Broken Boris

Boris had been downtown five days when someone decided to vandalize the poor guy, it looks like they either kicked or used something to bash one of his fingers.

The troll is pretty tough so it must have taken a bit of effort to punch the hole.

After talking with the bank branch manager I came back later that afternoon with my paint, brushes, clay, paste and materials to create texture.

The broken shards of mache were removed and I filled the hole with papier clay then used a small paint brush and some paste to smooth the surface until it was flush with the remaining finger.

Normally at this point I would let the clay dry, but because the piece is on display I decided to apply paint to the wet clay to match the existing paint job.

Exterior black latex was applied to the wet clay; because the clay was wet the paint essentially dyed the clay.

You can’t really dry brush wet clay so I stippled some green paint over the black with a small brush to create a textured look.

A small amount of diluted brown acrylic was washed over the green to tone it down and match the existing shades of green.

Done.

Wet painted clay.

The goal is to let this dry then do some touch up painting and small application of sealant to match the shine of the rest of the statue.

Sitting on the sidewalk playing with papier mache as people walk by, it doesn’t get any better than this.