NEEDLE FELTING FEET TUTORIAL

Our needle felting feet tutorial shows one way that you can create feet on your 3D characters. There are other ways to create feet and if we get time we will show you another way. Let's start with this version first.

Many people struggle with making feet and hands. Our first tip for you is...patience. We spend almost as much time on my hands and feet as we do creating a characters head. The feet can be simple or complex. The more realistic you want them, the more work you will need to put into creating them.

Through photos and a video, we try to show you how to make more realistic feet. If you are making more of a cartoon character, you may not wish to be so detailed. That's the beauty of creating. You are in control of how much or how little you want to do.

So, let's begin the needle felting feet tutorial. We're going to assume that you have some basic needle felting skills. Start your foot with a cloth covered floral wire wrapped in flesh colored fleece. Wrap it fairly tightly and then needle it to hold the fleece in place.

The wrapped wire will give you something to felt your foot to when you are ready. Set it aside for now.

Take some wool and fold it over twice. Needle felt the edge that is completely folded with a 36 star or needle of choice. Needle felt both sides until it is fairly firm but not hard and a little flat.

You may want to use a 36 triangle needle to get it fairly firm but not hard.

Use your 38 triangle needle to indent the wool and make lines in the toe area to indicate where each toe will be.

Watch the needle felting feet video for our next tip on how to shape the foot. The birds were chirping happily the day this was taped and you will hear them in the background. Oh, well!

As stated in the video, you are now ready for the next step. Take the wrapped wire you set aside and attach the toes you made by adding fleece and felting.

Start shaping the foot by adding more fleece. You don't need an anatomy book to figure out how to shape the foot. Take off your shoes and socks and look, REALLY LOOK, at your own foot.

Don't forget to build up the heel a little.

Depending on how realistic you want the foot, you can add fleece to make the ankle bones.

The inner ankle bone is just slightly higher than the outer bone.

Remember to put the arch of the foot on the side with the big toe.

The foot size in this tutorial would be for a 12" or so doll. You should start with this size to get the details down. After that you can start making smaller feet for smaller characters. The smaller you get, the harder it is to get details done.

Hope this needle felting feet tutorial helps you to make better characters. Have fun and practice, practice, practice!

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