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Oh, how cool! And how nice of your mom. I love the kitty griffin sculpt, so I hope you post lots of pictures of your progress!
Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).
The griffin is beautiful, but i would have gone with NOT-blue-eyes. Plum would have been nice in this case IMO. Does anyone know why 99% of windstones have blue eyes, even when they dont match the colour of the sculpt? I always wondered that myself…especially with all the colour options out there.
I wonder about this all the time! I’m not a fan of the blue eyes on so many pieces, despite blue being my favorite color in general.
I think yellow or orange eyes (or metallic tan? or plum?) would have looked great with this scheme… I can see why blue was elected, but something about this particular blue doesn’t do it for me. Maybe the super-bright blue would have been better, if they absolutely had to be blue?
Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).
Congrats to the winner of the Black Opal Griffin gal! You blew my max bid out of the water… twice! The first time it was out of date before I clicked submit; I raised it $110 and it was KO’ed on the spot. 🙂 I hope you post pics of this fabulous griffin on the forum. (And I really hope Melody decides to come up with a Production version of this color, because it’s just gorgeous.)
Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).
Little meringue puff dragons! So cute.
They would look so good in the “White” color scheme, too! I would definitely want to add a Loaf and a Riser to my White collection if you did them up in a pearly white with yellow eyes… They’d look like little pearl drops!
Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).
After just being outbid on the Black Opal female griffin, by several hundred dollars, I’d like to squeak for a Production version of Black Opal on the Griffin family! And going by the way the bids jumped on that auction, it looks like many others feel the same… 🙂
Editing to add: also squeaking for “Moonlight” Lady Cats or maybe Pebble Dragons! That one picture above is incredibly lovely. (Could there be some with tree shapes like the above, and some with bare-branched trees for added ‘spookiness’?)
And then, next year, matching Moonlight Cougars. 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).
Oooohhhh, I like Black Opal on the Griffins! I would definitely vote for this as a new Griffin color… 🙂
Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).
That sounds like a good plan, Sherry!
I’ve never done a Muse, but I’ve done a wolf, two dragons, several griffins and kitty griffins, a kirin… I think in general large smooth areas are actually harder to make look good, because there’s nothing to distract the eye from a small flaw like ona more detailed piece. More texture makes the physical work of painting more of a pain (higher chance of bubbles, or missing an oddly-angled surface) but also helps hide imperfections because there’s so much to look at. 🙂
And I did once try to do an elaborate paint job on something only to realize it was beyond my skill; I commissioned someone else to do it and don’t regret it at all. It looks good beside the simpler pieces I did myself, and gives me something to aspire to and keep practicing for.
I have never done a Flap Cat, but they’re closely related to the Kitty Griffin, which I’ve painted four of (I… really like it, yep) and I find them really enjoyable to paint! The small size means I can finish one in a few days, without waiting days for a layer of paint, or one part of the piece I need to hold, to dry. Plus the smaller scale helps make even simple paint jobs look good; I think it’s easier to shade in ‘depth’ on a smaller piece versus a larger piece, because the larger one means bigger surfaces to shade and it can end up either too busy or too flat. If you’re somewhat accustomed to doing smallish projects, I’d definitely suggest the longhaired flapper! But I have friends who prefer larger-scale jobs and are boggled at my willingness to work in miniature, so if you lean toward that side of things the Muse might be better; she’s a bigger piece.
Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).
These are good questions to ask before starting!
For myself, I generally basecoat based on dark/light – if I’m doing a dark color for the main color, I use a dark basecoat under all the areas that will have the main color; if I’m doing a light color over most of the piece, I use a light basecoat, usually white (but at least once I used light grey). For dark pieces, if there are lighter patches or markings, I’d basecoat those spots in white, but not vice-versa; small dark areas can be done on top of a light basecoat without needing a separate basecoat. In general, it’s always easier to work from lighter to darker – applying a dark color over a light one will be no problem, or just need a couple extra coats on those spots, while trying to apply light colors over a dark one can dull or muddy your light color.
