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This thread is brought to you by the number 3! Table of Contents: - Mori Tells a Story: Below - Rambling, Part 3: Throughout - Mannequin: Completed - Kiara: 1: Design, 2: Workflow and Blockout, 3: Finished Blockout, - Amaya: 2020 was STILL spent on my brain and learning, even if my hands wouldn't let me practice it. Between my arms getting worse and *gestures broadly in 2020,* that didn't leave much energy for socializing either. But now that I have fixed arms, I'm excited to pace myself get my butt into the art chair! Wooo! Nevermind, my arms are still dying and the doctor said I have to pace myself. As much as I would like to continue with green stuff sculpting, I just can't sculpt physically as long as I can digitally. So for now, digital practice it is! While I couldn't actually *do* anything with the information I learned over the last year and a half, I took tons of notes and tried to reread them when I could. I'm happy to list the videos and books if folks are interested. :)

Wooo! Since I have arms again, I can paint again! I know it can be more difficult to get better blends on larger surfaces, but some semblance of brush control seems more important to get back first. That seems easier to do with larger areas first. And I've been dying to work on this piece for years, so it all works out! These bookends were a gift from a friend a couple years ago. He was moving across the country and entrusted his more fragile Lord of the Rings pieces to me. I loved it. It's a Weta Workshop/Sideshow Collectible titled, "No Admittance." Bookends in their well-loved, gifted state and after a *very* good dusting last week! Primed a couple days ago! The weather has been kinda meh for priming so this is the best it's gonna get haha. I put some color on this morning! Reaper paints, of course. I grabbed The Hobbit audiobook from my library's app, so I'm very excited to cozy up with a good book and get to painting this winter! (Current time excluding prep: 1.5 hours) Bah. I'm gonna have to edit this later so Gandalf stays on the right side throughout my photos! Edit: You know, I think he looks better on the left. Then you can see both faces properly when turned.

I apologize for not being on the forums (or doing art) so much lately! Between "2020," a new house, and my arm problems, I lost a lot of drive. Kinda hard to keep up the discipline of practicing and/or enjoying art when you physically can't do it.... We finally saved up enough to get my right arm looked at in late September. I've only mentioned it a few times, but I've had problems in both hands for several years. I already couldn't do too much each day, but back in March my right elbow began to be in severe daily pain too. I couldn't do anything at all for seven months. My doctor listened (!), called for a test that we were able to do right away, and confirmed that I had pinched nerves in both arms. He said it likely happened when I was a kid and that's why I've had all those other misdiagnosed issues for so many years! Within 10 days, he performed the surgery on both elbows. I couldn't do anything for another month except pout on the couch LOL but I am finally cleared for all activities again! My hand strength is half of what it should be and it will take some time, but I have a list of exercises to fix that. He also set me up with another doctor who will look at my back problems in a couple weeks. Maybe I'll be able to start running around again too! I miss nature! I promised the doctor I would take it slow. But! I'm so excited to be back here with everyone for art and friend time! So how are you all holding up?? I've missed well over 400 pages in the Randomness thread!

Alternative Title: How Morihalda Achieved Maximum Distraction from 14 Other WIP Threads: A Story. Chapter One 6 November. I saw an absolutely gorgeous snake at the museum and thought, "Wow, that would be an excellent dragon pattern. OH WOW Ma'al could be five different reptile patterns!!" I'd been wanting to do a skeletal or blacklight theme for him for forever, but I decided those would be better suited on a smaller dragon. I spent some time that night researching snakes, lizards (and the occasional amphibian), and habitats before settling on some patterns. I spent a few more hours cleaning up mold lines and convincing myself that I don't need to resculpt these perfect heads! Red - Fire Skink Black - Lace Monitor Green - Green Iguana Blue - Blue Tree Monitor White - Blue tongue Skink Body - Fire Skink This Boelen's Python didn't make the cut since I settled on lizards, but look at that good son! He's going to be my black dragon one day. The red fire skink will be inspiration for both the red head and body. It has so many amazing colors that will help bring all the faces together. I'm thinking the wings will be muted on the underside to match the black and white heads and more fire skink on the top. This means the black and white heads need to be the middle level heads - there's a beautiful curve from them leading to each wing. My tentative color blocking. Good enough for an art gallery, yeah? 😉 Chapter Two 7 November. I spent over three hours this afternoon pinning, gluing, and green stuffing specific sections. The wing gaps and one of the legs are pretty rough, but the head scales perfectly cover the neck scales! Almost like it was planned. Chapter Three 8 November. I am still prepping. There is still barely enough done to warrant a forum post. All I have to show you are stabby holes in my hands (yes I will be using a holder/lazy Susan when painting, but I need all the angles while sculpting). Either I got one that was a little uneven or I'm just way more picky than some folks, but I have had a ton of gap filling to do for the legs. How did some of you do this in 7 days?! Someone send me rations and supplies to survive!

