Mike the Minotaur: Darkest Dreams swap for Summer_Blade MANY PICS! SO WOW!

[StrawberryMeadow]

Meet Mike. I am ridiculously proud of him. Like, Incredibly proud. Probably far more so than I should be, but hey. Summer_Blade mentioned DnD Minotaur, and I was smitten!
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Drippy snout! 

He started life as a bait Bunny Hop who had no hair and no symbols. She was cleaned, stripped, and chopped up. Her body parts were kept, her back legs sliced half-off and a wire structure added to push them out wider for balance. Her front legs were removed and lengthened into arms with wire and foil.

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Her ears were cut off and horns sculpted in over wire armatures,

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and her ears put back on below the horns, secured in the clay. A sculpted tail was added with wire inside the tail hole. Many many many baked layers of muscles were added. Her mouth was cut open and teeth and lips added. She is now a he! He had a lovely long braided beard but it snapped off and I decided the logistics of attempted shipping of a thin beard weren't going to work. So it's in a box someplace.

He was painted dark brown,

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 but then I decided it was to hard to get nice details from such a dark base, so I started airbrushing him lighter flesh tones.

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Then I airbrushed darker shades in gradients to get his colouring and shading. Then I spent a long time blushing all his muscles with highlights and low lights and flesh tones in many different colours of artists pastels.

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His eyes were painted a firey red to yellow and glossed with triple thick. His body was sealed with Testors. His horn ornament is painted with gold, his horns are drybrushed in a bone colour and a million layers of shading.

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His stick is a thin stick (I think a kebab stick!) with sculpey strapping and a clubby/spiky mace. Originally I had intended for him to be a mage-type but it turns out Minotaur are warriors and that wouldn't work. It is also painted in layers/drybrushed and has fake mosses on it with some bits glazed and some bits sealed with mod podge to look battle-worn.

All the sculpting is done with Sculpey. I tried very hard to keep as much pony in there as possible. His head still turns. References can be found here: http://www.pinterest.com/onesecondpls/minotaur-refs/ and on youtube :p

If you read all this : you're awesome.

Le fin.
xx

[Artemesia's Garden]

  I'm not familiar with half the techniques you've just written about but it's lovely to see the story of this and I'll be to get more up to speed! Magical stuff

p.s.I love the look of your workshop

[kaoskat]

What in the.......???? That is AMAZING!!!!!!

[Unicorn_pops]

Holy Cow! Such awesome details and amazing custom! I really like the lighter shades of brown too, better details He looks so wonderful!

[Ambar]

OMG!!! impressive. you  have a lot of reasons to be proud of him, he is perfection!!! your sculpt is A M A Z I N G

[Roogna]

woah look at that face!!!! awesome

[Thrice]

Wow, that is EPIC. Amazing job!!

[wiccanpony1]

AMAZING woo the sculpting is flawless! your ponies always amaze me x

[Eviecorn]

This.  Is.  AWESOME.  Summer-blade is a lucky duck.    You did an amazing job with him.

[StrawberryMeadow]

Thank you kind peoples

 

[Griffin]

Wonderful sculptwork! I love the face!

[WaePonies]

THIS IS AMAZING!!!
xoxo

[Saja]

OMG that's friggen amazing!!! Thanks for sharing your WIP as well, its great to see how you ended up there. I totally love his face!!! His horns are fantastic, and those bulging veins are a fantastic addition, such a beautiful piece of art. Id be super proud too!! Jelly of his new owner!

[Summer-blade]

He is awesome 'Mike' has become a source of inspiration in my house my boyfriend and I marveled at him for quite some time. He's living in my bed room right now front and center on top of the TV for all to see.   

[Colorscapesart]

You SHOULD be proud, he is incredible!!!