Saturday, April 20, 2013

Wolf, Lioness and the Wildwood

Now that Fantasy Faire is open, you might have spotted a couple of new masks there! As part of my commission spree, Dream Resistance hired me to do a set of three animal masks: a sparrow, a wolf, and a lioness. The sparrow is one of my RFL items this year, but the wolf and lioness, but the wolf and lioness are here to stay. She described the masks as made of leather, for a Game of Thrones roleplay. She wanted them primitively made half masks (rather than the full heads I'm so fond of doing). I found making them too primitive difficult because I just love details, but I think I nailed the rough leather look.

I've been playing with methods of layer blending and found a wonderful balance between color, shading, and roughness I think.  The Lioness mask comes in six colors: black (melanism!) , white (albinism!), ruddy, cream, brown, and golden, which is the one shown. 



If I'm honest, people have been asking for a wolf mask just like this for a while now.  I've started many attempts at them but for some reason simply could never get it looking like a proper wolf, or looking like anything passably decent at all.  Dream's commission gave me the final kick in the pants I needed to push on through my troubles and make it right.  I'm actually really pleased with how it came out.  The wolf has six colors as well: black, gray, brown, mottled (shown), cream and white.

Lastly is a mask that's a bit out of place in this line up.  It's actually a mask I started for my Halloween masquerade and never properly finished, because I hated how lack luster it was.  I liked the structure of it, but I simply couldn't get the texture right.  I gave it as the prize for the best male costume, but after that, didn't feel like facing the struggle to do it justice.  Scrambling for more releases for Fantasy Faire, it suddenly made the top of my list of projects I could finish.

Thank goodness I did, because looking at it now? Dayum.


The Wildwood mask is a rough hewn piece of wood, covered in fractured bark and yet alive with glowing power of the forest.  It has nine colors, with a tintable glow layer that you can customize to be any color.  It's not HUD controlled though, it's just modifiable with a separate object for the glow. You can get some really amazing effects combining different glow colors with the included colors for the mask.

These masks are currently only available at my stall at Fantasy Faire!   After the fair is over, they will be moved to the store on Carnivale and listed on the marketplace.  But don't miss the faire, if you only go to one expo all year, make it this one!

No comments: