The shaman conversion work is all done (as far as I can see), except, of course, for basing and painting. Something new I learned with the day's work was how to do short fur. I wanted the smilodon's hide to have short fur. After a short look through my tools, I found a metal wire brush. Stab, short drag and repeat; short fur as easy as that. This is great because I didn't want all of my cavemen to be in heavy furs.
Still, I after I added the hide (sculpting it first before draping it over the figure), it wasn't as full as I had wanted it, so I added a (lion's) main to help fill out the neck area of the smilodon and to give the who thing a little more weight.
Also, as promised, this shaman is butt-ass naked. When I paint him, most of his skin will be black, as if he has covered in charcoal paint so as to hide himself beneath his animal spirit puppet (I need a better word for that.) The smilodon skin will be painted with a light tan. I'll also add a few spiritual symbols painted straight onto the hide.
I'm pretty happy with this figure. It came out almost exactly as I had him pictured in my mind. And him being the most difficult figure I had expected to do, makes me feel good about doing the rest. I'm still worried about doing hair on the tribe; this is something I think I still have difficulty with.
Very impressive - the dynamic pose of the Bronze age dummies is very good.
ReplyDeleteTony
http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/
instead of "animal puppet" you might use the term "totem"....a nice descriptive shamanistic term.
ReplyDeleteand i really like your blog - thanks for sharing your talent and enthusiasm!
YES! Totem- I knew there was a better word out there. That's what I love about English: There's always a better word.
ReplyDeleteI just can't be lazy about looking for it. (I'm a copy editor by profession, but I hate bringing my work home:)