Materials
• Tools (shown below)
• Polymer clay
• Steel wire for armature
• Floral tape
• Aluminium foil
• Glass tiger-eye beads for eyes
• Mineral oil
• Atelier mediums: matte varnish, acrylic binder
• Acrylic Paint
• Hair (I use Viscose)
• Fabri-tac glue
• Epoxy Putty
• Sand paper of various grades
• Acetone (acetone-based nail varnish remover will do)

First, a little about tools. Your most valuable and important tools are your hands, but for particular areas and detail work, you sometimes need additional tools. Tools are highly individual, and one artist's tools might be completely useless to another artist, so collect only the tools you think you will use as opposed to gigantic sets of generic tools. The above are the tools I find most useful. Ball-point stylus tools are my favorite, they are useful for blending, denting, and for small detail work in particular. I have a set of dental tools, which can come in sets of dozens, but I only really use those with spade-like ends for smoothing and blending large areas. A blade like that of an X-acto knife or absolutely necessary for me both when the sculpture is soft, and for working it after it's been baked. Rubber clay/colour shapers are another fabulous tool useful for sculpting fur textures, detail work, and making a much smoother indent then a needle tool could. Needle tools are good for outlining where muscles or other features will be placed, or engraving deep marks. Trimming tools are generally for refining pots during throwing, but I find them useful for carving out areas like in between legs, where a knife will not reach. Other tools I use are paintbrushes for smoothing out small areas and pliers for making armature.

This is the wire I typically use for armature. It's a 14-gauge Steel wire, quite stiff. You can get large rolls at any hardware store, or a huge superstore that has a section for tools and the like.

The first real step is figuring out your armature design. It's not necessary to take the pose you'd like into consideration, just the basic anatomy of the creature you're going to sculpt. When doing this I generally follow the bones in the legs, and then run the wire in the centre of the main body.

Here I've used two pieces of wire, one for the head, horn, neck, body, and tail, and one for the front legs (bent over and looped through the body wire.) the two pieces are secured together loosely by floral tape.

Back legs! I'm lucky to have it standing up at this point, the armature will wobble all over the place but it's nothing to worry about. Don't try to get it into the pose you want at this point, it's easier to deal with that once the armature is set, as it were.

I take aluminium foil and fold it over several times, then wrap it around the armature, starting at the joints. This secures them into place. The foil needs to be pounded down so it's solid to give the sculpture a real stable base

Here I'm using masking tape to bind together several bits of foil that were in danger of falling off I generally don't foil the legs as it means the clay will lay too thinly there, and areas where clay is very thin are much less stable and are more apt to breaking or splitting during baking.

I wrap floral tape around the entire armature next. Clay does not adhere well to foil, so wrapping it up allows adherence, and holds the armature together.

Once the armature is all secure, I use the pliers to grip the legs and such just below the "joint" and bend them into the position I'd like.

The completed armature in the final pose. I say final, but it's possible still to move things around once the clay is on, nothing is final until the sculpture is baked, and even then alteration is easy.

oops, I decided the butt could be compacted a little better, so I use my heavy pliers to smack it into place. This can be done all over the sculpture, and the nature of the floral tape allows it. If there are areas where the tape comes loose, more tape can be applied.

I start applying large amounts of clay in slightly flattened discs. It doesn't matter if there is obviously too much in one area, it's easier to apply it on mass and then carve it than it is to apply to little and then build it up, as it's easy for air to become trapped when clay is added and cause cracks as the trapped air heats and expands.

More clay!

Oh dear, he's looking a little fat here, but it'll all be smushed into the right place eventually. The important thing is just getting in on.

I've smoothed him down a bit here, using smoothing tools and warm fingers.

Here I've added clay lower down the leg and started building it up the neck. I started carving the body down a little as the weight of all the clay was putting a strain on the legs.

Here I'm carving the leg into the basic shape I want. It will be refined later.

For the hooves I carve out the area under the fetlock and fold the clay back down onto the hoof.

With the leg cut down to size a bit.

Next I smooth down the back leg a little. If you've ever used a pottery wheel you may know what I mean when I say while doing this the most important thing is to keep the fingers totally stiff, and as you move up and down to force the excess clay in whatever direction you're moving. If you are soft-handed with it, then you will only end up emphasizing the lumps and bumps already there.

I decided the leg was too thin in this area, so a wad of clay has been added and melded on using a ball-point stylus.

The right back leg gets some clay! I treated it the same as the other legs.

