Here's the first resin test. I coated it multiple times to build up the ice. It maintains the detail fine, but I don't like the idea of them all in a thin amount of ice. It implies they stood still for 20 years while water dripped and froze on them slowly. I want this to look more like an instant frozen forever in ice. 
This is the thickness of ice that I want. I only sanded a few small areas enough to confirm that you can still see all the detail inside. If you go at this with 80 grain sandpaper and work your way down to 600 grain, I'm relatively confident the detail will show through.
So now we move on. I've taken the computer off the table and moved everything in order to make space for the 15 inch tall sculpt.
So I've started work on the second to last illustration. I want this one to be an underground ice cave, most of it cast in clear resin. The sketch up above is still very loose and not a tight sketch at all, but I'm moving forward anyway. I'll deal with composition and pose when I sculpt it (not a good habit at all, but I'm tired of drawing and not sculpting).
I'm doing something I've never done before, but should have the whole time. I'm scuplting several maquettes to work out the main figure. I also need multiple maquettes to test the resin on. I need to know how the paint will be affected by resin. I need to see which technique will not warp the light so you can still see all the detail. You'll see what I mean when I start posting final test shots. The whole idea is this little eskimo kid and her dog stumble upon this violent frozen scene while exploring an ice cave. I thought it would be funny to have several polar bears attacking a snow-monster for his 'cola' . Now I could have them all frozen in one huge block of ice, but I think that would look a little too cartoony and cheap. That would be the easiest answer as I would only have to put them behind a piece of plexiglass and sculpt icicles around it. But I want to try having them coated in icicles themselves, hoping that they wouldn't be too distorted through the resin to see detail. Anyway! It will all be clear once I get on with this and start posting more photos.
Yay! She's done! No, I'm not happy with this photo shoot. Now this is just a side project, certainly not portfolio material. If she's lucky I'll try to sell her on Etsy. I want good pictures for the archive though and I think she'd do well in real sunlight!
I bought a Testors package of water slide decal paper for ink jet printers, so I can design and print my own decals! So here's the sheet I've got for Avarice. The eight dollar sign designs on the bottom are the hoof armor decorations. I threw in a few extra Sculptwerks logos because this stuff's expensive and I don't want to waste any space. I'm printing multiples of everything because I'm not sure how opaque my printer ink will end up being. I guess I'll just have to find out tomorrow! She's all together and sanded and primed. Tomorrow I can begin painting her! I'll post photos of her in the primer stage.
Not much to say here. I sculpted the hair. Maria critiqued it and I had to resculpt the entire back. Now it looks much better!
The Head does still move! This was important to me to make it still move. I want this to be as if Hasbro produced a very cynical real My Little Pony with major safety issues. The Wings will, of course, not allow the head to rotate all the way around, but that would just be creepy anyway!
The wings aren't permanently attached yet so I kept them off for these photos. The tail, however, has been attached, so it's one step closer!