I had to change the title since apparently "March of the Murlocs" is already a thing in the current game. And I was so proud of the name, too! My husband loves his gift (the biggest and bestest success!!!) but it would have been great if my painting for my ReaperCon entry wasn't so awful two years in a row. All the details, rambling love stories, and modding/creation details are in my WIP thread here!

Hey all! I've been working hard on my husband's surprise birthday present. It was going to be a surprise reveal at ReaperCon, but finances/vacation time mean that it's just me going now. But since I told him about it, that means I get to make a WIP thread! Yay! I grabbed these really cool "Deep Ones Mutant Fishmen" by RAFM out of the Box of Goodwill a couple years ago. He accidentally saw them so I've had to wait until I was sure he forgot about them, haha. Oops. When we were teens and couldn't meet up, we spent most nights online together. A lot of that time was spent in WoW. With Classic coming out, I thought it would be the perfect time to get these little guys done! He's always loved murlocs and even built entire decks around them in Hearthstone, so I decided to make them based off of cards I've seen him use the most. Top: Original minis. Bottom: Prepped and repositioned for modding. Arms, fingers, toes, and bases were chopped off. The middle one needed a lot of bending to look natural. One lost his head. They all lost their noses.... I don't have WIP photos because this was a SECRET. They all got little spines drilled and sculpted on, buttcapes, little details like crab and tentacle armor. The reading one got a little "nightlight." I painted the Hearthstone cards before sculpting the head so I could actually reach the book. (This is a HUGE photo if you right click -> open link in new tab. I couldn't make it wider in the thread.) I did keep a photo of the angler underpinned head because he looked so happy!! What a cutie! This might be my avatar someday. The warleader's sword was made with Apoxie Sculpt for the base and Green Stuff details. I accidentally made it too smooth(?!) because I really struggled to get any GS to stick. That meant I couldn't do the multiple layers I wanted. I also made some terrain on a whim. The little huts are pretty iconic to him so I knew he'd immediately find it in the display area! I drew out the sizes I wanted, cut some baked sticks to size, and doused everything in appropriate amounts of superglue and hotglue. The hut top was made with a ball of foil with Apoxie Sculpt. Once it was mostly cured, I removed the ball and smoothed the inside and outside with more clay. Once it's painted, I'll use long grass to mimic the hay. I still need to add little jars, skulls, lanterns, treasure chest, etc. Lastly - the cards themselves! These card images were pulled from the Hearthstone Wiki and I added some short, awful descriptions. Top left: Underbelly Angler. Play a murloc, you get another murloc. He loves this one. This is Booklight! Top right: Toxfin. He can destroy most cards in a single hit. He's the one with the stinky fish. Bottom left: Warleader. Your other murlocs have bonus attack. Big sword guy! Bottom right: Soul of the Murloc. When your murlocs die, they come back with 1 health, 1 attack. He giggles so much when he plays this. It doesn't look unique, but I think I'll use the ghostly scheme on the Warleader. I don't know if I can do that yet! Tomorrow I'll be making the little bits and bobs. Hopefully I can arrange all the terrain on Thursday, prime Friday, and be painting next week!

