Who said that a figure of snow - is it necessarily a snowman?

One of the main winter joys is abundant, thick and dense snow. In addition to the beauty that he gives to the outside world, snow provides opportunities incompatible with the summer: snowballs, snowmen, sledding (or on the pope) with an ice slide. For one child, winter does not pass without at least one snow woman. Both parents and peers are willingly involved in this fun. However, not quite lazy people with a creative vein can not just entertain their child, but also decorate the yard or nearby park with a real work of applied art. By the way, the children like this idea much more than the sculpture of an ordinary snowman.

Let's start with a simple

Before you create any complex figure from the snow, it is worth to practice on something simple. For example, to update or improve their knowledge and skills (regarding the modeling of this natural material) on a regular slide. Only in the construction to improve its design with the application of those skills that will be useful when the snow figures will be erected already.

From the snow, if there is not a sufficiently high snowdrift nearby, a mountain of the form and height that you are planning is being built. If there is a lot of source material, there is inspiration and a reserve of forces, then the snow can be made twisting, like a descent for a bobsled. Just be sure to sculpt the sides to make sure that the children do not fly off the structure! At the same time you will practice in work with snow. On a steeper slope, stairs are cut or trampled, the entire workpiece is compacted well-where the shovel, where it is kicked, is filled with water.

The slide will be very useful, and when the figure from the snow is created directly, the toddler has something to do, so that it will not interfere with and destroy the "huts" in the process of creation, and then it will become a pity.

Preparatory stage

Naturally, at first it is necessary to decide what will be molded. To begin with, it's better to choose something simple, without small details. To help yourself, you can print a picture that shows your future figure from the snow. But the most important thing is to catch the moment when the material for modeling is ready for work. In severe frost the snow is friable and stick together badly. Ideal time will be early spring or moments of thaws. However, on other days, snow can be a suitable structure - if the temperature is at least minus eight and the air is sufficiently humid.

Before you make a figure out of snow, you need to check its stickiness. To do this, it is enough to squeeze a handful of material in a fist. If, during expansion, it does not crumble, but repeats the outline of the palm - you can start your exciting lesson.

Since you have to work with cold substance, take care of your hands. On usual warm gloves it is necessary to pull rubber, and it is desirable warmed. The ideal choice will be fishing - they do not crack from the frost and do not let it pass to the body.

Sculptural work in the old-fashioned way

To make intricate figures from the snow with your own hands, you will also need a bucket of heated water. Periodically it will have to be changed - winter is still on the street, and in cold water it is not enough to wet one's hands even in protective gloves. The process itself differs little from working with the same clay or clay (unless scales). Only one nuance: you need to regularly iron your sculpture with wet hands. So the snow will snap faster, and the figure will become stronger. Especially it concerns small details - without water they, most likely, will quickly fall off.

First the basic outline of the conceived sculpture is sculpted. Quite thin details are cut out with a shovel on the already frozen basis.

When a figure from snow satisfies your artistic taste, you can gently pour it with chilled water. If there are many small details, it is better to squirt from the atomizer, so as not to wash off important "details". The water will freeze, and your creativity will last much longer.

Artistic carving

If the snow is dry, and you want to create immediately, we resort to another method. Take the box (it is better plywood, but it will fit also from strong cardboard), the bottom is removed, the frame is put on the ground and tamped with snow. You can moisten it with water for better adhesion. Above is added one more level - until the height of the "tower" is not sufficient for the idea. From above, they again carry wet gloves - and the base is ready. Now the knife is taken, and the process of carving begins, similar to that made by ice statues.

The embodiment of global ideas

If there are conceived monumental figures from snow (the photos presented in the article will prompt a general direction in which you can work), there is no way to do without a skeleton. The easiest way to make it is from plywood, racks or boards, simply rough outlines the necessary contours. Inside and around them, the snow is rammed and watered until the desired shape is obtained. The same foundation is needed for through architectural structures, for example, for arches.

The subsequent works are all in the same excision: cut everything that is not embedded in the image, clean unnecessary bulges and outgrowths - and get snowy beauty.

Color fantasies

Pay attention: even if you have built a magnificent sculpture, the source material is too faded and does not impress you. Wanting to achieve perfection, the authors-sculptors go to a variety of tricks. The most accessible is the freezing of color inserts: you dilute watercolors in water, pour them into molds (even children's shallow pads fit) - and into the freezer. Then they can stick to the whole body of the figure, making it bright and elegant.

More complex are the technology of coloring the whole sculpture. If her body is of uniform color, gouache or watercolor can be added directly into the snow. The difficulty is to achieve uniform coloring: the tone usually turns out to be somewhere lighter, somewhere brighter. Alternatively, you can use a spray bottle with diluted paints. However, there may also be a problem in the form of streaks.

Well, very much the artists are waiting for the ice to solidify in the figure, then they take brushes and thick paints and paint it in accordance with the conceived image.