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Nice work, definitely "lively". Mami's head seems a bit odd though (could be the angle). Plus Koishi needs a bigger smile.
EDIT: Now that I think about it, they don't seem to have eyebrows. That could make the faces more expressive.
__________________ Minmaxboards are back up! But BG will be deleted soon; for reals. Last chance to save anything.
wow thats nice! and I like how Koishi face expression turns out, it eyes goes better than your previous creations . And I had noticed that you does had made a little breast on mami and koishi this time, since most of your figures are girls, but your previous creations mostly was flat at that part . And for the little mami, I can imagine it goes harder for you to mold and paint since it was smaller than your previous figure. Between, Gambateh on the coming figures!
Working on more than one at once has become a habit, and if theres at most a day or so of wait inbetween them, might as well post them together.
Eyebrows added to Koishi (those i forgot, i tend to omit them on lighter hair colours because they don't stand out all that well anyways), also a closer look at the eyes:
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They tend to be flat since i use Zun's art as the primary reference, which tends to (a lot in many cases ) less well-endowed than fan-art deciptions. Reimu and Sanae figurines will be based on a fan-art portayal though. I'm somewhat 'allergic' to main characters in general so they need a different spin to be interesting enough.
The smaller ribbon is awfully plain, need a better way to make those.
Also wondering whether i should work on including the smaller folds, creases and associated detail on clothes, or stick with the general shape and flow.
Otherwise this is more-or-less at what i consider commissionable standard*, just need to pick a fair price. Input on that would be greatly appreciated, not planning to do this as a primary source-of-income but as a hobby that pays for itself and helps clear out the "Fund it!"-backlog of teh Internets .
And a Fleshwarper/Alienist:
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It's generally advisable to keep your distance from anyone who calls their coat Mr. Cuddles
Pretty good stuff indeed. I dig the apron, but i'm still not convinced of the faces. They're still too, eh, "rough hewn", compared to the body. "Petite" i think is what you should aim for.
(Also, i can't quite tell for sure, but the clay used seems not entirely smooth. Maybe that's just a matter of shaping though.)
True, theres always room to improve. But if i heed my inner perfectionist, i'll be long dead from old age before it's good enough . Current standards are good enough in the sense that further improvement is more "refinement" than the "leaps and bounds" of comparing current works to the first ones. A colossal quality shift that shunts all previous work into the "Old Shame"-bin is unlikely to occur.
Based on what i think worked on previous ones i rounded out the cheeks a little and minimized the nose bridge. Some adjustments to the chin and mouth could help, though i do not yet have any specific ideas.
The plan for now is to stock up for a convention in the summer, see how that goes before dArt commission-work (Hence the bases. Bases make everything 20% more professional .)
Those were supposed to be glued on after painting, to avoid staining the white. Fixed now (way earlier infact, but imageshack went uncooperative on me):
I'd say yes. Character blends are a personal favorite type of figurine for me, the perfect combination of established detailed appearance and room for improvisation.
Leaving the ponytail and the jutte separate for painting was a good choice, made things way easier, especially for painting the kanji. Leaving the "lighter-arm" just wire at the elbow did make it easier to paint but the trouble of angling it in place without breaking anything afterwards makes it +-0. Should have set the pose right from the start instead of trying to keep the arms out of the way like that.
Also a comparison with the previous Mokou figurine:
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And a closeup of the kanji on the back of the jacket (hopefully i didn't mispell it into 'minced catfish' or something...):
The "crater" is the point where the jutte was glued on to later.
hm, needs better stomach/hip shaping. Which is something that i finally notice about your figures and why they look weird. They have no basic curve in their shape. They are all "long" and flat. :o
Maybe your next figure should be something nude/barbie, so you can get the base shape right, before you go back to clothing them?
I think the previous pictures misrepresent the figurine a bit so batch 2 go:
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Only one pic showing the stomach area and even that one was sabotaged somewhat by the lighting. Bad presentation, need to avoid doing that in the future . Mokou is also generally decipted as very lean.
