While rummaging through piles of old stuff, I found these pics of the unfinished Male Pegasus in clay that I thought were interesting. I think unfinished clay things have a lovely dynamic, fresh look that is often lost when they are detailed. Maybe because the hair detail smooths out the crisp light and shadow. This … Read more
I get ideas from all sorts of places. This is a pic of a concept for a pyo hippocampus. This head is a digital concoction of a pen and ink sketch of a hazel nut leaf I did, combined with a digital rendering of a horse, and texture suggested by some cool tire track marks … Read more
This was a sign I put up in the painting dept of our first Windstone shop to encourage the painters to try to keep the bottoms of pieces clean. Fail. Windstone has moved a twice. When we moved before, it was with a vow to change something about how we did stuff. The thing about … Read more
Jennifer Miller sent me a great tutorial on sculpting by a real “creature pro”: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=18287 ( you’ll need to scroll down through the postings to see the whole tutorial, it is worth it! ) These pro sculptors are simply amazing; the drop dead gorgeous anatomy detail is one thing, but they can duplicate a conceptual … Read more
I just did finished one “wheel” of Mother Grizzly bears. These 40 or so bears are more of the left-over castings that we packed away unpainted when we decided to retire first line of Windstone animals. These bears were the last of the “old animal” line I sculpted, right when when we changed the name … Read more
This picture is of one of the limited edition of “Lavender and Red Autumn Leaf” Old warriors, a variant of Autumn leaf, that we will be putting on Ebay soon. He is more golden and red than the first Autumn leaf color I painted, but equally complex! There are two ways to come up with … Read more
Casting is coming along unbelievably well! Helen ( “Arlla” is her user name on the Windstone forum: http://www.windstoneeditions.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=b246ac3725c09585269a67df7ed9972b ) is training two new casters, Wendy and Chris. They are turning out lots of good pieces! We have a drying tunnel set up now, to dry the castings quickly, and soon there will be enough pieces … Read more
The Phoenix has been found and will be rising soon. This is a photo of the Paint-your-own Phoenix looking very lumpy in his partially completed first master mold. He is sitting in a cabinet next to the larger Winged Wolf sculpture which is at nearly the same stage in the mold making progress. These two … Read more
I misjudged Melody Peña, the modest artist and sculptor who is the creative heart of Windstone Editions. I assumed that anyone who sculpts fantasy figurines would somehow view the real world through that fanciful gauze. Just as some members of the Society of Creative Anachronism bend their lives around the Medieval persona they portray at … Read more
Having arrived at the blue metal building that is Windstone’s new home in the Northwest, I opened the door and stepped into a small foyer with a service window into the office. Windstone brochures were perched in a stand on the window counter. On the floor below the shelf an amazingly lifelike lizard sat sculpted … Read more
One of my favorite subjects to rant about is: “What I do badly” . The list is endless, of course, but drawing “humans” is one of them. I am often asked what my favorite subject is, to draw or sculpt. It isn’t what you would think, it is not fantasy, or animals, it is people. … Read more
This is an unfinished digital painting I’ve been working on, and a quick sketch of a Hippogriff. I’ m trying to get a feel for this creature. Each individual part is easy, but putting the whole creature all together is a nightmare! I am planning to do Hippogriffs as Windstone sculptures, either as Paint-Your-Owns, or … Read more
I found this ink drawing I did of three pieces from the original old animal line that was produced by us, Windstone Editions, when we first started the company about 25 years ago. The lion and lamb sculptures are extremely rare, and unfortunately, we haven’t found any of these castings unpainted, but we did find … Read more
We are now going through the difficult after effects of moving . The most emotionally wearing part is not being able to find stuff you are used to having at hand. We have a system here at Windstone, of unpacking boxes, placing the contents out on rolling carts until the stuff can be put away, … Read more
CRIPES!! It is snowing again!! Us ex-Californians can hardly deal with drizzle, let alone THIS stuff!! We just love the weather here, don’t get me wrong , but wow, it is cold! Our California-raised llamas and sheep won’t come out of the barn. They aren’t stupid. At Windstone things are going well for a change! … Read more