Hi all! Most of the Randomness thread folks noticed that this chatterbox wasn't around much last year. 2018 was spent working on my brain. I think I made a lot of progress so hopefully that means I get to spend more of 2019 working on my art! My last post from my previous sculpting thread: As always, I appreciate love and critiques, and I hope that by showing a little bit of the time and effort it takes it pursue sculpting, others will try without getting discouraged by the climb up! So let's get started! Table of Contents: - General Rambling Throughout - Adaya: One, Two - Completed - Kiara: One, Two, Three (also Part 1 of Tierney), Four, - Tierney: Two, - Antlers: One - Completed

Several friends helpfully pointed out that before I started throwing wild ideas at Ma'al's base, I should probably practice them somewhere else first. That base is on my February list, so I gotta get practicing! Blightfang: - Completely covered giant base. - No integrated parts. I chopped 'em off. - Water with a "live" edge! - The first dragon I owned, blessed upon me by my first Box of Goodwill group, and a perfect fit for a Silversage dragon. Narthrax: - Plain, round, smaller base. - Rocks from his original base are staying. - Probably no water. - He's just plain cool. He's gonna be my Boelen's python! I used PVA glue to put the cork together, and hot glued everything to the bases. Thank you for your sacrifices, peanut butter and pickle lids! I fell in love with Paepercut's youtube channel after @Clearman mentioned it in my Ma'al thread. Y'all. That guy is SO COOL. The vast majority of the things I'll be doing here are from his videos. And if I don't think they are, they probably still are because I'm forgetful like that. Onward! Actually. Onward in a little bit. I gotta go check out the nearest store and see if they have distilled water for the next steps. Be right back!

I live! I spent January making lots of little art that piqued my interest to get back into making art frequently again! I painted a friend's Heroforge mini. It's quite grainy compared to metal minis but goodness, has it gotten so much better. I also have a rough camera adding additional graininess. It's hard to see here, but the vast majority of his robes are in Leather White. Pure White was only used for the extreme highlights, like on the potion bottle. The red also has green in the shadows. I'm learning! I painted our entire set of the Secret Weapon Tablescapes Dungeons and Mines tiles! This was an in progress photo. I realized the moment after I packed everything perfectly back into the boxes that I didn't get a completed photo. Some finished pieces before repacking them up. Bless this sculptor, y'all. I drybrushed my way through all this while rewatching the Office and everything looks heckin' great because of these amazing textures! I painted the new Bones Black Owlbear. I had to give it antlers, of course! This was a fun accidental exercise in almost monochrome. It's all purple but I intentionally chose some blue purples and red purples. The darkest color used was Nightshade Purple and the brightest was Snowdrift White. There's more variation in the white but I struggle with this camera phone. I'm really liking how solid it feels but I haven't tried testing it the way they tested the original Bones at conventions. :) It also made for a really pretty palette! Lastly (though it was the first in the timeline), I sewed some velvet bags for our new favorite game, The Quacks of Quedlinburg. I think it helped me get back into my art groove because I got excited about a thing, wanted to make something related to it, and already had the skills for it. I wanted it and I got it! They're not stellar photos, but a cheap lightbox certainly brought this camera up to mediocre.

Whoo! I primed these all last month after ReaperCon. And then they just sat there while I finished other stuff. But now my desk is clear and I'm ready for more art! I am solidly in the "paint a solid color on the mini with a little shadow and highlight because I wanna play or sculpt" category. I also feel like I could have given my most recent sculpt a lot more love simply by not just painting her all the same shade of brown, haha! So I've gathered up my paint, a handful of bones minis, my notes from Rhonda, Derek, and Erin, and now it's time to learn how to paint skin! I'm really excited to try out different expressions, skintones, and lighting. I went ahead and primed them so if we need them for any games, they won't have blinding white clothes on. I'm not certain on all the names, but all except maybe 1 or 2 of these were from my Bones III Kickstarter order. I don't want to get pinged for nudity, so I gave this dryad a cute little Space Age dress in case she accidentally gets in the frame while I'm working on other pieces. I'm pretty pleased with it. ;)