Now that all the excuses are out of the way , you do have a strong point. The hips are too slim and the side profile as well (there is a 'spine curve', but the loose jacket hides it. The jacket is out-of-contact from the lower end of the binding onwards). Also true that there has been a shift to taller without appropriate adjustments to everything else. Might be a trick of perspective, they look more reasonably proportioned from up close than at arms lenght (can't really work that way anyways ).
Now as for fixing the issue, heres phase #3* for Aya (based on the spell call/spell A pose from here):
I could post the Phase #3 of all the figurines from here on out for feedback for much the same result as what you suggested.
*Phase #1 would be wireframe+posing, Phase 2# is a 'basecoat' of clay to lock the pose before the basic body shape is made in phase #3. Phase 4# would be clothing and onwards.
Didn't turn out all that well. Original plan was to go by the profile pic, but made the umbrella's shaft a bit too short for that so had to change plans.
Made mostly to test out my idea for making umbrellas/parasols, since i plan to use a lot of gaps on the eventual Yukari figurine and don't want it to be dragged down by a poorly executed parasol. Works okay but clay tends to shrink a bit whilst drying, dragging the ribs out of their proper spacing.
Some of the stuff i'm currently working on:
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Also YukkuriKaguya, perfectly adapted to life on teh interwebs :
Normally i'd edit this to the previous post, but since that one went ninja on the forums a new one to fix the issue is in order. Shikieiki:
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Felt like making armor and decided to make it an adapted outfit so i wouldn't skimp on the details like i'm prone to do on originals. The face turned out a bit derpy due to inadequate forehead and the blues could be slightly darker. The various decorative markings went smoothly, the only one i had to fix was the one on the hat. Couldn't tell what exactly is supposed to be on the shoulders so went with the justice kanji. Looks close enough to the official art.
Edit: unpainted for now, going to finish a few other things first:
Based on the Double Spoiler version, sans armband and camera, ears hidden (partially for the windswept look for the hair, and partially out of (bad) habit).
Edit3: and now for a change of pace, a kobold pirate("Lies! Lies and slander! I am a perfectly legimate professional!") privateer :
Not quite
though a bit too close for comfort . But if i must multipost, might as well wait until i have more stuff.
Chibi (or what passes for my attempt at it ) Okuu:
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The faces for this, the yukkuri and kasen were made in a more piece-by-piece approach than before. It gives better control but slows things down considerably and it is harder to spot mistakes partway through. Otherwise went fairly okay, though the ribbon and feathers are annoyingly fragile.
Continuing a now sort-of-tradition of animal-yukkuri:
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Extra eyes in odd places (and with lasers), projectile spamming with miscellanous unlikely objects as well as some degree of reality warping? Yeah, no connection here, not at all
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Primarily made to try grin-sculpting as well as practice the parasol for the inevitable normal Yukari figurine.
The current state of the turtle fortress. Now it's just a question of how high and how elaborate.
Kasen Ibara, unpainted because i'm not quite sure if the head is too big and should be redone or not:
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Starting to feel that i jumped the gun on the commissionable quality, individual elements work fine on their own but don't really come together properly. Everything has at least one major flaw that brings it down.
Something that has been bothering me lately: is there still an interest in seeing my work here or should i let the thread drop? I'm not a profilic poster myself so i understand not commenting when i don't think i have anything to contribute, but the silence begets doubt and saps motivation.
Anyways, no posting without content:
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Unpainted, to meet the avoiding-necroing deadline. Painted versions will be edited into the post. Last one is missing a ponytail and a ribbon (to fit the characterblend in question) since they looked off and needed to be redone.
Edit-the-1st:
Thank you .
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Did my best to move the knees up a bit. Whilst i did consider resculpting the thighs a bit to have the stretching effect, i decided against it but did add the stretchpoints into the figurine. Original plan was to just paint them on, looks better this way. Face feels derped up more than usual, possibly the eyes are too tall or the chin/jaw area too heavy?
Probable record holder of 'longest neglected figurine', the flower and the chain on the shackle are the parts that went notably well, though the hands aren't bad.
Ogre mage:
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Mostly based on D&D ogre physique. Original purpose was to have a use for the mace (originally made for the armored Shikieiki, but deemed too hefty and repurposed into this version), later expanded to serve as practice for defined musculature and flame effects (hence the lower-body-only armor). I think the head and face went fairly well, though the nose is amusingly tiny..
