For those that don’t know I also run the adoptables game, Gryphs.
To explain the art side of it, it’s a game where you purchase an egg that reveals the surprise one-of-a-kind sculpture. It’s a grab-bag with genetics, roleplay etc and all sorts of things, but on this blog when I bring them up I’m only really talking about the art part.
The hardest part about doing them is coming up with the initial species and breed designs. Each must be unique, but fit into a set that is distinct from the others. Also, they must fit into the general feel and style of the game. Commons must be simpler than uncommons, rares should be the most complex and “cool.” Last, they must be very easy to replicate in an endless array of pose combinations quickly and with minimal modification to the breed-specific traits.
The upside is that due to the heavy thinking in the design, each gryph take much less time to sculpt than one would expect, and certainly less than my average sculpture. That…and a lot of practice. By 250 in I’m not doing too badly anymore =)
Honestly though, aside from meeting quotas for the breeds, I give myself a lot of freedom in the moment. The thing about sculpting in polymer clay is that premature greatly affects the results. When it’s hot, I might make them sit. Sometimes they melt a little and I see a pose I never could have come up with from nothing. Many of the cats work this way! When I do a standing pose I often have to either freeze the gryph or better yet, come back later.
Some are done in multiple steps. The Spirit Kin for example takes 3 bakings total. One for the skull, which I do a number of before starting. The last baking is for the wings.
The nice thing about polymer clay is being able to walk away easily. I can sometimes get a few body blanks sculpted while my son plays in the early morning, which I cna come back to and detail later that night while he’s sleeping.
I’ll touch on them quite a bit more in the coming days. They take up a lot of my art-dedicated time because they bring in the cashflow to help with bills while I work on the illustration side in my spare spare time. Hah.
Honestly though, I can post a lot about my progress as an artist. The effects of sculpting also translate to better 3D thinking when it comes to poses. I used to struggle with sitting dogs, now I know EXACTLY where those legs go.
compare that quality to about gryph 200:
Big projects do a body of work good =)