Liz: And The Face of 3 Hour Procrastination (Patreon)

Since I have Volume 5 to work on, as well as a few plush orders, it is very important that there is no modeling clay in my place of residence.  Because if I have clay, everything shuts down until the problem has been resolved.  I can’t help it.  There’s a lot I want  to make, and those plans are just waiting for the right modeling clay to innocently enter the home.

I want to sculpt a large Tia, and the Indigos performing on stage (I have the stage already set), and Silk standing on a playing card.  But I have things to do.

Unfortunately, I needed to make a custom clay Vi nose for a plush, so you can guess what happened.

In 2015, we made a few mini characters for a kickstarter.  It was Igrath, Mace and Whip, Namah, Bast, and Lilith.    I ended up quitting my part-time job to finish them on time.

We used the sculpt, silicone, and mold process, creating resin figures when the original sculpted piece is destroyed.

At the time we had the idea to release a new mini figure with each book release, to collect.  Volume 5 would have been Evzen.

In 2015, this was before the computer printing had caught on, so at conventions, at least, anyone who could produce figurines of their characters were attention-getters.

For a few reasons, we decided not to continue to cast more miniature dreamkeeper characters, possibly because of the labor and cost, but personally, the limitations of mold making small characters is depressing compared to free-form sculpture and what 3D printing can do now.

I’ve been sculpting with my chosen material since I was 9.  I’ve been painting D&D  (mostly Ral Partha) minis around that time too.  And a few of my minis still have glitter on them from  very old nail polish.   Hey, the metallic green scales still look good!  

(Ral Partha Forest Dragon)

I’ve gotten to the point where I prefer to paint my own sculpts.

It just so happened that I had some tan clay left over from Vi’s nose, so I decided to make a little Paige to compliment the 2015 Mace.

This is not Paige.

People have mentioned that Paige and Wisp are very similar in design, and I was always sort of dismissive of the comparison, but it’s true their head shape and patch are very close, Paige’s head is a bit rounder, and she smiles more.

Paige and Wisp were inspired by Dave’s little sister, and my weird side, so  maybe Dave thinks that all little blonde girls look alike in the dreamworld.  I don’t really know.

Anyway, I finished the sculpted and painted Wisp.

Being small and made of painted clay, I believe everything made using the hand sculpted method is great practice at understanding character, but not ideal to offer to the public due to fragility.  I end up re-gluing arms and legs as I attempt to make them.  Heads are balancing on glue.  The benefit is the ability to craft thin and delicate parts, poses that would never work in a mold.

Wisp is able to have flowing hair and tiny feet.

Here’s the “Face of Three Hour Procrastination”.

Her dock base is painted cardboard, and is to scale with the original Mace.  I think I’m going to revise all of the 2015 characters like this.  It would be fun to create all of the cast in this scale.  When I have more clay, I’ll post more characters.

Time to get back to work. -Liz