Lion Warrior

When I was sculpting this piece, I had an idea in mind of a very majestic lion creature, maybe even a lion creature king, set in a battle scene. I sculpted the body first, putting a lot of effort into the legs, the torso, everything. I'm happy with how it turned out, even though it's a bit bodybuildery: the proportions and the anatomy are what I wanted. I finished sculpting the body itself in the combat pose, with a great sword, but then I got to thinking about clothing and armor. To give a character that majestic look, they usually wear fancy, heavy armor. If I did that, however, it would hide the body I had just worked so hard to make, and I didn't really know how to solve that.

So I compromised. I kept the armor minimal and gave him sandals, a cape, and a very fancy prestige sword. I think the sword and cape somehow symbolize his status and fit a protagonist, but in hindsight, the overall armor design isn't very coherent. The minimal armor and sandals don't really give you that majestic feel. Looking back, that lack of coherency stings my eye a little bit, but it is only a minor detail.

Aside from the armor design, there is another area where I don't think I captured the scene exactly as I wanted to. That mid-action combat sword swing is just too stiff and the movement is missing. I think it's from the spine and legs. Looking at it again, maybe it's also the balance of where the body would be when swinging that heavy sword.

That said, after trying oils for the first time on the Lizard Dragon, I was eager to try more advanced techniques to achieve realism.

I'm proud of my blending work here (disregarding the cape, which is a mess, and the horns). The body itself got some nice blending, and the oils made a significant difference. Layering with acrylics on this figure would have been an endless effort, but it was reasonable (hours to days) with oils.

It is a little pale, which is something to improve, but I was very satisfied with the ability to paint and blend untextured skin. That was a real win for me.

I'm being harsh and discussing what I think are minor details, because overall I think this is one of my best works, in both sculpting and coloring.