I wanted to share the progress so far on my current project- the 1/24th scale Arctic Dragon. This one takes it's roots from my days working at McFarlane Toys, so here's a little back story.
Some of you may be familiar with the McFarlane Dragons toy line that ran from 2005-2008. I was fortunate enough to have contributed to this line both as a designer and a sculptor. By the time series 6 came around, I was a full-time sculptor far removed from my previous toy design days, however there was a need for submissions for a new set of dragon clans and I was asked to contribute. The designs I submitted for the new Hunter, Scavenger, Ice, and Fossil clan dragons were all selected and made into figures, which was a great honor. However I had a particular interest in the Ice Clan dragon design and I could not wait to sculpt it. As much I loved the other designs, the the Ice Clan design I felt had the most potential. Much to my dismay, the project was given to the digital sculpting department and I only got to work on a little at the very end. Long story short, although the figure was a success and is a nice display piece, I was never completely happy with the final result. And finally, seven years later, I have decided to give my favorite dragon it's due on my own terms.
First, I did a complete redesign, improving on the original, but still maintaining the same essence and keeping a similar silhouette. Here's a comparison of old with the new:
It also helps that my drawing skills have improved since then, as well as my knowledge of animal anatomy and physiology.
As I did with my previous dragon- the Lizard dragon from 'Dragon vs. Raptors'- I proceeded to break down the animal in layers. Muscles...
and then the skeleton.
Once I had that figured out, it was time for the pose design. The last thing I wanted was for the pose to be same as the original (which I did not intend to be the static side view to begin with). After several passes, I decided to go with this:
So I had my design and pose, next step is the sculpt! I printed my skeleton drawing out to the desired size and began the first stage (the material is hard castilene)
I fleshed out one side of the body and proceeded to do the same with the other
After roughing out the arms and legs and as well as a few horns, it begins to look like a dragon!
For the base, I cut up a box to make a frame, sizing it to the figure while keeping in mind the intended pose
Then after covering the base with a nice layer of castilene, it was time to repose the beast. I then removed the horns (which contained armature wire) I heated up the dragon in the microwave for approx. 25 seconds, getting it just soft enough to move around. This won't be pretty but it works.
Using the base to figure out the pose, I bend and shape the figure. Plenty of cracking and crumbling, but easy to fix
It takes some time, but the figure finds it's pose and I begin the process of describing and defining the anatomy, which in this case is very much inspired by large cats, but also large theropod dinosaurs, horses, and even dogs.
Here you can see all of the different reference I have on-hand to invent the new animal. So you ask, how can this be 1/24th scale if it's a fantasy creature? Well because of it's prey- a freshly caught narwhal (in the earlier stages, I used a Safari narwhal toy as a place holder.)
The trick is to make it look natural and not a hodgepodge of parts. I find that it helps to think about the relationship of each animal to another instead of focusing on specific details. Everything about it's life and behavior can be described by choosing the right attributes. For example, this one is of course a reptile, but it has to be warm-blooded to live in cold environment (if that's even possible), so warm-blooded reptiles could equate to a somewhat bird-like appearance. Also, how does it hunt? There's no need to fly in the arctic, but there are plenty of cliffs and ice for climbing as well as plenty of water, where it will find most of it's meals. So that led me to a mountain lion/croc hybrid type of thinking. Some of these elements are obvious and some may be hard to see at this stage, but it will all become more apparent as the project progresses.
A bit more defining of the anatomy
and the other side
At this stage, I'm pretty happy with the anatomy and feel I can move forward with the more superficial elements, mainly the proto-wings, which are designed to aid in swimming as well as absorbing heat from the sun. I never intended for such a bulky creature to fly, so large wings are not a consideration. And also the spines and tail fin should look like they aid in swimming (the final version will not look so fish-like)
And that brings me to the current state of the project:
The action figure is there for scale (kudos to those who recognize the toy):)
And here's a more recent close-up of the head:
This will be my next kit. The intention is for the base, wings/fins, horns, claws, spines and fur feathers (to be added later) to all be translucent white- all else will be regular gray resin. That's the plan at least. I will continue to post my progress on here from time to time, but for the most up-to-date info on Creative Beast Studio, you can always find me on Facebook, here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Creative ... 7525333128