Hey all! This thread will be about my sculpting journey. I hope that by showing the time and effort it takes it pursue an art, others would be excited about trying it without getting discouraged by the climb up. I plan on posting daily here - I might as well continue my daily art streak! Some days might have some cool stuff, but many will probably be like, "Oh man. I sculpted a lot of fur today. A. Lot." Anyways. Hopefully y'all will get some enjoyment out of it. Here's to day 1 (tomorrow)! Comments and praise are appreciated, but please give critiques too! Links to Sculpting Posts: Anatomy Practice Skeleton: 06/19/17 06/20/17 06/21/17 06/22/17 06/23/17 06/24/17 06/25/17 RIP in pieces First and Second Miniatures: 06/26/17 06/27/17 06/28/17 06/29/17 06/30/17 07/01/17 07/02/17 Week 2. Nearly nonexistent. OUCH. I snuck in a little art doodle time to not break my streak! 07/10/17 07/12/17 07/13/17 07/18/17 Anatomy and Drapery Studies: Hogarth Mini 2 - legs and feet Pelvis Day Sculpting a Bust (Nerali Fendyn, Dunmer inspired): Collect references and sketches! Armature Practice with Fimo And we're practicing.... I ran out time to practice! Here's the body. The Face: Part 1, Part 2 Kill it all, restart a million times over a week. The Hair: Part 1, Part 2 Finished! Critiques Sculpting a 72mm Figure (Sora Swifthistle, Sylvari): Collect references and sketches! The Armature: Part 1, Part 2 Legs: Part 1, Part 2 54mm Skeleton The armature and hips Legs Tiny watering can Arms Conversions 03844: Damaris (Maeryn/Maria Rumbeard) Different thread.

Hello friends! It's good to see you all again! My energy levels have been slowly ramping up over the last month, so now I'm excited to spend a bunch of it here with forum friends. My husband and I played D&D again with @Rainbow Sculptor and her family over the weekend and had a great time. While we were playing, they brought out this mini - she was gorgeous and I had completely forgotten that I had her too! I believe Damaris was 2017's Duskwarden mini. Bobby Jackson already made her both fierce and a babe, so now I just gotta make her a pirate! My list: Add a very fine pirate hat Change her crossbow to a flintlock pistol Change the stone ground to wooden planks Hopefully carve down the quiver on her hip so I can make it a tankard. I'm actually pretty hesitant about the pirate hat because it would hide the hair - and hair that awesome is a sculpting goal. Seriously. Look at that tiny braid and all the locks of hair. But my girl Maria spent a lot of money on a very fine hat after she ran away to become a pirate. So on goes the hat.

(Holy moly, I haven't done a WIP since Spring 2016) HOLY MOLY, how have I never painted a dragon?? I went through my stuff - I have a BOX of unpainted dragons. Thanks, Bones III. We're fixing that right now! Questgiver here: I choose you, Three Star Stormwing! My rolls from this morning (also here): I actually got some really lovely rolls here. Even though one of them is pure black, which limits me to 4 colors instead of 5, the heather blue and cloudy grey look nice together. Unfortunately for contrast, they sort of... blend? Together? Learned artists, what's the word? If I were to take all the color out of the heather blue, it would look exactly like the cloud grey. I did check to see if my eyes were learning - they are! So here is my dragon. My 3 rolled colors on the right, and my liner and white on the left. He's pinned but I still need to do some quick green stuffing!

Hello art family! Y'all might remember my 2016 thread, where I focused on making a habit of drawing every day. 2017 was wild and I decided against a thread here, but I have continued that art streak through this year with a slight change - painting and sculpting was allowed to sustain that miniatures habit. I'm getting a bit of a headstart with my 2018 thread! I'd love to learn some fancy traditional art school basics, and I think a lot of these things transfer over to most any type of art, like mini painting and sculpting. I see lots of friends here talking about color, lighting, and MORE CONTRAST, and I think we should check those cool things out! When I start a new subject, I will list (but not link) books, websites, or other references so you can follow along if you'd like. Mori's Learning List! 1. The Learning Mindset 2. Proportions - The Head 3. Proportions - The Body 4. Anatomy

I've had a chunk of antler sitting in my drawer of basing materials for years, waiting for the right figure to use it on. I recently acquired the Bombshell Miniature Morihalda bust, and inspiration stuck! The antler was cut at a weird angle but I was able to use a hacksaw and a miter box to square off the top. I have the dilemma of trying to figure out a) the right orientation of the bust to the base, and b) if I want to fare in the bust pedestal to the antler using green stuff. I plan on putting a couple of pins in her base, and then matching sockets in the antler. I figure I can blank off the top of the antler with shrink wrap and then do the sculpting work (if I choose to pursue that) which would enable me to separate them again for priming/painting purposes. Anyway, I've come to you brave forumites for advice! I've got four pictures attached showing the four possible orientations of the bust/antler. Let me know which one you think is the most appealing choice! I'm partial to #3 myself, but my wife likes #4.

