fun little project to take on, but it was sad at the same time, since it was a retirement gift. I didn't expect to make two back to back so soon. Everyone seemed to love it. I think I will be making some more lab cats/dogs to put in my Esty shop for sale in the future. 

Completed pictures below: