Saturday 27 July 2013

Bunny!

I was supposed to be visiting my grandpa in Perthshire this weekend which would have meant that I could have taken some nice photos of Skara and Inky in some nice scenic scenery but my dad wasn't feeling well and as he's the only driver in the family, that ruled that visit out. XD
On the plus side, it did spur me on last night to make a couple of new props...

I'm still writing out a photostory for Skara but really wanted to do a hunting scene where she could utilise her bow. I didn't have time last night to make a deer, so I thought I'd aim a little smaller and make a rabbit instead. :P

1/6 scale poseable Rabbit

Making an armature that tiny was challenging to say the least but it worked out pretty well in the end. The fur was some really nice coloured faux fur that I trimmed down almost to it's backing. I chopped up some more and glued it onto the head and feet afterwards to blend it into the fimo. His ears are painted leather.

1/6 scale poseable Rabbit

1/6 scale poseable Rabbit



1/6 scale poseable Rabbit1/6 scale poseable Rabbit


As well as the bunny himself I made some raw and cooked versions of the rabbit legs found in Skyrim along with some (really unconvincing) cooked meat and some bread. All of this was made from fimo.

1/6 scale poseable Rabbit

1/6 scale poseable Rabbit

I kinda don't want her to eat him now! Maybe he'll become a pet...

Sunday 21 July 2013

Skara is finished!

It's taken a while but Skara, (in her current costume at least) is finished!

Aside from the base body, everything you see here I made from scratch myself.

Skara - 1:6 scale Skytrim bash

Skara - 1:6 scale Skytrim bash

I based the top on the Miner's Clothes from Skyrim, but I used a lot of artistic licence, likewise with the weapons and things. I had an old top made from cheesecloth that I'd cut up for craft fabric ages go which was perfect for this. I'm usually useless when it comes to sewing but I somehow managed to make it look reasonably good. The fraycheck I used on the edges stained them a bit but I like to think it adds to the well worn and weathered look. Once the shirt was all sewn up and had the edges sealed I soaked it in a bowl of strong tea and water to make sure it didn't look too new and bright white.

Skara: costume WIP

I stuck some copic markers up the arms so it would dry to shape but alas, one cap must have been open a little bit as it left a mark on one shoulder. :/ I didn't bother trying to get it out as I thought it would just pass as some accumulated dirt or something. XD I painted some of the tea around the bottom of the shirt and the ends of the sleeves as they were the places most likely to pick up wear and tear.

Skara: costume WIP

Skara - 1:6 scale Skytrim bash

The leather I used for the belt had a really horrible finish to begin with; far too shiny and new looking so I took a bit of sandpaper to it which made it look a lot more worn. The pouch on her belt is made from the fingertip of an old leather glove and opens and closes using a little toggle I made from carved styrene to emulate bone or ivory.

Her dagger is based on the iron and steel ones in game but I simplified the design a lot. When I get back to college in a month or so I'm hoping to use the lasercutter so I can make a few of the really fancy swords with carved out details but for now, simple is best.

Skara - 1:6 scale Skytrim bash
The blade and guard are made from 1 or 2mm styrene (I can't remember which, sorry!) and the grip is just wrapped with thread and covered in a layer of superglue to hold it all together. The scabbard for it was cobbled together pretty quickly so I'll probably remake it at some point.


Her bow is a little small but I didn't have a long enough section of wood to make a proper longbow. As it was, I used a wooden coffee stirrer instead! I soaked it in very hot water until it was pliable, cut notches in the ends and strung it with tooth-floss. It sounds like a very bizarre choice but it looks and feels like sinew and does actually work!

(and yes, I did test it out. :P)

She used to be an adventurer you know...until, well... XD

Skara - 1:6 scale Skytrim bash


Skara - 1:6 scale Skytrim bash

It was sanded and stained with Games Workshop washes and finished off with some matte varnish.

Skara - 1:6 scale Skytrim bash

Now no archer worth her salt could go without arrows so I made her a few!

Skara - 1:6 scale Skytrim bash

The heads are all individually cut out of styrene (again, another thing I'd like to make with the lasercutter is some more realistic arrowheads.) and the flights were all hand glued and fletched with thread. (which was incredibly fiddly as I kept gluing bits of feather to myself rather than the arrows!)

Skara - 1:6 scale Skytrim bashSkara - 1:6 scale Skytrim bash

I thought I had a better range of feathers than I actually had, hence why they're all different sizes and shapes and colours. In my headcanon for Skara, she starts off in Skyrim as a bit of a scavenger so I like to imagine that she's picked up these arrows from all over the place, hence the variety.