The front leg had clay added to it in a large amount, but it was smoothed down too thinly in the area my fingers are. Here I'm applying a scrap of clay that came from an area during carving to bulk it up.

More clay is added to the right shoulder to give it a good rough shape

big wads of clay are added to either side of the neck armature and pressed on.

I smoothed the neck on with the same solid motion I described earlier, to force the clay to go where you want it to go instead of letting the lumps guide your fingers.

Oh my! He's looking rather demented. There will always be times like this when your sculpture makes you cringe, but you just have to work through it. Here I have added a lump of clay for his head.

The back of his neck was a bit stubby and screwed up, so I rolled out a snake of clay and added it on using a smoothing dental tool.

The neck bulked up a bit, the head is too small and will need additional clay.

But for some reason I wanted to do the tail first, so I rolled out a long snake of clay. A good tip for rolling like this is to use both hands. for some reason I used to roll with the palm of one hand and be sad that the ends of the clay twisted around all over the place, but in a ceramics class we were told to use a few fingers of both hands and roll them a the same time, moving up and down the clay in a mirror image.

I made a slice down the centre of the tail-snake and applied it over the tail armature as seen here. It is smoothed in the same way the neck and legs were, using firm motions that force the clay where you want it to go.

More clay has been added to the head and carved away, and he's looking a little less freakish.

Some people prefer to imagine fantastical creatures as being sexless, but I'm not one of them! I like the things I make to look like they could in fact be real, so giving them the not so pretty parts or imperfections as well as the pretty and perfected parts is important to me.

Here I've worked on the hindquarters a little more. I know I keep jumping from one part to the next, but there is a reason for doing that which I find important- that no part becomes too "finished" while the rest still needs to be picked up and worked on. It is possible to work that way in mediums like epoxy putty, because after a few hours the completed area is hard and cannot be ruined while you work on the rest, but in a medium like polymer clay, the whole thing is soft until it is baked, and it is way too easy to destroy hours of hard work by an accidental fall, smear, poke, or other typical event.

Oops, been doing my unicorns backs wrong! I found this rather good anatomical diagram of the back, so I'm amending the sculpture to fit it better. I've marked out the areas with my needle tool that will need to have clay moved around

This is a closer view of my filthy smoothing tools, they're what I use to push the clay around in the following steps.

Here I've roughly mashed down the clay additions I made to the shoulders and sides when I was comparing the sculpture to the photos.

I follow my needle-tool guidelines and smooth the clay away from the spine.

Here I'm using that technique I keep harping on about. Using the rump to steady my hands, I draw my fingers back using very solid pressure. I'm not pressing too hard- I don't want big gouges in his sides, but I'm using a steady even force.

Time for a little more work on the head. Here I've pressed in the beads I use for eyes, being careful to make sure they are placed in the exact same position either side of the skull. It's also important to make sure they protrude the same amount when viewed from the front.

A wad of clay is placed around the eye, the features of the eye will be sculpted from this.

Eek! More clay is added to bulk up the face...

...And then carved back off...

...And then added back on...

I've found a look I think I like! Faces for me are a process, and I'll go through quite a few looks before I settle on one. I mark out where the main facial structure will be using my needle tool.

I slice into the front of the head and add a wad of clay around it to form the basis for the mouth.

Using a ball-point stylus, I smooth down the marks I've made and the clay I've added...

...And then decide I want the face to look different, so use the stylus to push the clay around.

After a bit more pushing, I use the stylus to place a few little features in and indent places I want to be deep.

It's important to view the face from all angles to make certain it's symmetrical. Eyes are often deceived by lighting and your own mind telling you what should be there instead of what is- so a useful thing to so is feel your sculpture all over, especially areas like the face with your eyes closed, or looking away. You are far more likely to spot imperfections with your fingers and mind than you are with your eyes.

Now that I've finished mashing the face into something I like, I use a paintbrush with a little mineral oil on it to smooth down rough areas.

The face will be getting a little more work, but it's time to do some more detailed work on the body.

Using the needle tool, I draw lines onto the sculpture to mark out muscle lines. Some areas of large muscle are simply sculpted using a thumb or a few fingers, as shown here with the shoulder muscle.

I also used only fingers for the shoulder on this side. The neck has been detailed using the ball-point stylus and fingers, and the same can be said for the legs.

A wad of clay is added to the horn armature, and then smoothed and carved down until a smooth spear.

I use a firm clay-shaping tool to engrave the basic horn design.

I then push the clay gently away from these lines using a ball-point stylus.

