Nearly finished!

Mr Unicorn got his hair in this week.

 

I'd bought some beautiful Tibetan Lambswool from -link- (who I'd definitely recommend as a seller!) a month or so ago and it was really lovely to work with even though I seem to have inhaled more hair than glued. XD

The mane was the easy part as all I needed to do was cut out a couple of long strips and glue it on but the beard and chest hair/mane was a little more tricky.I ended up layering the strips of hair for the chest part and using individual hanks for the beard which worked well on one side but terribly on the other. :/

For a while he modelled this rather fetching (and important!) sign too... XD

Next came the flocking and oh god, just getting to this point was STRESS-FUUUUULLL!

I knew I needed some white and a fleshtone colour and I assumed that flock would be relatively easy to get hold of as an art material but when I came away from both big art shops in town empty handed I started to get a little bit concerned. I ended up getting the bus out to the Glasgow Fort shopping centre (through which I lost money as the fare was £3.45 and I only had a five pound note and they didn't give change, arrhhgh!) to try the big Hobbycraft there as I knew they had a lot of scrapbooking/cardmaking stuff.

Alas, all they had in the way of flock was a single pack of glitter flock.

I bought it anyway as I thought I could use it to practice with and I may be able to use it for future projects but still, it was a disappointing day as I'd been so sure I'd get what I needed there that I didn't bother to order some online as a backup! As a result I spent the journey back to Glasgow on my phone, frantically trying to find somewhere that would sell the colours I needed for a reasonable price and - most importantly - would send them as quickly as possible. To my relief I managed to find some and ordered it up there and then. They arrived yesterday and to say that I was underwhelmed was something of an understatement. I'd been so fixated on just buying some flock that I hadn't read the description properly and had ended up buying some absolutely TINY tubs of the stuff. I was so worried I wouldn't have enough that I ordered some more last night, only to discover this morning that I actually had more than I needed. XD

I still need to do another couple of layers tomorrow I think but the colours blend nicely enough and so far none of it has fallen off so I think *touchwood* I'm going to be ok! (BTW my iPhone photos really don't give the right colour cast - the photo above is closer to actual colour than the one below which looks too pink.)

 

He still needs his base finished off but the actual head is more or less finished now! All going well I should have him mounted up and completed by tomorrow or Friday. :D

 

 



 


(and because I'm really sad...)

Am I 'fur' real?

Yes I am and I offer no apology for the terrible puns! XD

This week has seen the project stagnate somewhat and yet, at the same time, come on leaps and bounds. As of today, all Mr Unicorn needs is a mane and a muzzle and he'll be ready to mount up on a plaque! (which I still need to make, argh)

Annoyingly I neglected to take any photos of the horn prior to hot-gluing it in so apologies! I sculpted it from Super-Sculpey around a tinfoil core to give it both stability and to make it lighter than if I'd made it solid. I painted it with Games Workshop acrylics and though the photos make it look incredibly dark, it does actually have many different colours in it with some nice highlights too.



Narwhal tusks were the original inspiration for the Unicorns of the tapestries and paintings and while I liked the history behind them, I wanted my Unicorn to have a slightly different look so I based the horn of mine on that of antelope and the like. I took some photos when I was volunteering the other week which came in very handy for sculpting reference.

I made up the patterns for the fur from some paper towels taped together with masking tape as it was considerably easier to do and wasted less material than doing the same with fabric.

 

Although the neck pieces fitted perfectly, the head was off in a few places so I used this as another test piece and added in some extra bits with tape so I could use it as an improved template. I was pretty much making it up as I went along with no real idea of what I was doing. XD

 I painted the muzzle and around the eyes with flesh toned paint to simulate the skin and then made up some eyelids from painted glove leather. At first I made both lids pink but later repainted the top one a creamy white colour as it suited the fur more and looked more natural.

Then it was just a matter of  gluing on the fur...

 

...

Or so I thought!

I'd managed to glue the left side on squint so I had to carefully peel it all off without taking half the plaster and foam with it and start again! Luckily I had plenty of spare fabric so I was able to catch up pretty quickly.

 

I did my best to avoid really obvious seam lines but as I'll be giving him a beard, mane and probably a bit of an extended beard/chest hair combo I should be able to disguise any really ugly bits!
If I can get some flocking powder tomorrow at Hobbycraft I'll be able to blend the muzzle into the fur much more naturally - if not I'll have to attempt to make my own flock  - fun.

One of the things I'd always really wanted to make for this was a really fancy collar - as seen in the 'Unicorn in Captivity' tapestry.



