House Exco farewell momentoes

WARNING: MANY MANY PICTURES.

Hey guys!
As you would know, the House Exco seniors have stepped down already.

We thought of giving gift bags to... well... ourselves
So I decided to chip in and make something for the house exco gang... just to thank them for their company and guidance

Here are my thought processes:

Well, the house exco key chains are supposed resemble these characters above
If you can recall, I actually created the Griffin character before but since I'm making presents for the whole Exco, I decided to design 3 more characters: Pegasus, Dragon and Phoenix to complement the Griffin. I wanted a cute look so I made them look like children... childhood friends perhaps?

Here are a few sketches of the characters. I was exploring with the relative sizes of the characters and the details of each character.

Colour exploration of the phoenix

... AND the other characters.

Like before I decided to explore with different kinds of dragons characters... but if you noticed as I progressed to the other characters, I come up with less and less character designs... uhhh... ooops? Artist block?

Eventually I decided on a nerdy and pampered looking dragon with a cloud for a sweater. Griffin loves to bully him =D

Dragon designs part 2

Phoenix designs. I was going for a girly design but I didn't want to go TOO far so I added in a slightly tomboyish element.

One of my favourite designs, Pegasus with hips in trackpants and Dr. Marten boots. Adventurous much?

I was coming up with designs for the gift. I decided that keychains would be a good gift so I came up with a sculpture of the characters, a laminated caricature of the fellow CCA members and a jigsaw puzzle for each of them. When all the 16 jigsaw puzzles are put together, a phrase will be formed. I have the design with me but I won't be posting it up until we get together to form the phrase. =D

Here of the designs of the sculptures. I wanted to incorporate the initials of my fellow CCA members' names and the 4 characters.

I didn't think that the laminated characters were practical (especially with my schedule) so I scrapped that idea.

I did up some sketches though of some of my friends... could you guess who they are?

Okay, So here I was starting off with the body of the scultures. I seperated the characters from the initials.

Close up of characters' bodies

Close up of the letter 'R'

Dragon sculptures, each with a different pose.

All that I sculpted for that day.

I know what you are thinking: 'The dragons don't look like the one in the sketches' Uhh... well, I realise with air-dry clay, it is very hard to sculpt in the details without the clay figure drying up.

I tried using the wire body to help me, but it only hindered my progress.

Failed creation #1!
WHOOTS.
Failure means I'm on my way to success right?

Then comes the phoenix sculptures! Everything went well, except for the legs.

YEESH.
The wires definitely did not help.
Failed Creation #2

What I did for that day.

Not forgeting Pegasus! I know they look fat and that they lack the long hair I showed in the sketch but its due to sculpting limitations... I mean COME ON! The long hair may just break if the sculpture were to be dropped.

The third Phoenix. See the details? Like the fingers?

The FAILURES.
Failure creation #3
Mostly due to the clay drying up too fast before I could add in more details.

I was trying to experiment on how the characters were supposed to stick to the alphabets but then I realised that the letters may be too thin to support the respective characters. So, sad to say, I had to change my direction.

Hmph. POSERS.
XD
Kidding lah.

So... I sculpted heads instead. Its a much simpler to make and still represented the 4 characters.

CLOSE UP! =D
(If you were wondering why the clay is tinted red, its due to the blood and sweat I put in making these keychains... HAHAH whatever. But seriously, its just a camera feature)

The crowd of heads

Close up of the dragon head

The whole gang WITHOUT the red tint.

Then comes painting!
I used acrylic paint for the heads. Took alot of time to paint the many coats of paint on the heads. But it was worth it.

Phoenix head details

Dragon heads fully detailed

So are the pegasus heads

Eh... Griffin heads almost completed...

You didn't think I forgotten about the initials did you?

Branded: House Exco.

So... I heard you were triplets?

Eh... Not exactly...

You know... you gotta admit, After looking at them long enough, they look kinda creepy smiling like that.

Phoenix having a little gossip session
OR...
2 Phoenix heads wondering why their fellow phoenix head resting on its beak.

Details of the back.
Flaming pigtails FTW!

What are YOU looking at, bub?
OH NO.
I'm not falling for the big eye routine...

I MEAN IT.

House sharing session...
Or just a group photo.

Here are the initials with the jigsaw puzzle pieces I printed, cut out and backed with cardboard.

Another CLOSE UP!

Here comes the fun part... GLAZING!
Makes it all shiny, waterproof... shiny!

The full package: The character head (Fully painted and glazed), the initial and the jigsaw puzzle

Full PARTAY! WHOOTS!
Looks nice as wallpaper eh?

Another shot

Us Griffin Seniors decided to give a parting gift to each of our Griffin juniors so here is my contribution: A rather large griffin hugging the juniors. =D

I used cards for this gift. By using a penknife, I cut out the shape of the arms so I can slip the characters in, so as to make it look as if the Griffin was actually hugging them.

What do you know. Another CLOSE UP!

So here we come to the end.

If you read the whole entry... then good for you! I'm so proud of you! =D

Anyway, if you want to comment on anything, feel free to comment.

Please and thank you!