Some artwork and new and improved David figure!

For someone who claims to hate drawing people, I've certainly been doing a lot of portraiture recently. Every Friday at college we do a life drawing section - usually just sketching our classmates or our tutor - and it's given me so much confidence it's unbelievable. I'm not wanting to blow my own trumpet but out of everyone in the class I think I'm probably the best at drawing....and argh, that sounded so pompous! D:
Anyway, it's spurred me on to attempt some portraits of a few of my favourite characters - namely Castiel from Supernatural (as played by the wonderful Misha Collins) and Sherlock (the equally brilliant Benedict Cumberbatch) from the BBC series of the same name.

I can't seem to post the images in here without them being absolutely HUGE so I'll have to link you to them instead, apologies.

-Castiel-
-The Man Who Would Be King-
-Sherlocked-

My other project recently has been to make myself a new David figure. As much as I like the cobbled together mismatch of bits of Doctor Who figure I already had, it just didn't work for riding or any pose more complicated than standing or walking...



..or dancing. ;)



My biggest issue was that he couldn't ride his own horse as Tam, with his impossibly short back and tiny barrel is much more of a pony than a proper horse and he just looked ridiculous propped up on his back.



Granted, he looked ok on some horses but I was really getting sick of not having him able to ride properly.



Random arrangement of alternate bodies over the years:



People kept telling me that the one in the middle looked either angry or camp. XD Luckily the one on the right came out shortly afterwards so I was able to headswap. The hair on the middle one was almost impossible to fit a hat onto anyway so it worked out rather well.

I made a new body out of pipecleaners (which I now want to redo as the ones I used were too bendy and don't hold position as well as I'd like) and sewed him some felt jhodpurs and a cotton long sleeved top. I wired up a spare set of DW figure hands and wound them into the arms before dressing him. The headsculpt simply fitted over the pipecleaner 'neck' and is easily manipulated for alternate positioning. I gave him back the jerkin/waistcoat/vest thing as it's become a bit of a trademark for him now. XD

He can now ride!







The boots are rubber doll's house ones but I really don't like them much and will probably replace them as soon as I can find something else.

(Tam is still waiting on new tack being made by the way... XD)







Because Tam's so small and David's so tall, he has to assume a bit of a 'jockey' position. XD













Something tells me he's rather pleased with himself now. ;)





He's not perfect but he'll do for the moment! :D

The latest EAE resident...Fidget!

Apologies for the terribly long time since my last post - unfortunately life takes over sometimes and what with the winter darkness and resulting poor quality of light, I just haven't been in the mood to really do anything up until recently.



Anyway, I made Fidget out of pipecleaners (I have a video tutorial here) yesterday as I don't like the fact that cats are so poorly represented on my yard when in reality I prefer them to dogs! XD I've always intended David to have a cat and as he spends most of his time on the yard, it made sense to bring his cat with him so he wouldn't get lonely back at the flat. (plus, a good mouser is always a bonus at a busy yard!)







He's just pipecleaners with leather ears, seed-bead eyes and painted on markings but incredibly flexible and can be posed into literally every feline position you could think of! (as the following photos should prove :P)



He can pose...



...curl around people's legs...



...be affectionate...



...annoying...



...adorable...



...athletic...



...not so athletic... XD



...curious...



...stupid...



...and err...



...errrrrr...



...offputting. XD



Size isn't everything either and Fidge can definitely stick up for himself, even if his opponent isn't really interested in sparring with him.



(^Blue merle dog there is another pipecleaner creation, as yet unnamed and belonging to one of the EAE liveries, though I'm still not entirely sure who! XD)

With great flexibility comes great err...stretchability.





Like most all cats, Fidget can smell approaching food from several miles away and is very quick to react.

'I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU'



'NOMS NAO PLZ!'



'Yaaaaaaaaay, food!'



'...'



'Is that it?'



*several facepalms from David later...*



But for all his faults and quirks, David wouldn't part with him for the world. :)



-----------------

So yeah, here's hoping this'll signal a return to more regular blogging! :D I rather fancy making another few moggies for the yard so I'll stick some photos up as and when I get round to it. Also, lol, just realised that my last post was about 'Widget' the Gryphon and this is Fidget the cat. COINCIDENCE?!..err..yes. XD

Widget!

I made another of my posable creatures the other day.

Originally he was supposed to be a little dragon hatchling but as I didn't have the fabric I thought I did, he ended up being more of a kind of Gryphon-like thing instead. He's fully posable, from his neck to his wings to the very tip of his extra fluffy tail. He's also the smallest doll I've made so far as he can fit in the palm of my hand. :D

Here he is before he got his fur coat. :)



In my hand for scale...











He was going to have feathered wings originally but as I didn't actually have any feathers to scale he's had to make do with furry ones instead. :P







Weeeeee!





With David for scale. Widge is only a youngster so would be about 16/17hh when fully grown...



Yeah, so I'm pretty chuffed with him as you can probably guess! :D :D



You can see him and my other stuff on my deviantArt page. :D