Project Three: Setting the Scene

Once you've made an earth and sky background, you may want to add some other features. Here are some ideas to help you put plants and people into your picture.

1. Make individual blades of grass by cutting thin ribbons or snakes and pressing them down in layers.

2. For distant trees use pancakes with stems. Small bits of color make faraway flowers.

3. For a detailed tree, blend some sausage roots and snake branches onto a ribbon trunk. Texture the trunk with scratches or bumps. Cover your tree with leaves or fruit.

4. To make a fir tree, overlap triangle shapes from bottom to top on a small ribbon trunk. Small cuts on the edges will look like needles.

5. Most flowers need a snake stem and flat, pointy leaves. Make blossoms from rolled-up snakes or pancakes with tiny pancake centers.

6. For a more detailed flower, use small, flattened sausages for petals. If you want, draw veins on the leaves.

You can find more tips, ideas and complete projects in Barbara Reid's book Fun With Modeling Clay