More Naga Siren Munny Process

Hey there, back with some more process images for you.

So, I got all of Naga finally sculpted out. Boy am I slow.

I continued to bake her in segments. I discovered the hard way what issues can arise by baking Sculpey more than once. The top of Naga's  hood fin cracked both front and back after the second time it was baked (picture taken prior to that). It wasn't like that when I pulled it out of the oven, rather the cracks  developed over night as it cooled (another appeared on the lower back portion of one of her hood fins). Apparently, if the Sculpey cools too quickly, particularly in thinner thicknesses, the outer lay will harden before the inner layer. So, as the outside contracts and stiffens the inside stays warm, then as the inside cools it contracts and causes the already harden outer layer to crack. Physics lesson aside, I had to deal with a few cracks.

Research told me not to place more Sculpey on top of already baked Sculpey because it's not suppose to adhere to it. I didn't listen to that. And guess what? It worked, kind of. The top crack was partially healed from more Sculpey, but because I kept the new layer of Sculpey so thin, it didn't fully fill in the crack. I think if I had used more I would have been golden. At this point, I tried some promising Craft Art Amazing Goop glue. I wouldn't recommend this glue for hairline cracks. The glue is too thick and foamy to really get worked into the cracks. I bought that particular glue because the packaging said you could paint over it. Good thing I had some Gorilla Glue too. That worked pretty well. We'll see how well I can actually paint over it.

Lastly, as the above picture shows. making Naga's scimitars was tricky. Although the handles work perfectly and are 100% solid, coming up with a way to attach thin and somewhat delicate blades and tassels to the plastic handles was difficult, not to mention I got a fairly oily new batch of Sculpey which makes things even more cumbersome since the Sculpey wants to stick to my fingers. So what I did: I created frameworks for the blade and tassels out of wire. I then used Gorilla Glue to adhere the wires to the ends of the handles. Knowing that the connections would be weak, I used a bit of Sculpey to wrap around the wire-to-handle connections (see image) then baked it to strengthen the frame work. Once that was done, it was a lot easier to sculpt the blades and tassels around the frame work without worrying about them moving around or falling off of the handles.

To finish the sculpting, I used some sculpting tools to lightly carve the detail work in Naga's armor and scimitars. With some fine sand paper, I smoothed out as many of the transitions between the earlier baked Sculpey with the more recently baked portions. Today I took her to work to prime her in our spray booth. I should be able to sand her a bit tomorrow, then add a final layer of primer which will set her up to be painted. Can't wait.

Naga Siren Munny Process Pics

Hey guys, I wanted to do a better job of documenting my process with this munny, so I've been taking some photos along the way to keep you all updated. I'll talk through some of my process too to give you a glimpse of how I design.

So, I like to start by sculpting with Super Sculpey what I think will be the least delicate part of the design. In this case, it seemed likely that the body of the munny would be solid without many thin details to withstand being held a lot. The reason I do this is because I end up baking the Sculpey in waves. I like to 'lock down' what I do before moving on to sculpt other sections since my hands are going to be all over the munny and will more than likely end up deforming the bits that I have already sculpted if I'm not careful (which I'm usually not).

I got lucky with the item that came with the munny—a sign post. I was able to take off the sign from the post which left me with a perfectly fit (and sturdy) solution for Naga's scimitar handles once the post was cut in half.

Next up I worked on the fin-like hood for Naga. This was tricky to do since the Sculpey needed to be fairly thin but still hold its shape. So, as I'm learning to do with the more delicate features, I bent a bit of wire to create a framework for the main fins. With that structure in place, it allowed me to wrap Sculpey around it and then fairly easily adhere the frame to the munny's head. I could then add more detail to the fins without worrying about the whole hood deflating off the back of her head.

The last detail I put on so far is the angler fish lantern on the top of her head, again, using a small piece of wire to keep the Sculpey upright. This will definitely be the most delicate part of the munny, and I wouldn't be surprised if I accidentally break it off at some point. That's what gorilla glue is for. The last bit of sculpting that needs to happen is Naga's face. Rather than risk ruining her completed hood while I work on her face, I baked the hood to lock it in place.

Remember, this munny will be on sale whenever I complete it, so get pumped now. Also, any feedback you want to send my way on how Naga is coming is more than welcome.

New Munny Design is in Your Hands

So, I'll be working on a new Munny doll here in a little bit. This one has a particular purpose—to be sold for my church's fundraiser. I have an idea of what I'd like to create—I'd love to do a Munny of Naga Siren from Dota 2 (if you don't know what she looks like, Google it… go ahead… I dare you). I love her character design and I think it would be really fun to recreate her head crest and her tail out of sculpey.

However, if you all have a better idea of a Munny you'd like me to make (to eventually sell), I'm completely willing to consider it, although it has to be something that interests me (vague enough for you?) Leave me a message in the comments section if you have an idea for consideration. Not sure how I will go about selling it—maybe I'll start an Etsy account, but I'll probably just end up selling it through my wife's eBay store. As for the timeline on this, I'll probably start designing in two weeks, so speak up now!

Santa Claus Munny Doll

Here comes Santa!

