'Friendship' Dragon Sculpture Now for Sale on eBay

Sculpture: "Friendship"

'Friendship' - Dragon Sculpture - Completed on October 31, 2015

My original dragon sculpture "Friendship" is now up on eBay! I hope she finds a good home for the holiday season. :) You can learn more about her in this blog post.

Auction Here -> http://www.ebay.com/itm/291623709073

 

 

Thanks for reading!

Sculpture: "Friendship," Cindy's Burrocorn, and a Yak Photoshoot

During my dear friend Cindy Reep's nine glorious, adventure-filled day visit, we both worked on some sculptures using a new type of air dry clay I wanted to test out. I opted to take a dragon route. ;)

Sculpture: "Friendship"

'Friendship' - Dragon Sculpture - Completed on October 31, 2015

I call this sculpture "Friendship," on account of the little kingfisher on the dragoness's outstretched paw/hand. :) I'm really pleased with how it turned out considering how (relatively) quick a project she was! Trying to get her to balance on one paw was quite the challenge! 

This sculpture was made with an aluminum armature, Fixit Sculpt, Air Dry Clay, Swarovski crystals, acrylic paint, Pearl Ex pigments, and various varnishes.

I hope you enjoy my graceful little dragoness! I'm considering listing her for sale to help with some medical bills as well. We shall see! For WIP photos of this and other projects, please keep an eye on my Twitter!

Size: 7.75 x 4.5 x 4.75 inches

Time Taken: Approximately 12 hours total.

 

 

Cindy's "The Burrocorn in Her Winter Coat"
 

Cindy's creation was even more enchanting! Here's her description of her regal burrocorn:

"The Burrocorn in Her Winter Coat" - by Cindy Reep

"Wire armature, Apoxie sculpt, air-dry clay, steel bearings, translucent Premo, acrylic. October 2015. About 5" tall. 

This year's (single-year!) art project while out visiting Kymba ... some of the folks we visited have wild burros that occasionally show up in the neighborhood, and of course with us, they can't be just burros. There had to be burrocorns! This was also our first time working with this particular type of air-clay, and the texture was quite unique. I had trouble getting it to smooth, so I decided to texture the heck out of it and joked that she was extra fluffy for the winter. Her horn and hooves are translucent Premo, and the Apoxie sculpt was only used to hold the armature wire in place.

She's quite proud of herself, but she misses her dragon friend that took shape alongside her!"

The Friendship and the Burrocorn Together and the Yaks
 

Before Cindy headed back home, we took some photos of our yaks together as well as the two tiny sculptures above. To be fair, her photos were far, far superior to mine, so she's the photographer for these. ;) We hope you enjoy them!

You can read more about the walkthrough for my yak, Butterscotch, here.

 

 

 

 

I look forward to when I see Cindy next time so we can continue our creative shenanigans. :D


Stay crafty, my friends, and thanks for reading!

[Video Walkthrough] “Dragon Mage” – ZBrush Sculpture

Writerly Update and Unfinished Projects

I've been doing a lot of writing lately. Specifically, I got to a point in one of my stories that I realized it would be best to return to an outline state so I could better evaluate it as a whole before moving back into writing prose. So far, so good! I recently considered what I'm calling the first draft of the third version outline of "The Apprentice of Rook," and I'm really excited to share more about it as progress continues. :) View all blog posts labeled "The Apprentice of Rook."

Along these lines, I've been trying to better balance work and my personal projects, and so I'm doing a fair bit of writing and art on a weekly basis, and it's working wonderfully so far! I've been relieved that "Butterscotch" the World of Warcraft fan art yak is finally complete, and as I was sorting through files this week, I was thinking about all the other outstanding projects I have laying around, and something reminded me of one such project I'd started in ZBrush last year, but hadn't finished off.

“Dragon Mage” – ZBrush Sculpture

Above is a short video compilation of the recent ZBrush sculpture I completed, which includes a process walkthrough, turnaround, and stills. You can also access it directly through YouTube here. Make sure to view it at 1080p HD!

For most if not all projects I'd done previously through ZBrush, I'd eventually had to stop keeping the history of each step, because after a certain point the files get completely unmanageable in terms of sheer file size. This particular project ended up being a rare exception, because I had the entire history of it saved, right from his humble origins as a simple sphere. :) So if you want to "watch" how I sculpt, definitely check out the video above!

Information About the Finished Sculpture

 

“Dragon Mage Sculpture” – ZBrush Sculpture and Photoshop - Started on August 5th, 2014, Completed on August 22, 2015

Further Information available on DeviantArt.com: http://fav.me/d96ok6t

I consider it a sort of detailed sketch of one of the races from my story that I hope to get to one day. Another one is seen below, and there's even a walkthrough for this illustration here if you're interested:

As far as ZBrush projects go, this one was poorly planned and so I didn't have enough resolution to fully detail him, but that's okay. It was a great learning experience and exercise, and I'm particularly proud of the "ear" area.

Time Taken: Approximately 3 sessions spanning 10 hours total.

I hoped you enjoyed this blog and are having a productive weekend!

Of Demons and Dragons

It’s been a an incredibly busy last few months, and while at face-value I believed them to be less than productive compared to the productivity standards I hold myself to, in retrospect, I actually accomplished quite a lot on a wide range of fun and compelling projects! Some of these related to my full-time work, and some are personal projects, and I'll be updating this blog over the next few weeks with what I've been up to over the last few months!

‘Season’s Wishes” Original/Unused Illustration

‘Season’s Wishes” Original/Unused Illustration - Digital Painting - Completed on December 22, 2013

First up is the original/unused concept for a holiday piece celebrating Diablo III! I liked the idea of the present, but the Fallen child was a bit older and more bestial in this version. This one is a piece of fan art based on the Fallen Grunt and Fallen Hound from Diablo III. The final/approved piece can be found below and on the holiday blog on the Diablo III website.

