I also added details on the shipwreck, including leftover nails and bolts and barnacles to show that this particular wreck had been pinned to the monster for quite some time.

To begin, I sketched and painted various versions of the monster. A lot of stories describe sea monsters as dragon-like or serpent-like, and I tried to incorporate both of those modalities into my design.

To create this piece, I started with extruding cylindrical clay shapes, which I then molded into different parts of the body. Next, I carved the scales out of a slab of clay and imprinted a jagged texture on it. I sculpted the head out of pinch pots. Once I’d assembled the base pieces, I began the detail work: the eyes, the belly texture, the teeth, and the tail fin. After bisque firing it, I applied an underglaze and then a glaze overtop of that.