The Tree - water putty coating

July 1, 2012
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In the tutorial I'm following, Diane used Durham's Water Putty. I ended up with a 4-pound container of it from Home Depot. Did I need four pounds of water putty powder? Uh, no, but it was what was available locally (no shipping) and I had a Home Depot giftcard with enough on it to cover the modest $7.98 price tag.

This was the first time I had worked with the putty and I found it to be a great material. I scraped the excess putty from around the roots to keep them rounded and separate as the putty dried.

I left it overnight, and it dried hard and treelike! Some of the binding wires had softened in appearance but others still looked unnatural. I added another layer of putty over the areas that needed blending.

Mike had recently used this material, so I asked him about the properties of it, namely whether you could carve it. He sent me to the Durham's Water Putty site, and apparently you can do all sorts of things with it. I might add some texture to the bark since it's easy to work with.

Even with the yellow coloration, it already looks like a real tree. I think this is a brilliant tutorial! Next up will be painting once the second layer of putty dries.