#i don't know anything about sculpting clay and acrylic paints; and i'm going to use them

[specialshinytrinkets]

[chemicalbakeryarts]

Well, this is new! Not sure if you guys know this over on Tumblr but I love to try new things! And uh.. this time, I would try something a bit more physical than usual!

This custom is of an oc of mine, Legendary Flare! Though I have not posted her to Tumblr, so uh…. If you want more information check out her DeviantArt post! (Semi-old art lol)

As a Skylanders fan, and someone who has tons of Skylanders oc's. I'm naturally going to want a toy of my Skylanders oc's! Toy customs have been something I've wanted to do for at least a few months.... I was thinking of doing a custom of Thorn on Knockout Terrafin and really want to make that. But it was just a "yeah that would be cool" with no serious intent of actually doing anything with those actions. Until less than a week ago I actually started taking this seriously, and I think it was around two weeks ago when I was having dinner with my Dad and asked if we could go shopping for art supplies for making a clay sculpture, and fortunately for me, he said yes! (I'll be applying for a job.... again in a few days so I'm hoping I won't need him for this kind of stuff in the future) I ended up drawing a reference photo for the pose I wanted to do, and the next day we headed out to Micheals. 40$ CAD down the drain I quickly got to work on making a clay figure of Legendary Flare, effectively turning what used to be my epic gamer man cave into an a mini-art studio. starting with removing Torch from her base using some pliers. And FUCK dude removing a Skylander from the base is difficult, it might be because of being weak as fuck and my slender hands but it is NOT easy.

But after that was dealt with I got to work on sculpting. Day one, I did her legs, day two I did the tail, day three I did the rest of the body, and day four I did the painting. And although getting her big legs to stay on the damn base wasn't easy, soon enough I got her on. The sculpting was incredibly fun around the end! Sure it was a bit difficult to make sure everything... you know, stuck. but It was a good time! And painting was soooo satisfying. I was literally squealing and going "oh my god" while finishing the paint job, it was amazing and I loved every second of it.

Now, time for the mistakes I made. (for context I used air dry clay, and although the paint doesn't matter here I used acrylics)

First, making everything stick together. I recommend making small holes and indents in places you want to stick parts into. like placing the arm on the torso? Make a small indent hole in the torso. Maybe this is an issue from me not using a wire armature for the figure but getting everything in place proved to be difficult. Her claws kept falling out because they were on the edge of the base. And also using a wet paintbrush to mold the clay together of course.

Second, smoothing everything out. Basically getting a wet paint brush and stroking the clays cracks. I didn't do this enough. Which you can't tell as much since the images were compressed but its a bit of an issue, less so since this character has scales, but again, its an issue.

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Overall I would say sculpting is a super fun experience! Generally I just love trying new things with my art but this proved to be especially rewarding! And, uh... If anyones wondering why I chose Legendary Flare specifically. Its for three reasons. A: I don't care about Torch and Legendary Flare is my only fire element oc, B: She only has three colours so painting her would be pretty easy, and C: she isn't a main character or anything so if I mess up, it's not as bad as someone more well-known and pushed on my account.

I briefly considered making a video about my process on this (hell I even filmed Torch before I removed her) but later I decided not to film because I wasn't sure if the results would be good and since Legendary Flare, being a Legendary variant requires some context to explain why she's a variant anyways. I might make a video about a future custom tho idk.

Be sure to let me know your thoughts on me doing customs and if you want me to make more of them! I have a lot more clay and paint and I do not like to waste money!

(also what tags do people put toy customs in?)