A Sculpture; a Horse

I was feeling a bit bored these days, so I decided to be creative and make something, which really livens me up. XD
My sister suggested that I make something out of the Sculpturing-book-and-kit we brought quite a long time ago but didn't make any complete thing out of. I decided to do just that.

I opened it up and decided to make a horse instead of a human figure or portrait, that would be something completely different yet fun to do. First I began making the armature(the wiry skeleton, you could say), so I took out two plastic cogs and three long metal wires(as par the instructions in the guidebook) and began twiddling with them. ;) It took one whole day to make the skeleton, and I was extremely proud of it.

The armature.
At least it looks like a four legged creature that has a head and a tail!

Then I left it like it for a couple of days.

Later, I covered it with foil (a difficult job to do, the foil wouldn't stay in place and I secured it with tape, which eventually lost it's stickiness...) 

I then chose a striking reddish-brown hue for the clay. Then I began the 'Roughing In' (a process in sculpturing which is about putting on a base of clay on the foiled armature)

This is done by smoothing on thick pads
 and sheets of clay over the armature.
It still doesn't look like a horse,
 but it soon will! XD

I was beginning to enjoy doing this. It was a pleasing thing to do. Eventually I completed the whole process.

I have done most of the shaping-in.
The detailing, the lower legs, the facial features,
the mane and the tail are still left.

Let's fast forward a bit: Then I did everything else. XD

I finally finished it! Here are some pictures of it in different places and poses.

The finished horse

Some tips for making a (Horse) sculpture of your own:

1. Don't try to be a perfectionist. There is always some clay to smooth, some detailing to do, ears to straighten and hooves to recreate. If you try doing everything perfectly, well, that's completely impossible.
2. For the eyes, you can put in a tiny black bead for the eyeball(that's what I did) the eyes look featureless and unrealistic otherwise. Fix it in position with a sharp pencil.
3. Have a model. (pictures, of course, of a horse from different poses.) This way you will know which parts to emphasize, and which not to emphasize. Having a model will help you understand how a horse looks and you can compare your sculpture with the model. 
4. Once you have recognized which parts to emphasize, you might discover that you are short of clay, you do not have enough to plaster slabs after slabs of clay on your horse. Utilize clay sensibly by making balls of clay and then smooth on comparatively rounder parts(The stomach, chest, etc.).
5. After your sculpture is done, you must put it somewhere, perhaps on a side table in your drawing room or on your desk. But take care, put your horse in a position (or on a bit of plastic on the surface where you are going to put it)so that it does not touch the wall or furniture, because it will leave oily stains.