When I first started making my Moose I decided to use air dry clay and cut up bits of wire. This would add structurally stability to the shape of both the antlers and the overall body shape.
I started off by making the head shape and then once that was constructed I worked o the body. The hardest part was the legs and allowing them to take the weight of the body. as when the clay was wet it would not take the weight.
Even with the wire the clay needed to harden a bit before being able to take any of the real weightI also found that I had to make the feet have a bigger surface area in order to take the weight of the overall structure better.
Once the overall structure of the body I could add the finer details such as the antlers and eyes. The antlers were the most tricky part as even with the wire I found keeping them attached to the head a challenge. They had to be held in the place until the clay had hardened.
Once the clay had been left a few days to dry out and harden I could then paint it. i chose to paint it with acrylic paint. This is I am a lot fo experience with the medium and feel it would work well on air dry clay.