The quiver is all leather, stitched together with thread. I struggled to find good photographs of all the associated straps and how they attached to it so I improvised a little.

Skara - 1:6 scale Skytrim bash

Her pendant has a real glass gem in the middle, the rest is Fimo clay painted silver and glossed with varnish with a couple of seed beads alongside.

Skara - 1:6 scale Skytrim bash

Given that she was wearing Miner's clothes, I thought she might benefit from having a pickaxe on hand...unfortunately I didn't bother looking up a reference picture to work from because I thought I remembered what they looked like...which I clearly didn't as I forgot that one side of the axe was wider at one end...oh well. XD

Skara: costume WIP

The handle is a scrap of dowelling I had lying around with some chips whittled off, the blade is styrene and the bit round the top is of all things, leather!

Painted up you can't tell though. It's probably way too small as well but never mind, if nothing else it can be a useful prop to have in the background at some point.

Skara - 1:6 scale Skytrim bash


Inky got herself a tack set too! Seeing as I had already strayed from making exact replicas of Skyrim stuff, I saw no harm in making her stuff a little more unique. (Given the kind of world Skyrim is set in, I find it highly unlikely that everyone would have had exactly the same kind of weaponry and whatnot. :P)
 I have never liked the default Skyrim tack, especially the bridle with the little spikes and things so she got a simple snaffle bridle minus the noseband and throatlatch instead. Normally I make working buckles for everything but these ones are just for show as the whole bridle just lifts off. I had left a hole going through her mouth so I could use an actual mouthpiece for the bit - it only goes in a cm or two but with a little sticky wax, it stays in place quite nicely and looks far more realistic than if I just stuck it to her face temporarily. The detail at the browband is just thread.

Skara - 1:6 scale Skytrim bash

Her saddle is a lot closer to the original game tack, though I added a few touches of my own.

Skara - 1:6 scale Skytrim bash

The bedroll is made of thick felt and I made the saddlebags from scratch out of fine glove leather. The fur covering should have been a little longer but I only realised this by the time I'd glued it together!

Skara - 1:6 scale Skytrim bash

I took them out for a couple of photoshoots this week so stay tuned for a big picture filled post!

Here's a sneak preview of what's to come...

Off on an adventure...


A walk to the Whangie!

On one of the warmest days of the year so far, I went for a bit of a hillwalk yesterday. XD

I'm tremendously unfit and would normally never agree to do such a thing but the Whangie is somewhere that I've wanted to visit for ages so I caved and joined two of my friends, Catriona and Claire for a nice morning wander up to Queen's View in the Kilpatrick Hills. They had already planned on going but asked me if I fancied it the day before, after we saw Monster's University at the cinema. (which, incidentally, is one of those rare sequels that actually surpasses the original - I'd HIGHLY recommend it!) Normally I'd refuse on the grounds that I'm terribly unfit (true) the weather's awful (also true) etc etc but as it was decided that we'd be going there at about 8:30 in the morning when it would still be cool, I thought I'd give it a go and I'm so glad I did.


...and just what is the Whangie, I hear you cry? Well, it's a very interesting area of geology! (and is pronounced 'wang-ee' if you were unsure) I'll go into more detail when we get there. :P


Friday 19 July 2013

The Curse of the Gloamglozer!

Poseable 'Gloamglozer'


For anyone who doesn't know what that entails, for shame! You mustn't have read The Edge Chronicles!

The Edge Chronicles are a series of fantasy books; granted, aimed at children, but I first read them when I was 11 and now nearly thirteen years later (bloody hell, I didn't realise it was that long, LOL) at 23 I love them just as much, if not more than I did then. The best part about them, aside from the stories themselves which are interestingly unique in a children's series to not have 'good' and 'evil' characters but a range of those with a decidedly grey morality.
Anyway, straying from the subject somewhat - the other big plus is Chris Riddell's beautiful illustrations which have inspired and influenced my own art style and never fail to amaze me. I mean just look at them!

http://lynkhart.tumblr.com/post/55554079466/frood-chris-riddell-the-last-of-the-sky

http://lynkhart.tumblr.com/post/55555989415/bloody-their-noses-he-said-once-black-their

With an unexpected 11th book being announced this week, (the authors said they were ending it at 10!) my love for the series has been reignited and I couldn't resist making one of my favourite characters from it in 3D: The Gloamglozer!

More photos and a step-by-step guide under the cut!


Wednesday 3 July 2013

Progress on Skara...

I haven't posted about her in a while but my 1/6th scale version of my Skyrim character Skara has been taking shape over the last couple of months. She still has a looooong way to go though but she at least now has a head!

