In any case, you are set for several posts about the dragons, since I'm having some (as aforementioned) wild plans. More under the cut (alogside phone-wips).
The Idea
I knew I wanted to do runes on the dragons, but I didn't want to do 3-rune casts either, so I decided for pairs. This way, each dragon has a meaning given the pair of runes. I wanted to do heavy modding, and had considered doing branch-styled horns, so I picked up three flower-themes, one for each dragon. Additionally, I had some spare parts from my crusade gifting 10 dragons to those that helped my cat's fundraising in 2019, so I threw them in the mix here as well.
This is what I came up with:
- Dawn: White Rot, painted with epidendrum orchids. With angel wings, and solid white jaw (this dragon is a pearlescent white). The runes are Raidho (meaning travel, evolution, focusing energy towards accomplishing goals), and Dagaz (awakening, completion, meaning healthy growth, prosperity and hope). Besides changing the parts, I decided to sculpt full horns (down towards the front) for this one.
- Joy: White Violet, painted with dandelions. I added a clear jaw, and a broken wing (so it would be one-winged), and I opened its eyes a bit. I also decided to do branch-styled horns, but towards the back. The runes are Wunjo (meaning joy, armony, balance even amidst chaos) and Ehwaz (movement, progress, change, symbolising a change for the better).
- Light: White Ashes, painted with blue salvia flowers. I added a clear jaw, opalescent wings, and a leaf. The horns are straight up with branches, added branches to the wings, and opened the eyes considerably. The runes are Kennaz (vision, inspiration, vitality, meaning knowledge and understanding), and Sowilo (representing wholeness, cleansing, light shining on dark times).
Substractive Mods
So, the first thing I did was opening the eyes, and breaking the wing. The eyes were mostly straightforward--I marked it with a pencil after testing the eye, cut it with a cutter, sanded, tested the eye, repeat until satisfied. The plastic here was thin, so it was quite easy.
Now, the wing was the problem. The plastic was very thick here, and I needed to keep kind of like a "bone" to use to prepare an armature. I couldn't rely on the polymer clay alone, because it would make it too heavy. The armature would take space, and make it lighter. So after marking it with a pencil, I started slicing off pieces, and then sanded the "bone" to make it softer. The last step was to use wire to make an armature that coiled on that bone-wing.
Horns' Armatures and Branches
Now, the horns posed more or less the same issue than the wings--especially Rot's (Dawn) because those are thicker than the other dragons. So I decided against working with the original horns, and simply began crafting armatures for each. The process was simple--use some wire to do the basic shape and the largest branches, the wrap in aluminum foil to give it more "body".
After that, It wwas a matter of simply addinng the polymer clay, bit by bit. I prepped the base, smoothed it, then added branches. So far, I have the armatures for the three dragons, but I only managed to do Rot's (named Dawn) and Violet's (named Joy) into polymer clay.
Before baking these, I decided to make the flowers for both, and also some leaves.
Flowers, and Ants' Work
This was the most back-breaking endeavour of the project so far. The dandelions were literally an ant's work, adding each dang thing into the base circle. But what can I say, dandelions are adorable. The orchids are very basic approximations, but I thought they looked decent enough.
I could've placed the flowers on the un-baked horns now, but decided against it, because it was impossible to manupulate the things without breaking them. Thus, after having all of this, I went into baking (105*C, for those wondering, 30 mins straight). They ended up looking quite well, I may add! Overall, doing the horns and flowers was about ~14 hours of work.
Note: I'm still missing Ashes' horns and flowers. I haven't done those yet.
Painting Dawn
Dawn (Rot) is the only one I have painted so far. It took me about ~20-24 hours of work painting her, without counting the time to assemble the rest (glueing the flowers). I used mostly: watercolour pencils to establish the shape, watercolours to paint her, acrylic for the gold. The main brushes were Army Painter's Insane Detail, and Hobby Basics Kolinsky Sable (completely forgot the number, sorry).
I must confess that the eyeliner didn't end up as pretty as I wanted, so I won't really take many closeups for it, but the overall shape and colours are quite lovely in my opinion.
Also, I know she's quite heavily painted. Most dragons out there have the basic blushing and that's it, or some painting in the forehead and that's it. However, these orchids grow in groups of many flowers, and I wanted to try to convey that. Also, she's the dawn of opportunities--better to have many of those, right?
Assembling Dawn (Partially)
I haven't finished assembling her because I commissioned some eyes and those aren't here yet, so please excuse the lack of eyes on the photos below. Overall, I do think Dawn is looking prettier than I imagined--and this is the least modded dragon! Also, It wasn't noticeable in the faceup photos, but the runes are painted into the head "fins" rather than in the forehead!!
I didn't take any complete photos, but I promise to do that once she's ready, with eyes and all. It is definitely going to be a very long project, but a rewarding one! I was a bit blue with the hobby, but this is really adding up to my engagement again!
It looks so amazing! Great way to make some antlers too. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!!! Indeed, the antlers were so much fun to make!
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