Primer stage!

Now she's ready to paint, and decal!

Custom water slide decals! Woo!

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.

Hair!

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!

Wings and Tail!

The wings and tail are finished! The tail is a core of aluminum foil which I then cover in clay and sculpt. This reduced the amount of Apoxie Sculpt I have to use.

The base of the tail and the base of the wings still need to be sculpted on, but I'm going to save that until I get the hair sculpted.

Of Avarice.

You're probably wondering what ever happened to my side project "Avarice"! Well, I've been working on her, and she's coming along well! For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about here's the breakdown: I needed specific electrical parts for the "Carbonite Doughtnut" and I found them in an eight inch Princess Celestia doll from "My little ponies, Friendship is Magic" ( a fantastic show by the way). Once I had gutted her of her circuits and LEDs I had a perfectly good princess to modify. I decided, being a cynical bastard, I would create a my little pony based on money and greed. And what better name for a pegacorn than "Avarice"! And with this, a side project was born!!!! Behold! The process so far!

Here she is as Princess Celestia once I put her back together. The circuits and lights were installed in "The Carbonite Doughnut". She was all ready to transform into Avarice!

First step was to fill the inside so that I could cut into her as deep as I wanted and still be able to sculpt the inner space. To achieve this, I filled her with "Great Stuff" expanding foam insulation and taped her up so she wouldn't expand apart, then dry.

Here she is after the first day of sculpting. I expanded and sharpened the horn and ears. I also lengthened the muzzle and added a smile. The hind hooves were enlarged slightly and all seams and holes were filled in.

The next day I drilled holes for the tail and wings and set the wire in so that the clay would cure to the right size hole. I also added the eyebrows and bags under her eyes. This immediately made the smile on the muzzle fit! Now she's evil! Yay!!!

A close up of the evil face. I've ordered water slide inkjet decal paper for the eyes themselves. This will be the first time I've ever made my own decals and I'm excited at the prospect! I'm also going to use the decals for the 'cutie mark' on her ass and the detailing of the armor on her legs. Tonight I'm sculpting the wings. I'll post those photos tommorow!

Thanks for looking!!!

Mr. Badger process photos.

As promised, here are some process photos. Above is the tight sketch Maria gave me to go off of. Above that, you'll see the whole set up on my table. This will give you a good idea of how big the whole thing is. Above that is a shot of Maria testing placement during the painting stage. Last but not least, above that, a photo of the badger just before I cooked him to make doubly sure he was the right size. You can see from the tight sketch that I took some liberties here and there. But I think I did a good job capturing the overall image.

Mr. Badger's New Book.

And here it is! The collaboration project I promised oh so long ago. Maria and I concepted it. She suggested I do a simple children's book illustration and I stipulated that it must take place underground in a burrow. She did all the character design and drew the tight sketch. I sculpted and built it. Maria helped a little bit on painting it, and was very very helpful during the photo shoot. Together we chose which photo (out of about 80) was the best, narrowing the list slowly down. We also each did a bit of photoshop adjustment on it. Nothing much, mind you. Just color adjustment and I darkened the fireplace innards to let you see the rockwork a bit more. And last but not least, Maria named the piece. I'll post process photos soon. Not now though, it's very late....