Last of the First Round

I am finally caught up with painting all the miniature adult ball pythons!

First up is the Axanthic Leopard Pastel Spider - Snake Keeper Line. Photo of the morph can be found here. The body was one of the last I sculpted, so his proportions are good. Plus he's in a more "ball" pose, typical of these snakes. His markings were fun to do, even if his pose made some of the painting difficult.

Then I started trying to paint stripes. It's hard enough painting stripes, but when you try and paint stripes onto a sinuous body... I must be mad.

The Gabija was my first try.  It's a gorgeous morph and caught my attention with the stripe down it's back. I'd never seen stripes going that direction on a snake before. Looking back on it now, I went way too fast. Stripes require at least 3-4 hours of time commitment to paint.

Then I tried my hand, and patience, with the Caramel Albino Genetic Stripe. Another pretty snake that has many stripes. I spent more time on this one, but not enough. It's an improvement over the Gabi though.

And finally, the Banana Super Stripe. I gave my viewers on stream a choice between this morph and another Banana morph with stripes. This one won with a vote of 2 to 1. I'm planning on doing the other one in the near future. (Please pardon the dratted cat hair that I missed on the cloth!)

Now that all 10 adult/subadult bodies are painted, I will be making a few more adult bodies but I'll be doing them one at a time. I want to change a few things based on what I learned making the first tries. And I'd like to keep better track of when each one is sculpted. It will make it easier to see improvement over time.

I still have my hatchling experiment to finish up as well. Only one clutch is painted, but won't be completed until I make the egg shell sections. I'll likely focus on the hatchlings this coming week. Hopefully I can show off a successful experiment next weekend. Take care until then!

Moar Sneks!

Or More Snakes for those who don't speak "internet."

Between the holiday and Thursday being mini club day, it was a short streaming week. But I did get four more mini ball python morphs painted.

A little background on python morphs. There are many genes that will breed true and they have names like: Axanthic, Bee, Lesser, Mojave, Disco, Enchi, Ghost, Gravel, Albino... the list really goes on and on. So when you see a morph called Banana Pied Disco, you know that the snake carries genes to be yellow (Banana), piebald, (Pied), and have some interesting patterns and shading (Disco).  There's more to it than that, but that's the basics. If anyone feels like diving into the rabbit hole that is ball python morphs, I suggest this page as an awesome starting point.

First up is "Angry Pretzel Snake." That's his name, not his morph. We (chat and myself) decided the snake in the reference image didn't look happy to be photographed, so the mini was thusly named. The morph is called Ultra Pied.

I'm happier with the paint job than the sculpting I did on his face. He looks like he's smiling. Snakes don't smile. They're the kings and queens of poker face. Ah well. He was one of my earlier sculpts, so I'm not going to complain too much. That's what practice pieces are for.

Then I tried my hand at the Orange Ghost Mojave. I used one of my nesting females for this one.

Again, she's one of my first sculpting attempts, so she's not perfect. By why waste the chance at painting practice? I do like how most of her colors turned out. I think the purples needed to be grayed out more.

Next up was the Albino Black Bee. This snake was the last one I sculpted and it shows. He's much better proportioned than the others.

I'm extremely happy about the way his markings turned out as well. I think he's my best overall at this point.

Finally I painted my other nesting female as an Anxanthic Fire Bee - Snake Keeper Line.

I'm happy with her paint job. There are some changes I'd make if the clay was still raw, but other than that, she's good. Incidentally, this is one of my favorite morphs. Such elegant looking animals!

That's all for now. I need to go attend to things in the real world for a bit. See you all next week!

Snakes and Tomatos

I've been playing with clay all week this week. Lots of fun things to share!

Monday was mass producing tomato and "Not Tomato" teapots.

Tuesday marked the beginning of a new sculpting and painting challenge. 1:12 scale ball pythons! They've taken up the rest of my week for the most part. I've been studying up on the different color morphs being bred into/from captive balls and they're quite numerous and even pretty. Thanks to some advice and education from a friend a fellow streamer, I've found myself down an extensive rabbit hole of information.

