For our theatre’s most recent production I was asked to work on creating some props, which is always an exciting prospect. The props mistress needed a couple of fried eggs for a dinner scene, and at her suggestion I used a product that was new to me, Crayola Model Magic, an air-drying modelling material that dries in roughly 24hrs. The advantage of this material is that it dries to a light, almost spongy consistency that makes it a bit more resilient to frequent handling than something like Sculpey.

I started with a flattened ball of clay and shaped irregular edges and a slightly higher middle. I then formed a wide crater in the middle and shaped another ball of clay to form the yolk:



I used my shaping tool to seal the edges of the yolk against the white of the egg, then worked on creating some interesting surface textures, including air bubbles and the thin scalloped edges of the white. I made two eggs in the same way:





Now to make the eggs look like eggs. I painted the yolks using a yellow-orange acrylic paint, then swirled in some darker orange while the base coat was still wet. I brushed on the same darker orange around the “crispy” edges of the whites, gradually darkening the paint to brown for the very tips. Once the paint was dry I brushed on a thin layer of acrylic gloss all over the eggs, giving the yolks a couple of coats for extra shine:



Our props mistress was so pleased with the eggs that she asked for a pile of baby carrots as well. These I made using the same modelling material, but in this case I used a mixture of red and yellow clay to get just the right carrot-orange. Most of my work went into creating texture in the carrots, but I used a light wash of yellow acrylic paint to make the tips of several carrots a bit lighter. Finally I brushed on a light coat of acrylic gloss to make the carrots look moist:

Here’s another very quick figure study using digital watercolour and ink: