Saturday, April 12, 2014

Commission Work: Lady Inquisitor

Hi folks! Here's my latest creation, Lady Inquisitor of Ordo Xenos. I introduced this project to you in one of my previous posts in a form of a sketch, but after that I kept the process pretty much in the dark.

Here she now stands, proud and noble, armed to teeth with Xenos weapons of different origin, in her well-travelled and battle worn dress and tight corset-like body glove armour. She carries a small power generator on her back which is connected to a strange weapon of two tentacle-like needles. Capsules of different size and shape, filled liquids and poisons of different sort, stick out of her back like dark flowers. Her head is shaven (something nobles of her kind might do to show off their caste in where she comes from). She's very self-assured and knows what she wants. You can only guess what her entourage would look like...




The original sketch of the Lady Inquisitor (pencil on paper, edited in Photoshop)

It took me good three months to finish her. I kept pushing the project forward with small but sure steps, putting an hour in to it every now and then. The process wasn't all sing and sunshine as I did have some set-backs on the road. Just when I had one piece ready and sculpted, the other parts looked odd or off-place. I had to sculpt the dress twice as I wasn't satisfied by the way it looked like. It was way too light build and was sculpted to look too rough and unnatural.

She also had her head swapped once. The first one was Slaaneshi Daemonette's but I didn't like it that much so decided to get one from the Dark Elf Sorceress. The new head was much better, more femine. But there was a new problem to be solved; her mouth. The original head had it's mouth wide open, like if she was roaring out some loud commands or something. It really didn't fit in as her body language spoke very much different language – very static and noble. So to solve this new problem I had to cut off her jaw and re-sculpt the whole lower part of her head, to make her look more like in the sketch. No easy task for me as I'm used to sculpt ugly men with rough shapes. But I think I managed to pull it off.

Her colours – as so often in my case – are very much in the style of Blanchitsu; reds, oranges and dirty white. She actually blends in the Rogues Malus and could very well be one of them. I gave an extra effort to her face as I wanted it to be perfect. Painted the damn eyes three times to make them look the way I wanted to – piercing and precise! When the head piece was done, the rest of the painting went like clockwork.

Hope you like the outcome as much I liked making the piece! Now it is time to look for a suitable package for her to make her journey to Spain safe... Adiós!

- Kari

28 comments:

  1. Great stuff! Very creative.

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  2. Gorgeously creepy. Love it.

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  3. Yet another great piece! I'm sure the owner will be incredibly happy to have it in their collection!

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  4. You make a Ab-so-lu-tly amazing work !
    I've seen some of your production on facebook, and i'm very glad to find your blog now

    Love the color choice and the texture work..Directly on my blog list !

    Cheers
    Andrew from drew ink and painting

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    1. Thanks Andrew! Glad to see you around here too :) You've got some pretty cool stuff in your blog too!

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  5. Excellent work, again.

    A very convincing design, stunningly executed. She also looks very delicate, as she is mounted on a regular 25mm base, I assume?

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    1. Thanks JimmuGrill! Indeed, she's standing on a regular 25mm base!

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  6. You have managed to exceed even your sketch of the model. Capturing the themes in it, but adding to them and developing them. The nobility of her is striking, and really accentuated by her shaved head and calm demeanor (your sculpting skills have advanced tremendously). I like how exceedingly tall you made her, emphasizing that in all elements of the model, but not falling for making her weapons over-sized, which would have detracted from the model as a whole. Excellent! The owner is certain to be very pleased!

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    1. Cheers mate! To tell you the truth, she's VERY tall, even taller than the true scale Red Corsair that I made... But that makes her look even more bad-ass :D Her stilettos are murderous...

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  7. Lovely stuff as always mate. Inspired sketch, sculpt and paint work. great job on the face too - it's perfect!

    Cheers,
    CMDante

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    1. Thank you, Andrew! You've been keeping a low profile for a while... Are you working on with the next GD entry or two perhaps? ;)

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  8. Like I said elsewhere, simply stunning! I also agree with Eric Wier above: This is one of the ultra-rare cases where the model actually improves on an already stellar concept drawing!

    It's a little embarrassing to admit this, but I was kinda relieved that the rather ...prominent nipples appearing in the sketch aren't present in the final model -- it feels like the model would have been let down by the inclusion of an element like that.

    Erm, back to less touchy subjects, though: The owner should be super happy (which I am sure he is). I also hope he's paying for this model through his teeth, though: I know I'd rather shoot myself in the foot than send the model to someone else if I had managed to come up with something as amazing as this ;)

    It'll be hard to one-up this latest creation, but I am confident you'll manage to blow us away again with your next creation, Kari!

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    1. Thanks mate! Yeah, the nipples were way off the radar. I must admit, I do feel little sad to let her off my hands. But when I start the next project, I'm sure the feeling passes... :)

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  9. Incredible work! After seeing your concept sketch a while back, I was very anxious to see what you would come up with model-wise. As some have mentioned earlier, I think model improves on the sketch. The model retains many of the weird and esoteric elements, while taking on a more realistic and human tone. Your efforts with her face were well worth the toil; it looks stunning!

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    1. Thanks Adam! I'll upload some close-ups of her in a day or so...

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  10. So beautiful! I think I'm in love :)

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  11. Excellent work, and I wonder what sort of retinue she might have...

    The red of the body glove is particularly good I think.

    What is the next project you have going?

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    1. Thanks Lasgunpacker! I'm finishing a pack of three Arcos tonight and after that I might slowly get back to those Red Corsairs...

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