Evil Garden Statues Tutorial
Making these Evil Garden Statues are super easy. Start with a standard cherub clay garden figure. I found most of mine at yard sales and thrift stores for just a buck or two.
If you want to add details to your statue, now is the time to do it before you paint. I thought this little cherub’s hands would be perfect to hold a skull. I glued the little plastic skull to it using some E6000 glue.
Next, you’ll want to paint it with a medium grey, so you can add both light and dark accents. I usually just mix white and a dab of black to make the shade I’m looking for.
I find it easiest to start with the medium grey then add layers and layers of lighter and darker grey paints to it. This way I can drip the dark greys and blacks into the recesses and get some lighter greys on the areas that need highlighting.
Be sure to paint every crevice for even coverage. It’s easy to paint the details on these when you have a good solid coat of paint on them.
Notice that I paint them on top of a baking rack and tub from the dollar store. This allows the extra paint that drips off the statues to gather in the tub so I can reuse it again.
When your statues are dry you can start to drip paint on them to make them look aged. Water down black or dark gray paint so it is really runny. To paint crevices, let your brush linger awhile until the paint drips down. Be sure to drip paint on areas that would naturally darken due to aging outdoors (like the top of the head, shoulders and wing tips). Repeat dripping until you achieve the amount of aging you want.
When you are dripping the paint, let it roll down the statue and take whatever turn and drip that it wants to. I don’t guide the paint, just let it make its own magic.
Once you are happy with your drips and they have dried, you can add white or red paint to the eyes, for example, to add a little more creepy factor. I even dripped red paint from the eyes so the statue looked like it was crying blood (see below).
Display your Evil Garden Statues on old candle holders and add a bit of creepy cloth to add dimension to the scene.
For this particular statue, I painted the eyes white and dripped red paint for tears.