Whoo! Time to paint for ReaperCon! RUSH RUSH RUSH RUSH I don't paint very often, and now that I'm entering a competition, it's painfully obvious that I don't know any techniques past basic color blocking and washing in shadows. I need to try a whole bunch of new things. So! Let's learn: - Dark elf skin (I want purple dark elves, to be specific) - Soft, gray leather - Wild hair color blending - Fire - OSL from the fire! First, dark elf skin. I found the first page of @Corporea's Drow bust very helpful - her initial attempt was much too purple for her needs, but super close to how purple I want mine to be! I've also gathered my own mess of colors to test out fun things!

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.†- Andy Warhol 2015 was a really big year of emotional recovery for me. It's taken several years, but I truly felt that change last year. So with that progress in mind, I decided I wanted more. I've dedicated 2016 to learning about my favorite thing in the whole wide world - ART! I've got a lot to learn and a lot of time to get back. I'm going to make it worth my while to make time for art. I'll be using this thread as a goal marker if you would like to learn with me. These are my 2016 Goals: PAINTING I would like to have a dragon and a snowglobe done this year. I want to have a ReaperCon entry as well. Progress will be posted on the normal part of the forums. - Mini Painting - Speedy Swashbucklin' Sea Scamps, Pokemon themed ReaperCon/Spring Exchange - Non Mini Painting - Drink Coasters, SCULPTING Sculpt something! Whether it's terrain or a Parading Penguin Present Party, I want to start! - Sculpting completed - Pokemon themed Spring Exchange, wolf lying down and campfire - Sculpting in progress - Learning to sculpt thread! DRAWING I have a sketchbook that I'd like to fill up by the end of the year by drawing in it for a few minutes every day. I'd like to get better at drawing - I want to learn the fundamentals and develop my own unique blend of animated and realistic styles. I'll post my favorite drawings of the month here. The rest can be seen on my Facebook albums, which are set to public. You can add or follow me if you would like. Longest consecutive streak: 245 Days (May 1-December 31) 316/365 = 86%!! Jan: 23/31 74% Feb: 23/29 79% - I got a tooth pulled and lost a week. That could have been 100%! Mar: 15/31 48% - Lesson 1 completed! Apr: 9/30 30% - Ouch! I did a lot of lessons on those days, though. Lesson 2 completed! May: 31/31 100% - !!! Both challenges completed, and nearly finished Lesson 3. Jun: 30/30 100% - !!! I did it again! A lot of fast sketches this month. Jul: 31/31 100% - !!! 3 month streak! Cosplay and Overwatch sort of took over, though I did get some sculpting in! Aug: 31/31 100% - !!! 4 month streak! Sep: 30/30 100% - !!! 5 month streak! It was really close this month! Some days were just a few quick gesture sketches. Oct: 31/31 100% - !!! 6 month streak! Holy cow, I didn't think I was going to get so far! October has always been good to me though. Nov: 30/30 100% - !!! 7 month streak! Wow, November sucked. But it's done! Dec: 31/31 100% - !!! 8 month streak! Random Drawings: Ma'al Dragon Heads (printable ones here), ub3r's Velicia Torynn, Trading Cards: Ocean Sylvari, Pern Dragon, COSPLAY/SEWING Another art craft I've wanted to really get into! I'd like to finally complete one cosplay this year, whether that's something Morihalda would wear, ReaperCon Sophie, or something from a video game! - Harry Potter Hufflepuff dress: Done! - Harry Potter robes, movie style: Post 1, Done! - Arcanine Kigurumi in progress: Post 1, - Morihalda Silversage: Post 1, Presentable/Done-ish - Bewitching Nidalee: Post 1, Done! I hope you enjoy the journey with me!

