QuillStars - Halloween Swap pony for EgyptianDragon

[Kazzellin]

This is the pony I made for EgyptianDragon for this year's Halloween Swap.

She was very fun to make, if a bit messy! I was inspired by the conversation earlier in the swap, when people were sharing though creature pictures from the video game. She's not what I originally had in mind (she doesn't have a costume, really), but I love how she turned out, so no worries.

She started out as the purple dancing pony (whose name I can never recall). One of the first things I did is decide I didn't like her rear hind leg sticking out like it normally does ('cause she's dancing), so I cut it off, along with the left rear leg of a duplicate bait, so she would just stand. I glued the leg in place with superglue, then meshed it up with Apoxie Sculpt.

While that was drying, I made her a beak out of DAS paper clay, as I wanted the texture of it for this purpose. I made the hook on her beak by using the shaft of my clay pointing tool (a pencil would have worked too, though).

After that she got her wing frames put in. I used the tutorial by Eiriel, and though the twisting wires gave me some issues (the plastic kept tearing while I was twisting; wish I knew how far apart to insert them...), that went fairly well. I ran into trouble shortly after than when I couldn't get the clay feathers I was making to stick to the window screen material. Like, at all. So, she was shelved for a bit.

After a few weeks, inspiration struck, and I got my Apoxie back out. I mixed it, and ran it through my Sculpey clay machine until the fourth or fifth setting, and wrapped it around the wing forms I had made, covering both the top and bottom. Once they were dry, I painted her butt and rear legs, then went to work with the feather boas. Originally, I had a small length glued to her head, too, but I really didn't like how it looked, so I put that part off for a bit. I cut the boa to the length it would take to go from her body to the tip of the wing and a bit to curl around it, and glued them in place individually, using krazy glue (my glue of choice). Once I was done with the right wing, I painted her beak and added her toes with Apoxie.

Once the glue on the right wing was dry, I trimmed the edges a bit so it looked neater, and checked for any obvious gaps. Then I realized that if I wanted to give her a cutie, I'd better do it before I put the rest of her feathers on, or they'd be in the way. While waiting between stages of painting for that to dry, I also did more coats on her beak and painted her feet and her eyes (for variety, I did the pupil and outlines in royal blue instead of black), then used Sparkle Modge-Podge for more stars in the area immediately around her cutie before sealing the painted areas. Then I did the other wing, which went a bit smoother than the other, because I knew what I was doing this time! Sort of.

Once the left wing was done, I thought on how I wanted to do the head and body feathers. I'd already tried trimming one edge of the boas flat, so it would lay properly, and this was a very messy thing to try. Then it occured to me that I'd bought a 5-color pack of Fun Flock for another custom, and didn't have plans for 4 of the colors - including the black. And the bottle of Modge Podge that I've never used says it can be used as a glue. :3

I didn't know how well this would cover the original body color, though, so I painted the areas that were going to be flocked with a quick layer of cheap black paint before I flocked. Flocking was done on smallish area at a time; I don't think I ever did more than maybe 1-1/2 square inches at a time. I folded a sheet of paper underneath her to catch the extra I brushed off (and I finally have a use for the two 1/2-inch square paintbrushes I've never used!). Once the flocking's first layer was on, I checked for how thick it was, and added more layers as needed.

Then I did her hair. I am loving this hair blend, and will have to use it again in the future. It's mostly Sour Grapes and Hematite, and has some highlights in Arctic Frost and Star Light. I'd gone over the mane holes with the Fun Flocking, so had some trouble finding them again; I'm positive the lines are a bit wobbly, but I'm not sure how much that matters in the long run. Once the mane and tail were done and her head back on, I had to touch-up some of her facial flocking (only to be expected, I suppose). So, she was done! Now for her base...

To keep her upright while I was working on her, I wasn using a piece of steel from the decking section of the hardware store; it was great for holding her in place while I worked! Since she still had megnets in her hind feet, and I liked how she looked standing better than "running" (the pictures of which you shall never see, as a side note ), I grabbed a scrap piece of 1x6 and glued the metal piece to it, then wrapped the whole thing in green felt, added some brown Fun Flock, and added the headstone to it.

Viola! One Hippogryph custom pony, complete with Halloween leaf bags full of gummy-type candy.

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I think I will definitely be making more of these.

[kittybethy]

She looks cool!

[Roogna]

oooh neaat
 loooove her symbol

[blackestbird]

Echoing Roogna: absolutely love that symbol! It is so pretty! And the pony itself is just awesome I really love those wings and her beak too, and the flocking! I love flocked ponies :3 Very pretty hairblend too

[Saja]

Very cool!!

[egyptiondragon]

the candy is almost all gone ol i love her around my house shes gotten the affectionate nickname crow

[Griffin]

Black flocking!   She looks like she required hours of hard work (and judging by your description, she did) and the result is definitely worth it! I, too, love her symbol, and the wings are really impressive! ^^ 

[kaoskat]

Very awesome!!!What a great idea!!!

[Izrabeth]

She's pretty cool!

[Colorscapesart]

How cool!  She looks very elegant!

[sunnydaze]

That is so impressive!!!  Nice detail work!!!

[starbritesprinkles]

Very cool. You did an excellent job!

[Kazzellin]

Thank you everypony!

Heh. "Crow."

[puuush]

Oh what an awesome custom. Must have taken hours. And I love the diorama.