[ Tutorial ] How to make tree stumps

Hey guys,

Just thought I would share a little how-to for something that I have always thought added a touch of character to scenery. Tree Stumps.

For this Tutorial I am using Super-Sculpey (So I dont have to waste my green stuff). But you could easily use any type clay, putty etc. the principle is the same.

Start out by rolling a sausage of clay the thicker the sausage the wider the stump.
Once that is done, cut up your sausage (haha..sorry that made me chuckle) the thicker the cut the taller the stump.


**Note** If you are placing stumps together you should try to vary the height and thickness a bit so they don't all look the same.

These will be the base of your stump. At this point you can either leave the stump it like this, or you can add roots to the side of the stump. To add roots roll out a smaller sausage of clay, these should be skinnier and longer than your stump itself. Take this sausage and make an L shape. Place it at a 45 degree angle to the stump. This should look like the large root coming out from the stump. You should not have something that looks like this ...






- The next step is to detail your stump to give it the appearance of bark. To do this I use the basic GS sculpting tool. Drag your tool up the stump and along the roots. Dont worry so much of the lines cross, and try to vary the depth of your lines.



Continue all the way around the stump till you are satisified with the result.

When you get to the top of the stump lightly draw rings of varying thickness. If you want to add other details you could do things like pushing down the center to give it more of a "natural" look




or cut half the top away to give it more of a "chopped" look.



Adding details to the stump like axes leaning against the stump, or chopped piles of wood and sawdust for a freshly chopped look work too.

You could also use the same theory to create "dead" trees by making the stump taller maybe adding a branch or two, its just a matter of playing around. If you do anything larger using a framework is always a good idea.

In closing here is a section of stump I have created ..still in the WIP of painting but I think it gives you an idea of what you can do.



You can find larger pictures on my Pbase site http://www.pbase.com/therat/tree_stumps

ENJOY!!

Cool tutorial, the stumps look really good! Now, I only have to some aquire some cheaper sculpting material than greenstuff

Nice stumps HornedRat. Thanks for sharing.

Eliazar: Milliput will stand you in good stead for this sort of work if you don't have Super-Sculpey. It's cheap and useful for all sorts of things. It also comes in varying grades depending on how "grainy" you want the surface to be.