My grandfather collects Santa Claus figurines for display during Christmas time. He has loads of them decorating his house. Along with that, he has a hobby of carving faces into blocks of wood. They tend to be gnarled and knotty dwarves or gnome faces—lots of warts and craggly lips. So, for Christmas I tried to combine two of the things he enjoys and came up with a wrinkly, big-nosed Santa.

This guy was a tag team effort with my wife helping to make the hat for him. I used a very small gauge wire and some tiny pliers to twist it into Santa's spectacles. The same wire was used as support for his pipe. With it being as thin as it is, the pipe need a little help to keep it from drooping. Once baked, it stays rather sturdy, although during the process of painting I did break off some of the smaller details. These I just Gorilla Glue back on.

I've noticed it's fairly difficult to paint gradients with an acrylic paint. I've been wanting to try my hand with an airbrush sometime in the future. I think it would allow for even greater control and much smoother gradients.

Leshrac the Munny Doll

Behold Leshrac, the Malicious.

I've been working on this little sucker for several weeks now and haven't gotten a chance to take photos of it until now. For those of you who don't know, Leshrac is one of the heroes in Valve's upcoming release, Dota 2, and, if you don't know what that is, do yourself a favor and check it out now (Valve's official blog, joinDOTA).

I used to play Dota back as a mod for Warcraft III. I never got past version 3.7—I was always intimidated by the much broader hero pool in Dota Allstars. I'm glad Valve saw the potential in making this mod a full blown game. I loved to play it back in the day, and Leshrac was probably my favorite character. I don't have a computer capable of running Dota 2 yet (fingers-crossed, sometime soon), but when I do, I'm going to play the crap out of that game. Currently I get my kicks following live games during work (I have some big monitors that allow for a small window playing in the background without disrupting my workflow… I feel like I have to justify that I do, in fact, do my work haha). Actually, haha I JUST realized I'm streaming someone's game right now as I write this post! It's become an obsession! I think I'd probably give my right nut to work at Valve. Not 100% about that… but… probably…

But enough of that, MORE PICS!

Oh yeah, did I mention that he glows in the dark? I got two colors of water-based glow in the dark paint to highlight his tattoos/runes (blue) and his eyes and hands (green). Leshrac is a spell caster, and as such, bits of him glow, so using glow in the dark paint seemed like a no brainer. I apologize for the low quality 'glow' photos though. I had to photoshop the hell out of them to show the glow. My iphone clearly wasn't meant to take night shots : ) The actual glow is far more visible in real life.

Much like the stone tower munny, this one was also designed for a munny exchange at work. It was originally slated to be this past week for Halloween, but we've been so busy of late that a lot of the participants didn't get enough time to work on their munny. It's since been pushed back until the end of November. At this point, we might was well make it another Christmas munny exchange. I'll be a little sad to give him away, but, I think my wife will be even sadder. Oh yeah! I got married since my last real post! Check out her style blog!

Man, time flies, and lots of things have gone down. I'm sorry I haven't been able to work on as many personal projects of late. I need to carve out more time to do that!

Let me know what you guys think! Oh, I should be doing another munny pretty soon here since it has to be done by Christmas, and I'm slow as dirt working on these things especially since they're only 4" tall. Got to have me some detail!

Coming Soon

Been inactive for a while. Got something new in the works. It's another munny.

Stone Tower Munny Doll

So I've got something a little bit different for you today. Rather than a poster I've been working on a mini munny doll. Some friends and I at work wanted to spice things up with a fun white elephant gift idea for the design teams in the form of decorated munnys. We had 28 people participate! There was a great variety of munny treatments and concepts at the gift exchange and everyone was in an amazing festive mood. It was a really fun experience for all of us.

That said, mine doesn't make a whole lot of sense. When I started concepting, I kept having this vision of a stone tower in ruins. Not really sure how that would play out in a munny, but not being able to shake it from my mind, I bought some super sculpey, crafting tools and a woodlands scenic kit (for model trains and dioramas and such) and went to town.

I started out by taking off the munny's right arm and attaching it at his head with some aluminum foil. I then covered the entire munny in sculpey and started building out the rock formations and staircase. It took a good deal of time but eventually it went into the oven and was baked until cured (I did it for 32 minutes at 200 degrees since I had some fairly thick areas of sculpey).

Then it was time to paint. Using acrylics I applied a wash of gray and brown down over the entire doll. Then using an extreme dry-brush technique, I added the details around the stones to really bring the effect to life. From the scenic kit I applied model glue to the dolls head and applied two types of foliage: a fine light green powder for grass, and a thick moss for trees/bushes. Lastly, I used the scenic kit's water effects to create a waterfall. Applying it to the doll was a difficult and it took some additional time to build out the rapids, but I enjoy the effect very much.

And one final image is of the munny I received at the exchange (from my boss, no less). It's Harry Potter!! I love it, and with the thick-rim glasses it is reminiscent of me. As you can see, my boss, Amanda, cut up sentences from a Harry Potter book and glued them onto the munny. A lot of them are complete sentences, which is pretty sick because you can actually read them. I am very excited over it.