I didn't think I'd have enough time to even think about it but when I realised how far ahead I was, I decided to go for it. With some fantastically coloured blue corduroy fabric from the fabric boxes in the room downstairs (thanks Jack!) and the thread, bias binding and beads from my own collection, I spent the entire day yesterday putting it together. It isn't exactly accurate to the tapestry as I couldn't find a buckle quite as fancy and it's difficult to make out all the details so this was more of a homage to the thing than an exact replica. I measured where the buckleholes should be with nothing more than a bit of thread so I was amazed (and seriously relieved) when I found to my delight this morning that it fitted perfectly despite having not had the chance to test fit it before I put in the eyelets! It will hopefully provide a good way to disguise any joins between the neck and whatever I end up using as the base which was part of the reason I decided to make it in the first place.



The buckle was a lucky find at Mandors the fabric shop and at only £1.50 was an absolute bargain! I dread to think how many hours I sat sewing it yesterday but I got through Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, an episode of Stargate: SG1, Star Trek: Enterprise, Law and Order: SVU, NCIS and the news whilst working on it so that's at LEAST eight hours I reckon! XD
Stupidly I didn't sort out how many beads I'd need for it all before I started so I ran a little short on some - the pearls were a nightmare as some of them looked identical to others...but cracked and broke in two whenever I tried to thread them onto a needle. Arrrghhhh!
(The collar has had some extra beads sewn on since that photo - see below.)

So yeah, that's where I stand with him at the moment! I'm just hoping that Hobbycraft actually has some of the flock stuff tomorrow or...well, I'll be flocked. D:



EG out! :D

'Ear, ear! - Unicorn Project update!

Another big bumper post for you all today! (I meant to post this last week so it'll be swiftly followed up with this week's progress report)

The last time you saw Mr Unicorn he was bald, blue and without eyes or ears and I'm happy to say that he is now only one of those things! This week I managed to get his ears in and while they look too big in some photos, in person they actually really suit him.

The eyes were just shoved in for photos, they weren't glued until later on.

I painted him with a mixture of plaster and white acrylic paint to smooth over all the bumps and imperfections in the blue foam. The paint acted like water would for the plaster, only instead of going off within a few minutes, it took a lot longer so I had more working time in which to use it. This meant I could treat it as something of a sculpting material and fill large areas and build up 'muscle'. There were still some rough areas from where I'd taken too much off of the foam and had to patch it but once the fur's on it won't be too noticeable.

It sands beautifully too which is very handy for me as the muzzle and around the eyes won't be haired and I want to get a really nice smooth finish.

I hot-glued the eyes in very carefully (trying to line up the pupils was...fun) and then started pondering the design of the horn.

I really wanted to do something more akin to my secondary source of inspiration other than the tapestries - the wonderful 'real unicorns' of Oberon Zell-Ravenheart   (Goats with surgically transplanted horn buds that formed a single horn instead of a set)

 I made a couple of mockups of thicker and more goat-like horns which didn't really suit the rest of the model so instead I settled for a more traditional look of a spiralled design; although I tried to make it more like that of an antelope rather than a narwhal tusk for realism's sake.

This was just a really simple mockup to gauge the relative size and shape - I'd make the final horn at home from sculpey.

I managed to resist the temptation to emulate Glasgow's own resident unicorn; proudly ridden by Wellington just down the road from the college... XD

 Next to be dealt with was the eyes. The sockets were terribly uneven and needed bulking out if I was to avoid it looking like it was ready for the eyes to pop out at any minute. I covered the glass eyes in a few layers of latex to protect them before mixing up more of the paint 'n' plaster mix and building up the structure over a period of hours.

Much better!

Next update: the fur goes on!

Digby's tack/rug set!

I've been meaning to post this for about a month but I kept forgetting to upload the photos! lol

I wanted Digs to have a really flashy colour scheme so when I found this very shiny (and perfectly scaled!) 'leadrope' on a clothes tag, I knew I'd found it. I'd bought some fabric and fake suede thonging to match after Christmas and put it all together in a couple of days.





 

He doesn't have his own saddle yet (although I'm working on that, lol) so he's borrowing one for now but his bridle's his own. Black leather with an etched Kimblewick (which unfortunately I think is trad scale so it's a bit big) and foam bit guards.





I followed the lines on the pattern to make the numnah look quilted and I'm not really sure if it works but oh well - I tried!





 

 He's proving to be a very enthusiastic little jumping pony and I'm sure it won't be long before he's bringing in the ribbons at shows!