Commission: Greather Knarloc complete

Five months after my first post, the Knarloc is complete.

I feel like I could look at this thing all day. I'm really quite proud of it.

The Leopard Shark skin turned out a little more gray than I'd intended, but I can fall back on the fact that a lot of the photos of Leopard Sharks have a similar hue to them. Otherwise I think I kept the idea all there, and the painted-on texture keeps it looking nice and organic, like folds in skin. I don't know exactly why I made the mouth a dark purple. When I think about kroot I think about parrots, and for some reason I always imagine them with purple tongues. I'm weird that way sometimes.

To me, the Kroot riders look good individually and together. The orange kroot is probably my favorite of the two, since I feel the blue one is too vibrant.  Since they're so visually different from the Knarloc I did a few things to try to tie them together. Most notably, I treated their sashes with the same leather paint job as the Knarloc's straps. If I'd had my 'druthers I would have painted them in far different tones, but this is what the owner wanted.

I was thinking about what to do with the base as i drove back from a trip to Eugene Thursday afternoon. It looks like he's chasing down prey, so I came up with the idea of having him charge over some kind of terrain piece. So maybe a barbwire fence...

I still had a roll of barbed wire Yorrik had loaned me, so the decision was made. All it took was the barbed wire roll, and a pair of toothpicks to sell the image. It's probably one of my favorite parts of the piece. I hope the owner loves it too.

Here's the before & after side-by side.

I mentioned that this would be a test of my skills and it has been. It's been a little energizing even, to the point that after finishing this guy I jumped right into my next project. More on that tomorrow.

~Muninn