Original (as much as anything can be anyways) for a change, a caster-monster-type-thingy:
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Draws inspiration mostly from Spellweavers (3.5 MM II), the Minion enemies in Fable I (the patchwork construct aesthetics) and Tales of Symphonia Wind/Lightning Guardians (the wheel on the back, top-heavy physique). Part of the point was to test how well a hollow torso would work (fairly well, though it had to be rebuilt once) and to try out the 'trapped souls' effect.
In case it isn't immediately recognisable as one, this is another characterblend (of thesetwo):
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Because it amuses me . Also because capecoats. Capecoats are stylish and i would wear one if i had one (at the minimun, they must be somehow modified to be attachable at the shoulders to avoid flying off in a stiff breeze). The ponytail i mentioned had to be left out, couldn't make it look anything but silly. It was intented as a substitute for both Yamame's hairbun and Onigumo's helmet plume. Otherwise the hair turned out pretty well, better than previous instances of complex hair anyways.
Something i forgot to mention previously is that originally i planned for Ms Fortune to be a blend as well, considering the obviousoptions. One or the other will probably happen at some point. Possibly Cirno as well if i can get a suitable misspelling of the Justice kanji .
I am indeed following this thread and continue to enjoy these updates. But yeah, i don't really have anything to say beyond what i already said (faces, yo). I totally get the motivation thing too.
(Oh hey, productive comment! o/ Miss Fortune (second image) needs shorter thighs. Those knees are way too low. )
Edit: Also, if in doubt, check the "how often has this thread been visited" numbers. That should give you a hint. )
The viewcount does serve as a nice egopad, yes . It's what kept the doubt at bay for a long time, doubts just have a knack for corrupting arguments against it into supporting ones. But enough about that.
After a lenghty break, another bust. I plan to make more, so i have some solid "this is how to get it right" references on hand. Possibly a little bit too flat. I'll get a better full rotation series of pics up tomorrow.
Edit: here we go:
Yep, too flat-faced but only somewhat.
PMMM uses a really odd and hard-to-convert face shape, very flat, box-like and angular. Hands are at somewhat off angles, should have left the shoulders undone until the sword was attached. Cape went better than expected and the pose is mostly ok (though balance is off, thus the weight).
This is the thief who likes to hoard,
That loves the bard with the puppet Lord
That admires the fighter with the green-hilted sword,
That employs the Wizard, whose bird is ignored,
That has the gender unexplored
That intrigues the Halfling, usually bored,
That slew a mountain of the goblin horde,
That follows the cleric,
That serves the lich,
That seeks the gate,
That guards the snarl,
That lives in the prison the gods built.
Of the three, i think Yuyuko turned out best. Kyouko has slightly too large eyes and Ran a too angular face (the eyes are different by desing). Some further practice to avoid the "You all look the same" issue is in order, but for general moe purposes Yuyuko's look will do fine.
Some other things as well:
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Skeletons: cheap but fragile. Golems: powerlful but costly to make and maintain. So why not grab the best of both worlds?
Partially made to make some use of those pauldrons, been laying about the desk for a while. As good a reason as any, yes?
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Started off from Xel'lotath Guardian from Et. Darkness and took some cues from the Shadows in Persona games. Tower arcana with subthemes of insanity and identity loss. Cheery, isn't it ?
My brushwork isn't exactly all that accurate to begin with (any fine detail has had about 20+ back-and-forth corrections ) and it became clear fairly soon into painting that Kyouko and Ran didn't turn out all that well so i skipped some of the polishing.
Based on the loadout i used for her in Labyrinth of Touhou: Dairokutenmaoh armor and dual Glaives of Pain (only one featured, because it wouldn't be Yuugi without sake). Dairokutenmaoh is apparently a nickname for Oda Nobunaga, so the armor's desing is roughly based on Sengoku Jidai era armor, though the colours are from it's in-game fire-affinity.