I started off by taking some photos of her onscreen - difficult when I'm playing on PS3 as I have no way of taking direct screenshots other than taking photos of the tv! - resizing them on the computer and printing them out so I could refer to them as I worked. Alas, I didn't take particularly good ones until after I'd already finished most of it but here's what she looks like. Depending on the lighting she has really dark eyes and grumpy eyebrows.

     photo IMG_4710_zps11be4b66.jpg photo IMG_4715_zps67814d10.jpg photo IMG_4718_zpsa83d69e8.jpg

I used Tony Barton's method of sculpting direct onto a tile and building the rest of the head up in stages.The eyes were small beads I bought for the purpose as I didn't want to faff about with making my own and have them end up uneven or wonky.


 Those nose is wrong I know but it's too late to change it now.

1/6 scale headsculpt WIP 'Skara'1/6 scale headsculpt WIP 'Skara'

Having no prior experience with making a headsculpt to fit a neck post, I did what I usually do and bodged it. I made a negative of the post in sculpey, baked it and using copious quantities of superglue/baking soda, epoxy and more sculpey, managed to get it to fit comfortably. It's still a bit fragile so in future I will have to come up with a better process. It is removable and I put some sticky wax around the post so it'll hold position without being too loose.

1/6 scale headsculpt WIP 'Skara'
1/6 scale headsculpt WIP 'Skara'

I also added her facial scarring which, while in game is subtle, for me it forms an integral part of her character. I knew now that the sculpt didn't bear a fantastic resemblance to her so I thought making the scars look more 'raw' and recent might help. In the end, she looks quite young so I may just have her as Skara, but pre-Skyrim which could be fun to write photostories around.

Anyway, next to go on were the ears. I'm not going to lie, I absolutely loathe sculpting ears so I cheated a bit with this by making a couple of negatives of my Martha Jones figure's ears so I could get the basic shape right.

1/6 scale headsculpt WIP 'Skara'1/6 scale headsculpt WIP 'Skara'

I think I could have salvaged the likeness better if I had made the eyebrows better as Skara always looks mildly pissed off but hey-ho, you live to learn right? Once she was completely baked, I used pastels to give her a little more colour. I'd run out of spray sealer so I dabbed on matte sealer with a paintbrush instead. It gave a nice bit of texture to her skin and although the final finish was a little uneven in places, I felt it added to the Skyrim feel as let's face it, no one in Tamriel has a perfect complexion. :P I also blocked in her hair, which would be added later with mohair.

(This is pre-sealing)

1/6 scale headsculpt WIP 'Skara'1/6 scale headsculpt WIP 'Skara'

(...and after, with eyes added. - I fixed that stray blob of black on her right eye afterwards btw)

1/6 scale headsculpt WIP 'Skara'1/6 scale headsculpt WIP 'Skara'


Adding on her warpaint was a little stressful because I knew that if I screwed it up, I'd have to strip back all the paint and effectively start from scratch. Luckily, although it turned out a little darker than I'd originally intended, it worked really well.

1/6 scale headsculpt WIP 'Skara'

The more I looked at her, the less I saw of Skara and the more I saw Rooney Mara from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo!

1/6 scale headsculpt WIP 'Skara'1/6 scale headsculpt WIP 'Skara'

Before I haired her I stuck her up on Inky for a photo - I think she approves. :P

1/6 scale headsculpt WIP 'Skara'

I mixed up a combination of black and brown mohair (which ended up being a much redder brown than I thought it was when I mixed it) and applied it using a variant of this tutorial.

1/6 scale headsculpt WIP 'Skara'1/6 scale headsculpt WIP 'Skara'

While I really liked the long strands at the front, they weren't quite short enough so I trimmed them.

I have never been any good at plaits (a simple ponytail does me fine, heh) so her complicated combination braid was a little tricky for me to get the hang of, especially at such a small scale so I improvised and just made something up.

'Skara'


So, without further ado, here she is! Normally I'd take loads of photos outside but it had been raining and the ground was soaking so I didn't really want to lie down. XD

'Skara'

'Skara'

'Skara'

The clothes are placeholders for now until I can make something better. The trousers I made from some faux suede fabric and look fine from the front but I have no idea how to make the back look any good so she's stuck with a bit of a saggy arse at the moment unfortunately!

Her top is chamois leather from a £1 shop for cleaning cars. I exaggerated the stitching to loosely resemble the 'rags' you can find in the game but I'll make her something better eventually.

'Skara'

'Skara'

For a first sculpt I'm pretty chuffed with her but she's still not exactly what I want longterm. That said, I think I'll make another once I'm sure I can get the likeness better and keep this one as the younger version of the character before she's had all the experiences of the game - an origin story in the making I think!