On Thursday it became apparent to me that I'd lost my mind. These are 1:12 scale ball python hatchlings! Their eyes are 0.5 mm glass beads. Happily I used beads that were already colored. No painting required!

I briefly detoured from snakes long enough to gather up prizes for a giveaway I held on stream Saturday.  I don't normally stream on Saturdays but this was special to celebrate over 200 followers on my Twitch.tv channel. It was so much fun! Instead of only one giveaway chance, I decided to surprise my viewers with a second chance at a prize. Both the plush elephant and the "Not Tomato" teapot will be off to their new homes next week!

On Saturday's stream I started painting the pythons. First up was a gravid (full of eggs) female piebald morph. I say she's gravid 'cause I made her a bit tubby. It works. Photo reference here.

Next up was a smaller male Super Pastel Lesser. (Snake genetics is weird but fascinating!) I'm not super pleased with how his markings turned out, but given this was only my second attempt at painting these types of markings, it's not bad. No, you're not imagining things. Yes, the snake IS pink! If you'd like to see the photo I used for reference, click here.

That's all for now. It's almost 2 am and I'm still winding down from all the excitement.See you all next weekend. I'll probably have a few more pythons painted. Maybe I'll get to a few other things too. Until next time!

Fuzzy Bunnies

Between the holiday on Monday and Thursday being mini club day, I didn't get much done in the way of streaming or projects. But the three bunny sculpts are no longer "nekkid." This is what they looked like before I added the flocking. The paint was there as a placement guide, not necessarily a color guide.

The grey and white bunny went first. He had the least complex coat. His flocking was cut from DMC 5200, 414, and 415. Some of the colors were blended as I cut.

The seal point bun was next. His flocking was DMC: 5200, 437, and 938. Again, I blended colors as I cut the flocking.

And finally, the mini version of Jackson, my friend's bunny. His flocking colors were cut from DMC: 5200, 433, 434, 801, and 938. All of his brown tones are blends.

Jackson was the hardest to do because he's a mini copy. The other bunnies' coats let me use my imagination. Mini Jackson is now residing with my friend. She loves him, which is what I was hoping for. She didn't know I was sculpting him.

I also made her some mini fat quarter bundles using bits of fabric from quilts she's actually made.

On Friday I managed to squeeze in baking a cake. I"ve made this one before. It's flavored with orange juice and zest throughout. Very delicate flavors and nice on a warm day.

But the rest of my week was spent cleaning. And cleaning is boring, so I shall spare you the details. For now, laundry beckons and I need to figure out what projects to stream this week. See you next Sunday!

Running Late But I'm Here!

Sorry I'm so late posting today. I actually forgot it was Sunday and started piecing some quilt blocks this morning. Then FH went on a 30-mile bike ride and ended up needing me to come and rescue him. ;-)

So over the last week I finished a couple more bunny sculpts and finally made one I was happy with. All three are now painted and waiting to be flocked.

The color patterns for the seal point and grey/white bunnies came from a bunny calendar I had handy. Next up for them: dotting the eyes with gloss varnish and flocking the bodies so they're fuzzy.

I started making the flocking on Friday night and got about a third of the way through before my right index finger went numb. Apparently my scissors handle was too small and resulted in a pinch nerve. It's getting better, but typing is a tad fiddly.

There is an advantage to making my own flocking. I can create "tweeded" colors that are blends to help the fur look more natural. Plus I can get any shade I want, instead of being limited by what's available commercially.

Since these got finished before I started the blog post, I'm including them. Another Twitch streamer is collecting blocks for a Quilt of Valor project. I thought it would be fun to participate, so here's what I came up with.

Counterclockwise, starting at the top left: Single square with appliqued star; bow tie; 9-patch variation; snowball; and a flag. I played around with the flag design to take advantage of the fun fabric designs.

That's all for now. I've got some more sewing to do and I need to work on cutting flocking some more. See you all next week!