The head is tilted upwards a bit too much (the first pic is from a higher angle and looks better than the rest) and the back of the head is a bit wonky (though the issue is expertly hidden by the hair for the most part )
"Heroic diggles have taken up arms in hopes of vanguishing the monster terrorising their lands, killing their people and devouring their young."
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Made it too lean. The helmet isn't an ingame item, but the sword and the shield are.
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From left to right: Aki Shizuha, Aki Minoriko and Yasaka Kanako. It's also how i'd rate them from success to not really.
The Aki sister's were both made the same way to test if naturally occuring variation (aka couldn't make exact copies even if i tried) is enough of a difference since more drastic measures haven't exactly worked out.
Kanako being an example of exactly that. The eyes ended up a bit too deep in, relative to everything else.
The chins are a bit too far ahead on all three and both Kanako and Minoriko have some asymmetry of eyes (right side is smaller and higher up).
Yuyuko is there in the last pic just for comparison's sake.
Couldn't resist:
Unpainted, since it looks closer to marble. Turned out fairly well.
The heads may not be all that interesting, but they have been educational. Stuff learned:
-basic faceshape (from front) is essentially a well-rounded pentagon
-basic animuu-moe-eyeshape is a similar to the arc made by windshield wipers, though obviously rounded out a lot
-sculpted eyebrows are a must, they make it much easier to see whether the expression is going to turn out well before committing to painting, as well as make painting much easier
-eye distance matters, after Yuyuko all of them have had their eyes a bit too close together
The outfit is a bit of a walking continuity error, i don't think starshades have ever been worn with the coat and the core drill. No star on the coat's chest or gold decorations either. I plead artistic licence .
This guy was requested elsewhere:
Is it just me or has there been a shift away from odd/quirky artstyles in games or has it just migrated to indie developers that i haven't heard of?
"I reject your skillset and substitute my own!" is what i'm supposed to say here, right ?
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There's this thing called a scetch filter on my camera, it takes a normal photo and makes a sketch version of it in addition to the original. Otherwise a novelty feature, but it let's me turn my work into 2D fairly painlessly. From there they can be polished and processed like any other 2D piece and assembled into larger wholes like sprite art is. Doing so not only let's me use all available (reusable) materials on each at a time (giving a better 'resolution' and more detail) but also means they don't have to be anywhere near the same scale as the other pieces. I can also re-use the same figurine for several different shots/poses, a boon for anything sequential (animation/comics).
Of course, i still need to learn how to produce crisp and clean lineart from the sketchpic as well as coloring and shading. It's still a potentially huge leap forwards in terms of what i can do, and without straying from my original skillset to boot.
Finally, some spare parts i've made:
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The tech-hammer has a purpose, the rest of it is mostly just for practice, though i will eventually find a use for all of them.
It was a fun one to make. The frankenspider is going to be delayed to the next painting batch though.
About them busts, this would be a WiP of the next set. I believe i've fixed some of the flatfacedness, though height might still be an issue?
In other news, resupplied* and ready to resume /8 week prizecrafting for the Challenge**. This also means i can start developing that 'Sculptitution' technique i talked about before:
I got some of both white and black, this is a 2:1 white:black mix. It's still a bit too dark for the skecthfilter to properly catch all the detail, so a ligther shade of gray is in order.
The character is Ryuuguu Rena.
*And now i even know what this stuff is called in english : modelling wax.
** i'll announce this in the actual Challenge thread a bit later, first i need to put together some examples. The option wasn't all that popular before, but some proper character portrait busts ought to make it more appealing.
Finished spiderthingy. Ever wonder where all the fingers go when someone puts armblades on zombies? Now you know.
Doubles as mobile refreshments for the exsanguination enthusiasts among the living-impaired.
Prismrivers:
Could have gone better, still flat-ish and the hats sit oddly. Chins are a bit too far forward.
Not much to show for now due to scattered progress. I might have finished one or two others by sunday (the threadnecro threshold), but decided not to risk it. Some content beats none afterall.
Could have gone better, could have gone worse. Hair should reach a bit further down on the forehead and chin is off-center. At least the web-like decoration-thing turned out alright .
And some of the still-WiP stuff i have (slightly larger than normal image):
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The tech-hammer i've shown before, it's there to accompany the helmet and pauldrons that are going on the same figurine.