Paint-blending… honestly, I don’t know? I just do it. 🙂 Mess around with cheap paints and see what you like. One thing I do find useful is a “test swatch” – I took a strip of white cardstock and painted a square of every metallic paint I own onto it, in rainbow order. It’s helpful for me to have something I can hold up against a basecoat or another color and “match up” what would blend best with it (or have the most contrast!) before I put that next color on the piece. Paint often looks a little different when dry, too, so it can be hard to judge just by looking at the contents of the paint bottle whether, say, “Deep Blue” or “Marine Blue” is the right choice.
Experiment with different shapes and dampnesses of brush on some textured paper to get a feel for your paint. A wet brush will apply paint very differently than a dry brush! The thickness of your paint will matter, too. Try a thick paint, then water it down and try it again with the same brush. Be aware of direction as you paint, too! Windstone pieces are usually highly textured, and your brush can leave tiny bubbles in the paint if you’re not careful. I try to always work with the lines of texture instead of across it (i.e. painting down the vane of the feather or the shaft of the hair) when I’m aiming for smooth application. (Drybrushing across a smooth basecoat with a metallic color can produce some neat effects!)
Definitely use some kind of topcoat/sealer after your piece is painted! In general, there are three choices: matte finish, satin or semigloss finish, and gloss finish. Matte is least noticeable; it will not add much extra shine. Satin/semigloss are shinier; you will definitely notice some sheen to it. (I like satin finish for PYOs with fur – it looks to me like the natural sheen of a hair coat, softly shining without looking lacquered.) Gloss is the shiniest; things sealed with gloss coat will have an extra shiny layer over their paint that is visible; they may look like glazed china, or lacquered furniture. All this is going to vary by brand of sealer, and by your application technique, though! I have managed to get a satin-like finish with a matte sealer, either because the brand was just a little glossier than I expected or because of how thickly/thinly I applied it, or perhaps just because of some quirk of the paint color contrasting with the sealer.
Good luck on your painting adventures!
Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).
Great job, drag0n!
That first picture I was all, “where’s the problem?” And then the next picture I realized that he didn’t have a rippling cape on the right, that was a broken edge. 😀 😀 😀
Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).
Ohhh! Love your GB kitty. They all look so good together…the two c/s cats that look blue, are they the same?
You must have an updated Lap conga?!?!Not quite the same! One is the blue/purple colorshift, the other is the green/purple colorshift. Blue/purple is on the middle shelf, but you really can’t tell in this light; you almost have to be moving in order to catch the “shifting” that reveals the colors.
I do need to take updated Lap Conga pictures! I was waiting for the grail Lap I had a lead on, but it’s looking more and more like that’s a bust; I haven’t heard from her in two months, so I guess I should just bite the bullet and take pics without it.
The trouble is finding a place to take pictures of them all! Last time I took up half the kitchen floor, and just barely squeezed them all in. 😀 Short of taking everything outside and photographing them in the driveway, or shoving all the living room furniture up against the walls, I’m short of photo space! When they have a family reunion, it takes a large venue. 😀
Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).
“Bantam” makes me think of roosters / chickens / birds, I haven’t run across that word in other connotations to expand its meaning in my head. I think it would be a cool name for a gryphon style, but might be confusing on a dragon. “Sage” is a nice name, but I still like a “small” name, like Squire or Page or Prince.
I think of two things: chickens, and boxing. 🙂 So I could see this little dragon as a ‘bantamweight’ warrior! But I do still like Squire a lot, too.
Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).
Thank you!
I feel kinda bad for Pinky , who’s definitely the odd cat out in this grouping. 🙂 Maybe next time there’s a grab bag I’ll hope for something in a rainbow scheme, to give him company.
Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).
Oohh, what cool ideas for the bantam dragon kickstarter!
I would absolutely love to see him a rich jewel-toned blue, with metallic teal or silver eyes. A silver-and-black combo would be awesome, too!
Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).
The kitty conga has increased by one! Time for a new picture. 🙂
[img]https://i.imgur.com/E3QXwPP.jpg[/img]
Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).
Did anybody go to BreyerFest this year?
I didn’t get to go, but from all accounts it was a crazy time, with special releases everywhere! I was lucky enough to find someone on the Blab forums willing to pick up the “Rico” model for me, so I now officially have a Silver conga. 🙂
Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).