‘Season’s Wishes” Final Illustration

‘Season’s Wishes” Final Illustration - Digital Painting - Completed on December 23, 2013 - Copyright Blizzard Entertainment

This year I had the honored to have one of my illustrations included in the Diablo III holiday blog! "Season's Wishes"

For those of you unfamiliar with the game Diablo, these are younger versions of two types of monsters you encounter in the game. I figured it would be a fun challenge to try to make a sweet moment out of the young Fallen (Grunt) boy receiving a Fallen Hound puppy as a holiday gift.

Lewt, the Papercraft Treasure Goblin

Lewt, The Papercraft Treasure Goblin – Completed on December 20, 2014 - Copyright Blizzard Entertainment

 

Another fun and festive project that was going on around that same time for work was one that a number of folks, including myself, had a hand in! If I recall correctly, the concept/project was initiated by Stephanie Johnson, and then the actual papercraft was designed by Dana Pull, Matt Worcester, and myself.

I was responsible for doing some final polish work on the goblin figure for printing (who was lovingly illustrated by Dana Pull), and then I also illustrated the bag to match the style of Dana’s goblin. From there I refined the layouts for both the figure and bag, printed and built him, and then had a jolly time photographing him around the Blizzard campus and editing photos for use in our blog and social media postings. It was a really fun project, and it was SUCH a blast seeing so many players create and share their own “Lewts”! If you’re interested in finding out more about it, check out this blog here all about Lewt, the Papercraft Treasure Goblin.

Piranha Bear Sketch

Piranha Bear Sketch – Completed on January 2, 2014

The mighty Piranha Bear. Because a friend requested a visual aid, and I aim to deliver. #IDontEven

I’m fairly certain this silly little sketch started out from conversations on Twitter surrounding what would happen if piranhas and zombie bears (from the Witch Doctor in Diablo III) were merged into one terrifying whole.

I tell you this: the world is not prepared.

Buzzfeed - Proof That You Should Never Give Up On Your Dreams (Featuring Deathwing)

Buzzfeed - Proof That You Should Never Give Up On Your Dreams (Featuring Deathwing) –

Posted on January 29, 2014 by finch093

Someone made a Buzzfeed of a story I posted concerning my Deathwing fan art sculpture on my Community Manager Twitter account in late January morning! This made my heart melt, and I really do hope the story inspires other artists and dreamers out there!

Never give up (on your dreams)! Never surrender! My tweets are below:

#StorytimeWithVae - Before #D3, before #SC2 & before #Cataclysm, I started work on a fan art sculpture of Deathwing in my spare time. (1/13)

It was soothing & fun to work on art during my lunch breaks, & a challenge to try to sculpt a character that was only yet a concept. (2/13)

I hadn’t really ever done much sculpture, but I was excited at the prospect of trying to do justice to such a great character design!  (3/13)

Soon after I started, however, someone whose opinion I valued suggested that perhaps I should reconsider working on it at my desk. (4/13)

“It doesn’t look very good…” & “It makes you seem unskilled” were cited as reasons I should work on it away from the view of others. (5/13)

But, true to my gut, I just kept working on it off & on over the course of three months. It grew into something I was proud of! (6/13)

It also exceeded any and all expectations I had of myself & my abilities. And even if it hadn’t: I knew I gave it my all. (7/13)

I spoke with my friend to show them the finished piece, & told them that their previous words had stung a bit, but that it was okay. (8/13)

Because sometimes you’ve just got to follow your dreams & see where they lead you, even if there are naysayers in your way. :) (9/13)

So my wish to all you out there is to give it your all. You’ll never know what you’re capable of until you do! (10/13)

And if you know someone who is putting the heart into something, remember that encouragement & support go a long way! (11/13)

Just like this lump of a dragon: Never give up (on your dreams)! Never surrender! (#Warcraft fan art) (12/13)

And a huge THANK YOU to you guys for supporting me on my own wild-ride of a journey! <3 Here’s to the adventures ahead! (13/13)

Deathwing Sculpture – Completed on December 4, 2009

 

Steinir Dragon Sculpture

Steinir Dragon Sculpture (with Base) - Completed on January 26th, 2014

Total size (including base): 7 x 7 x 12.5 inches.

Sculpture size: 5 x 3 x 7 inches, made with wood, a steel and aluminum core, and sculpted in 1/2 Super Sculpey Firm, 1/4 Super Sculpey, and 1/4 Sculpey III Black with amazonite eyes. Sealed with a satin coating and hand-painted glossy highlights.

I was sad to pack this fella up and ship him off across country, but I was downright thrilled to surprise a dear friend of mine with this handsome gent, and even MORE thrilled he arrived intact!

This is the first of a few photos I intend to upload of Steinir, but he is a dragon of my own creation, and isn't intended to be fan art or based off of any existing dragons out there. As such, sculpting him was actually quite a freeing experience! I really had a blast trying to infuse some personality into him, and it makes me want to sculpt more scaled beasties. :)

Photography by Ivyerimenta

Steinir Dragon Sculpture (Collage View)

Above is a collage of some of my favorite photos of Steinir. I took a series of photographs for the entire process creating him, which I intend to share at some point as well.

Upcoming Sculpting Walkthrough of Steinir

I'm working on a walkthrough of my Steinir dragon sculpture. You can check out a few of the photos below which document some of the steps along the way of creating Steinir.

  

  

  

I’d love to know what questions you might have for me regarding this particular sculpture, or how I approach sculptures in general, so I can be sure to answer them in my walkthrough! No question is too silly! Have at me!