The gatling gun barrels also make a reappearence, now with the whole gun. That one still needs polish, and a wielder of some sort.
The mace & helmet in front of it are paired, both going on the same figurine which will be a part of a set. Not a high-priority one though.
Of the remainder, i'll use one or both of the matched swords on the lower right on a figurine. Depends on whether i'll use one of the two other maces instead. Everything else will be painted grey to match the modelling wax and serve as props for wax figurines.
Tried a much smaller scale than usual, and this time it turned out alright. Expressions are a bit derpy (at least Iku's) and the pose a bit stiff, otherwise okay.
That's it? Certainly not. I have a further two smaller figurines and three larger ones. They are just not fully painted yet. I'll update this post with them once they are done.
...And we're back. Starting with the remaining two smaller touhou figurines, Sanae Kochiya:
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Pose based on her Hisoutensoku air down-melee, the luigistomp . Couldn't get the dots & stripes pattern to look good so omitted it.
Knives turned out fairly well, otherwise unimpressive. Originally intented to make a different character but changed my mind so it was a bit unplanned.
Gensokyo Marine Corps Strongest Military Force :
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Obvious character blend is obvious. The figurine itself was made in three pieces for ease of painting: body, head and capecoat. Ice effects turned out well. Borrows the scarf & ponytail hairstyle from fanon Cirno-nee, which is basically a timeskip cirno.
Finally, the Necronaut mkII:
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The mk I just did not turn out all that well in the detail & polish departments, so i made this.
Edit: a preview of a puppet-thing. It'll have to wait a while for the next round of painting:
Started out as a creepy puppet, had a shot at being creepy-cute (with a different colour scheme at least) before painting. The eyes would have none of that.
Sure. I do have plans for Choujuu Gikaku, specifically a [Choujuu Gikaku] vs. [The Prismrivers] vs. [?mystery contender?] set. Though it is a lot of work, so whether/when it happens remains to be seen.
As for Kosuzu, i do have a few scrolls (originally made for a Keine figurine that never got started) that need a use:
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So that sounds like a plan. Got any ideas for pose & such?
And for today's show, One for All & All for Taking It Easy:
A bit cartoony in appearance but of the right size and sufficient detail for a gaming piece. The worms are a bit fragile though, so it has to be handled from either the base or the hives on top of the shell.
I found it amusing, so i made it. Is there a better reason for doing something ?
Shady doctor connection go! A bit static but turned out nice and crisp. Focus was on making a scabbard that looks less like a tree trunk than previous ones and trying out a different style of face (which went fairly well).
Left out the bow because danmaku: odds are Eirin could just pull energy arrows out of thin air if she felt like it, miming the bow motions to fire them. I once thought about playing an "arcane archer" warlock like that but a character based around a visual gimmick in a tabletop rpg? Yeah .
I've decided to make the full figurine in the smaller 'chibi'-ish scale. I'll find a different use for the scrolls. The checker pattern will be an endless source of joy.
Speaking of the chibi-ish scale, we're still kinda-sorta-maybe in spring? Lily White:
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Lily White is one of the few touhou characters without an in-game portrait, so this is based on the semi-official illustrations on the tohowiki page. It's a bit of a mix of the two.
Something i made to practice tiny detail work:
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Nifty for something merely 2,5 cm in lenght, no? There was no reference for the backside so i kept it simple. I might make the rest/some of the keyrunes later, but likely in a slightly larger scale. We'll see.
Another trinket in the same vein:
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Original plan was to paint the runes in gold and the lines between the stones in a bright blue, but it looks better this way imo.
Started out as a simple 'heavy mook' and evolved from there through a monster clown/jester theme blended with brawler gladiator style. Ended up as "What if King Hippo joined Rakdos?"
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Re: Statuary Gardens (Figurines)
. And I had noticed that you does had made a little breast on mami and koishi this time, since most of your figures are girls, but your previous creations mostly was flat at that part 
. And for the little mami, I can imagine it goes harder for you to mold and paint since it was smaller than your previous figure. Between, Gambateh on the coming figures! 
. Mokou is also generally decipted as very lean.
