Workspace Wednesday: Sculpting the Monster High Custom Clicker Zombie from The Last of Us

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of videogames.  I'm actually taking a brief pause from hoarding gold in Diablo III to post this >_>.  The Last of Us from Naughty Dog absolutely captured my heart.  Then it stomped on it, set it on fire, and then tossed it in a pile of excrement.  I don't think I've ever seen a game that was quite so completely, unbearably awful to its characters.  Tragedies aside, it's one of the greatest (and most terrifying) stories ever told.

I've been talking about creating a custom Clicker and Ellie custom Monster High set for months and I finally got the kick in the pants to proceed thanks to watching Feral Works' breathtaking progress on her Clicker mask.

Sculpting to the sounds of the Yogscast.

I started off by lopping the face off (and a few fingers) of a Dragon Girl Create a Monster.  Instead of just sculpting the cordyceps on top of the head, I really wanted it to look like it was exploding from inside the cranial cavity.  I laid down a base layer of air drying foam clay for added texture.  Once dry, it's actually a bit squishy and flexible to the touch.  A few days of drying later, I began to add more details using Super Sculpey.  The foam clay is nice, but it's nearly impossible to create little details.

Adding texture and stability to the Clicker using Super Sculpey.

I also wanted to be able to paint these smaller details more efficiently, since the foam clay tends to soak up paint.  It has the added benefit of creating more stability for the foam clay as well.

As with most of my Sculpey use, the layers are kept thin enough to be hand cured with a heat gun.  Tufts of hair will be added between the cordyceps fungus.  I'm playing around with a few different ideas for adding 'decay' to the body, but I haven't decided on which looks best yet.

There's still a lot more progress to go, including creating an outfit, but I'm really liking how the custom looks right now :).  Thanks for reading!

Monster High Repaint Highlights of 2013, Taking a look back.

Two posts in one day!?  I know, it's craziness.  I was in the middle of migrating my files to our cloud storage and came across all of these photos of repaints from the last year.  It didn't seem like so many until I found myself staring at the hundreds of photos in my folder.

I really worked hard on coming up with a definite style this year and though I tend to deviate from the norm from time to time, I'm pretty happy with how far I've come.  In those folders, I also found pictures of some of my very first Monster High repaints...

 My second Monster High repaint and my most recent.  Three years apart.

I remember being pretty happy with this Gloom Beach Clawdeen when I finished.  She was the second Monster High repaint I'd ever done (from 2011), and the first doll I'd painted in years since taking a break from the hobby ages ago.  I was seriously out of practice, but the job market was absolutely horrible and I was grasping at straws trying to find some way that I could contribute monetarily.  So, I began customizing dolls and toys.  I enjoyed it and people were buying my customs. 

I was so elated that people out there liked my artwork enough to buy it that it fueled me to keep going.  It wasn't a fast or easy process, Monster High was quite new back then and the dolls were so hard to find in stores.  I've met so many amazing people and the community has just been fantastic overall.  Of course there are trolls sometimes, but the good infinitely outweighs the bad. 

I'm still far from finished and nowhere even remotely close to perfect, but I'm content?  I think that's the best way to put it.  My techniques have changed, my materials changed, even the way I approach a repaint has changed.  Three years can really make a difference.  Thank you guys for sticking with me through the awkwardness :).  I hope this year's repaints will be even better than the last!

Custom Monster High CAM Vampire Repaint, Tess

Tess is a custom repainted Monster High CAM Vampire girl.  She features a custom made dress by DollsAhoy! and Tibetan lamb's wool hair.  She's available for purchase over here in my Etsy shop.

I wanted to try a few different stylistic techniques with this girl.  I usually draw a much bigger, darker, and solid pupil, but I've recently become a fan of more softly blended eyes.  I think it gives them an almost glowy, dreamy look :3.

I also tried a softer look for her lips.  I gently blended the lines up and out and added soft, subtle touches of darker pigmentation.

The Vampire mold is usually harder to work with for me.  Once you remove the default paint, the sculpted eyes underneath are farther apart than the paint indicates.  In the past, my Vampire girl repaints ended up looking angular and harsh, but I wanted a much softer, sweeter look for this repaint. What do you think?  Did I manage to make her look sweeter than my other vampire girl repaints?

I'm working through a backlog of base-color painted dolls at the moment so I can get on with the newer goodies I've recently found (Clawdia, Elissabat, Gigi!).  A lot of times, to optimize my airbrush usage (since it can be a pain to clean), I line up about five or so blank girls and give them their shading, eyeshadow, and lip colors so that I can come back and add the details when I'm inspired :).  I hope you've enjoyed this girl, I really love the way she turned out.  Thanks so much for reading!

Custom Repaint: Stella, the Monster High CAM Ice Girl

The Ice and Blob Girl has been my favorite release in the Create a Monster series to date.  I really loved their translucent bodies and vinyl.  They are both among my favorite Monster High girls to repaint.

The wigs were even better, imo, with these girls than the previous releases.  I was a huge fan of the vinyl wigs, too, and I loved the fiber for this one in particular.  When boil straightened, they become so soft and feathery, perfect for texturing the look with a razor cut.

This girl arrived without her default hands, however.  She was part of one of the multipacks from Costco, so it's just a packaging fluke.  Luckily, I keep a stash of all kinds of different parts and gave her these awesome purple gloved hands as a replacement, since they match the outfit I wanted to use :).  The pegs for these hands are smaller than the wrist of the CAM girls,  since they were intended for a regular release Clawdeen.  I don't know why Mattel wouldn't just make them all the same, but who knows?  I adhered them with a bit of flexible E6000 and they still have their up and down motion as well as a bit of rotation when twisted gently.

Stella is available over in my Etsy shop.  Thanks for reading!

Toy Fiend Friday! Color Me Creepy Monster High Sea Monster

This week's Toy Fiend post features a review of one of the new Color Me Creepy Monster High sets, the Sea Monster doll.  I had some extra cute help trying out this set.  I visited DollsAhoy! (Andrea) yesterday for a dolly play date; she and her son were more than happy to help me out with my new toy, hehe.

The Child tries out the color changing legs.

In all honesty, the color changing aspect had no bearing on my purchase of this set.  I HAD to have that tentacle dress :3.  I also really love the new color of the Sea Monster girl, she's one of my favorite Monster High dolls to repaint.  Andrea's son was really getting into this set, though I think he had more fun splashing in the water than the actual color changing :).

Lots of colorful accessories!

This set includes a lot of accessories: shoes, a dress, a squishy wig, ears that pop into holes on the wig, two sets of leg and arm cuffs, and a neat new clear base stand which doubles as the water dish.  My set only came with one ear, however, but that doesn't matter much to me and was likely a fluke.  The blue cuffs have fins and a shark skin texture, the yellow cuffs are tentacle patterns.  The Sea Monster's shoes look as though they're made from kelp.

The Color Me Creepy set includes a recolored version of the original Create A Monster dolls whose limbs, lipstick, and eyeshadow change colors with icy water.  The dolls also have one little spot on their clavicle which changes color, the Sea Monster girl, here, has a tiny tentacle which shows up.  You're supposed to fill the blue pen with water and place it in the fridge, but Andrea just tossed a few ice cubes in a dish to save time.  The blue water pen also split in two and I was unable to click it back together.  Again, this doesn't matter to me, but it might be a pain for someone whose children are excited about playing with this set.  Of course, you can still use the pen, it just won't have the cool outer casing.

Using the 'friction tool' to draw designs on the doll's legs.

Icy water changes the skin color from light blue to an inky looking black.  This is facilitated by a coating on the doll, however, which I suspect might be prone to rubbing off and flaking with vigorous play.  The red 'friction' tool is moved along the skin to generate heat and turn the black color back to the original blue.  You can also just hold it in your hand for a bit to warm the piece back up.  As with all of the CAM dolls, the limbs easily pop in and out of their joints and the head attaches easily, with no anchor.

I know a lot of people were disappointed with the plastic wigs, but I love the way they look!  I really like not having to spend ten minutes making sure every hair is in place for photos, too >_>.  It's not for everyone, but it's a nice change of pace for me.  This version of the Sea Monster girl also lacks the molded tentacles on her arms and legs, which I actually prefer for re-dressing.  I'm pretty sure this is just a Create a Monster Vampire body with a Sea Monster head.

Overall, the quality of this set is a bit lacking.  The makeup is pretty awful and sparse, but I think this was the exchange in order to incorporate the color changing materials.  For kids, I think they'd have a bit of initial fun with it and probably end up tossing this into the pile of 'things which are never played with again.'  I definitely wouldn't consider it a need-to-purchase unless you're really keen on having all of the releases.

For me, I just wanted to repaint a different color Sea Monster girl and steal her accessories, haha.   If it's the accessories you're after, though, I'm positive they can be found separately second hand.  I'm also happy to see a whole doll instead of an add-on with missing or mismatched pieces (I'm looking at YOU Design Lab =_=).  Even though it's not particularly mind blowing, I also like the clear stand.  It reminds me of the stands for some of the higher end figures I own.

So what do you guys think?  Will you be picking up any of these sets?  Have you got them already?

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!