Once I have the basic shape right, I smooth it down using a flat-sided paintbrush.

He's finally gotten his front right hoof! I added it simply as a wedge of clay with a hole the same diameter as the armature knob onto which it would slot. I filled the hole with a little Sculpey transfer medium and meshed it on with a stylus.

I should probably put more effort into my ears, but they are always very simple diamond-shaped wedges of clay, flattened and scored at the bottom, and folded and pinched to look like this. I apply a little transfer medium to the scored area, score the area they will be placed on the head, and then squish them on.

Here is the "complete" sculpture. I have used fresh clay to secure his hooves onto the silicone plate I'm baking him on (you can use anything, but ceramics work better than metals, as metals can heat to high temperatures and burn the bottom of your sculpts.) Now he goes into a convection oven at 275f for about 45 minutes.

Here he is baked. Those cracks are pretty typical of having either put him in a heated oven, removing him from a hot oven before he's cooled, or having trapped air pockets under the clay which expand and contract. In my case it's probably the latter two, but they are easily fixed so I don't worry too much about them.

A close-up of some of the cracks.

Good god! this happened because the clay I used to steady him during baking bonded too much with the hooves. But again, it's not a problem... I prefer it this way!

For creatures that have three points of contact, or even some with four, balance can be a problem. At this point the sculpture tended to tip over one way at the slightest touch, very dangerous. What needs to be worked out is which legs need to be either broken and repositioned, or which feet need to be carved down or extended. Breaking legs and repositioning them is a more desperate measure then working on feet, but with epoxy putty, anything is possible.

I've taken a hardened piece of clay that was part of the lump I used to steady the legs during baking and carved it so it more or less fits onto the hoof (with enough glue)

I extended the back right leg, and the front leg with epoxy putty. A good indicator of good balance is standing him up, and gently pushing him from each side to see at which point he falls (be ready with the other hand to catch him, of course.) When an equal distance is required to knock him over from both sides, he's balanced. If more pushing is needed on one side and less on the other, then consider adding a tiny amount of epoxy clay to a hoof, or subtracting from the other hoof, until the balance is equal.

I mix up some epoxy putty, dilute it with water a little, and use the x-acto knife to spread it over the cracks in the manner one spreads peanut butter on toast.

He got a little epoxy putty on the horn, brow, and filling in the gaps in his legs too.

After a day, once the putty is fully hardened, I sand him down a bit as there are marks from the epoxy putty and fingerprints in the original polymer clay.

Fully sanded.

Here I'm going over him with acetone on cotton pads, this serves to help any remaining gaps vanish and buffs the whole sculpt.

If I tried to paint him at this point, the paint would flake in areas, might not take, and it will generally be a disaster. Binder Medium seals the sculpture and provides an adequate surface for acrylic paint.

After a few coats of binder medium, they're always deliciously shiny. It'll take a few hours to fully dry.

The first coat of acrylic is applied. I use A2, Interactive, and Windsor & Newton Artist's acrylics.

After only one coat, it tends to look like a complete disaster, but the more coats are added, the smoother and more refined it gets.

A detail view of the face during this traumatic time.

When I apply the second coat, I brush in the opposite direction as the first. For example if the first coat was horizontal, I'll make the second vertical. This serves to fill in the tiny brush-marks caused by going in one direction.

I used at least three coats of paint over the whole sculpture, and some areas have four or five. the final coats of paint are watered down to help the acrylic flow into small brush-marks that may be remaining.

After the final coats of white paint, the other colours are added. Depending on the colour one coat may be fine, but usually a few are needed.

The horn is blue acrylic mixed with an interference blue pigment and glossed. At this point I apply Atelier Matte Medium & Varnish to seal the acrylic. I usually apply three coats of this, and it is a very important step as it helps to prevent the acrylic peeling or chipping off.

Starting at the bottom of the leg or whatever area needs to be "haired," I make a little wad of hair (this is hand-dyed viscose,) apply a little Fabri-Tac to it, and stick it on, pressing down to ensure it fully attaches.

I then repeat this dozens of times, working my way upwards.

Varying lengths are needed, and I usually have little wads of different lengths all set out in front of me. A little pair of embroidery scissors are perfect for cutting hair to the length needed, and I use a comb to brush it out to a natural look. I usually trim by cutting in the direction of the hair as opposed to across it where it would be obvious it had been cut.

The longest hair is reserved for the mane and tail, and these are applied in the same way, being careful to try not to show any of the joins. And that's it!