The presidential candidates don’t have feet of clay — but one artist gave them faces of Play-Doh.
A Rochester, N.Y. sculptor was crowned the first-ever Official Play-Doh Artist of the Year on Tuesday after wowing the Hasbro judging panel with two 90-ounce busts of President Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney.
Ian Williams, 21, molded the clay candidates from about 60 cans of the childhood putty.
“I definitely liked to play with Play-Doh as a kid,” said Williams, a senior at the Rhode Island School of Design, “but it was definitely new going back to it and remembering using it as a kid — but having this completely different perspective now from what I’ve learned in school about model making.”
Each carving took 20 hours over the course of two weeks in July. Williams worked off of multiple photos of the candidates that he pulled from Google.
“I was trying to find images of them talking or being more animated, which is more helpful in getting the expression just right, rather than just the anatomy,” he explained. “Both Obama and Romney have a sort of glow.”
He also shaped each politician with a winning smile, “because I wanted to give them both a presidential feeling without it being too solemn. I was making them out of Play-Doh, so it was supposed to be a playful thing.”
While working on Obama, Williams spent extra time on the orator’s mouth. “You know, the amount of teeth showing, or how wide the mouth goes, plays a really big part of your recognition of him. It has to be just right,” he said.
Romney’s coif (which has its own Facebook page, Mitt Romney’s Hair, with 670 “likes”) was the most challenging piece to carve. “It was so much volume and there was so much height to it, that the weight of the Play-Doh made it want to slump down, and the chin want to drop down and slump against the neck,” Williams said. “That was really tough.”
And as any kid can tell you, keeping the clay from drying out is anything but child’s play. “I had to keep them sealed in plastic bags, and try to keep them moist with vegetable oil,” said Williams.
As for their skin tones, “I used all of the bright, florescent colors for the internal structure, and then I used more pigmented colors and reds for the outside,” he said.
Besides bragging rights as the clay brand’s artist of the year, Williams scored a $5,000 tuition stipend and will work with Hasbro to craft original Play-Doh creations that will be posted on their Facebook page.
And which candidate will Williams be rooting for in the flesh during Wednesday night’s presidential debate?
“I plan to vote for Obama,” he said, joking that “he’s more fun to sculpt.”
