I’ve loved painting blank Munnys for a long time (see my old post on it here)….

So when an artist I follow, Alex Solis, offered these blanks of his “chunky” character, I was so jazzed!  (I mean, LOOK at that little crack!)

It also gave me the perfect first opportunity to try out apoxie clay (a 2-part clay that you mix together, that becomes SUPER hard once it’s dried).

To me, this little guy looked like a vintage tattooed sailor, so I used the apoxie to sculpt a little sailor hat, some bellbottoms, ears, and some buttons for his pants.  You have to work fast with apoxie (which starts to harden within two hours), but a little water gives you a little more time (And don’t forget to use gloves!!  Apoxie’s very irritating to the skin).

I gave him a quick basecoat and waited for him to dry.

I started with his little face.  He seemed like he wanted to be a mustachioed fellow, so I gave him some fancy face-hair.  Next up, I pulled out some of my vintage tattoo books as starting reference, and played with some little designs to start filling him up.

Then I started with his back side, which was fun.  I thought it’d be sweet to add a little laced corset tattoo, similar to one I found on a vintage female tattooed model.

Little by little, he was coming together.  I mostly filled him with sailor-style traditional tattoos, like mermaids, anchors, and fish.  His fingers say “LET’S SAIL”.

And finally, after a bit of paint and whole lotta love, he was all full and finished…

…and so handsome!

If you don’t already know the work of Alex Solis (the guy who designed this handsome Chunky blank), you can give your eyes a happy time by hopping over to his Instagram page, or by browsing his website.

He even just completed a TED talk about his work, called Art as a Second Language:

So check it all out!  Take a look at Alex’s site.  Give his blanks a try.  And feel free to share any of your blank projects with me–Munny, Chunky, or otherwise–I’d LOVE to see them!