Say that 3 times fast! This will be a thread for my sculpting journey. Critiques and tips are GREATLY appreciated (I wouldn't mind a kind word every now and then too ). I'll get into more details later, but right now I'm looking to a nice Saturday night spent sculpting!

Happy Birthday Morihalda I hope you have a lovely day with lots of artsy presents!!! AAARRROOOOO!!!!!

So way back, y'all probably remember that I got all excited about snow globes. Yeah. I haven't tested any of those materials. I started sealing my test pieces and kept seeing terrifying warnings everywhere. So the water part is on hold, but pleeease add to that post if you have any waterproof suggestions! Here's my sketch for it. I'm unsure about the fence. I'm hoping that running it next to the little guy in the front will lead you to the middle so they feel connected. I've been watching some art videos and they said that guiding your viewer's eye is important! I think I will -not- cross the bars on the fence. Then the fence will go in an easy direction to the middle of the globe without your eye stopping to figure out the X's. Save the detail for the "focal point," right? I've also got to figure out which side the slanted end of the fence should be. I'd also like to sculpt in little things on the side, like an empty mug of hot chocolate or a scarf, excitedly cast aside when the friends decided to make a snowman! Maybe add some teeny little pawprints in the snow.... If I have time, I'd like to add in a surprise.... Here they were as of last Friday! Over the weekend I cleaned and primed them. The snowman got some green stuff on his head because those mold lines were tough. I've started a basic ring of air dry clay on the base. It should be dry today and I can keep building it up. Next, the color scheme. I tried to color some ideas in a few weeks ago, but it's been difficult to not accidentally copy parts of the amazing one featured in the store. I end up adding too much yellow and green.... :S

Hey guys! My excited ramble and snowglobe idea list: The Questions: Google says exposed pewter can corrode, I would think that properly primed, painted, and sealed minis would be safe, correct? I would want the paint to be waterproof. Does anyone have any experience with waterproof sealers? Especially ones that aren't super shiny? Would it be better to put the Reaper sealer on, then the waterproof? Material - I've found a seller for no-seam glass globes that are 4"/100mm diameter. Would it be safer to find a plastic globe, and then find some sort of scratch protectant? Distraction - any animal-safe, waterproof sealers? Because oh my goodness fish aquariums. Cthulhu fish tank. The Answers: Materials and Painting: Globes: Floaties: Liquids: Thanks in advance! Edit: I said I wasn't going to ramble and I did... Edited to fix my inability to type reasonably when excited. I will be adding more information as I find the time!

So I was assigned Morihalda (yay!) for the 2016 Spring Exchange and I received the survey that she filled out to get an idea of what I should paint for her. In the section asking what she would not like to receive, she put "ugly undead things. " Well, as one who happens to love undead things and thinks they're absolutely adorable, I took offense to this (not real offense, obviously,) and decided that I was going to give her a pretty undead thing. So the idea here is that the elf ranger saved what he thought was a beautiful princess, only when she turned around, he didn't have time to run away before she grabbed him and dragged him back to her father's castle. Without further adieu, I give you, "What do you mean you don't want to marry my daughter?" I know, I know, as usual my lighting and pictures are dreadful. Unfortunately, I forgot to take proper pictures before packaging everything up, so what you're seeing are my "Look! I finally finished!" pictures. The figures I used are in the topic tags - they're all Reaper, except for the wolf, which was from Dark Sword Miniatures. My banshee lady is a conversion/head swap/whatever. Her body and hair are from 02582: Queen of High Elves and her "face" is from 02090: The Deathmistress. Special thanks to Froggy for his advice and talking me down from the proverbial ledge while I was anxiously hacking into things. This was my first actual conversion - it was a face transplant rather than a head transplant because I wanted to preserve the original mini's hair. Here's a back view of her so you can see her hair better and also my first ever attempt at a freehand pattern. Knowing that I was giving Mori a banshee lady and Dragoth when she'd directly asked not to receive "ugly undead" (Dragoth's throne is pretty grisly!) I made sure to specifically add things that were on her inspiration list: an elf, a ranger and a wolf and she also mentioned that sea colours and woodland colours were her favourites so I tried to keep that in mind as well. Also special thanks to Knarthex who talked me through some ideas and showed me some examples on what to do with the empty space where the braziers ended up going - I sculpted those with sculpey clay. They're very primitive but I think they got the job done. Especially special thanks to Trevor who bravely sacrificed his skull to go into one of the braziers.

Hey all! This is my spring exchange mini for Flamehawke. I was going crazy with excitement when the PM with her information included a love for Pokemon! I was going for a cartoony feel with them to match the show. I hope you guys like her! Special thanks to Talespinner for sculpting advice, Corporea, Guindyloo, and several others in the chatter thread with colors, and ub3r_n3rd with basing! You guys rock, and I learned SO MUCH with this mini. Sculpting WIP for Flareon and the girl's conversions is in this thread. Apologies for photo quality - I only have my phone. Closeups! -- Edit: I really need to turn down that light brightness from the lamp... Here's what the hair looks like - it's one of my favorite parts and it didn't show very well in the final shots.

Hey all! Now that the awesome Flamehawke has received her spring exchange mini, I'd love to post my sculpting progress for it! It was a ton of fun making her, but I did have to wrestle with the green stuff to go the way I wanted sometimes. I haven't really learned how to handle it yet. The folks in this thread, especially canuckotter and TaleSpinner, were a ton of help, so I hope y'all don't mind me bugging everyone here again for some real critiquing now! The Trainer I started with Sugar, Anime Heroine, by Bob Ridolfi, who became.... ... A Pokemon trainer on her way to be the best Pokemon master!!! I had no idea that conversions and sculpting took so much work!! This girl seriously needed her midriff covered if she was going to be running around the world all day, so I added that. The sculpt was pretty accurate - she had the square piece of fabric around the back of her neck, so I had to grind it down. Getting it level with the rest of her body with green stuff also solved her broken back syndrome. Super stylized characters can be fun, but I wanted to make it a bit more realistic. With Pokemon, she says. heh. It was pretty enteraining to put on my workout shirts and leggings to see where the fabric folds would go. They seemed to match alright! I decided a small travel bag would be handy for any Pokemon trainer, and it made the top of the skirt work as the bag's strap, as well as a belt for her snazzy new tunic. The skirt was hella short, so I imagine she's got some shorts under there, and the leggings seemed fun. Lots of Pokemon trainers have bicycle shorts or leggings! The leggings also seemed to cut down the length of her legs. I mean, she had nice legs to begin with, but they were crazy long for a young person, haha. The hand took FOREVER. I watched a couple hand videos that were recommended by canuckotter, so that helped immensely. I'm mostly satisfied with the shape, but not the surface - it's so teeny that I couldn't use the normal shapers to smooth it out. When I tried using the flat side of a dental pick, I had the same problem that I had while sculpting - the green stuff would "pull" away, so it's like I have a million teeny spikes on the fingers. And here she is, primed and ready for painting! The primer kept looking thick and chalky... ----------- Flareon A paaaaain. But so satisfying!!! I didn't realize it took so long to create things from scratch! Letting each layer dry really tested my patience. I figured out real quick that that's just the way sculpting works after smushing the back legs several times when I impatiently tried to work on another section. I used a lot of cat jumping references when sketching out, but the nicest looking one actually came from a.... squirrel. I eventually cut off the bottom piece of wire because it wasn't helping anything. A lot of this had to be sculpted while I held an appendage because I started before learning about pinning to cork. >_< I am so proud of those teeny paws. The bug eyes got shaved waaay down after this photo was taken. I still need to work on the fur more.... I did buy vaseline and it kind of helped the putty pulling away probleim I was having. Primed and ready to paint! Little paws again because they are cute. I used my cat for reference there, haha. ----------- Basing Big thanks to ub3r here - I had planned to use plasticard for the base to make a simple grassy battle stadium, but I had forgotten about the bar under her feet! I attempted to base her on what she came on. Bad idea! So ub3r recommended a second layer that the bar would hide in, and that worked out pretty well! I glued the mini, foam, and plasticard together, and then used green stuff over the whole thing. ----------- Final Final pictures are in this thread. Thanks for looking and I hope you liked it! Critique is requested and appreciated for the sculpting!

:bday: Happy birthday!!! :bday: