What I'm working on right now

Well, I think it's gonna be a long long time til I make creturs of my own design. Commissions got me buried; am I sad? Oh, no, no no! It's a challenge, man! Got a plan: finish all these orders, then make more!

Anyway here's the very beginning of the holiday rush of custom cretur orders, and the reason why there will be no fetured creturs (and also no more commissions) until like March when I finally defeat the monster of a million orders.

Three axolotls in progress! Everybody loves a 'lotl.

And while this was happening, hyenas and pigs were also getting claimed! So here is the beginning of a hyena watercolor, which I just started about an hour ago:

It's gonna be badass because anything with hyenas in it is badass.

Remember this guy?

 Yep, still working on it...

Preview of the chevrotain

This is what I've been working on, among other things:

Just needs some legs, ears, eyes, and a tail... maybe it'll be done by next week.

As for one of those other things I'm working on, I'll post something resembling a preview sometime later this week!

Inching closer

We can rebuild him. We have the technology. Better, stronger, faster.

Next work in progress: Tadarida brasiliensis

African Wild Dog / Painted Dog (Lycaon pictus)

I've got a ton of custom orders this month, somehow. The first and most important is being donated to an organization dedicated to the conservation of Lycaon pictus, the painted dog of Africa, which happens to be my second-favorite African carnivore right after the spotted hyena. Painted Dog Conservation Inc. is holding a fundraiser on April 23 at the Memorial Hall Exhibition Center in Perth, WA, Australia (click here for the Facebook event). If you're anywhere around Perth, I really suggest you go. I was invited by a good friend who is donating a couple of pieces herself, and she makes animal paintings that are worth a plane ticket to Perth to see. If you can't make it, though, I hope you'll consider helping the organization out all the same.

Here is a video about the trade of painted dogs, which considering that there are only about 3,000 of them left in the wild is a huge issue. This is something I wasn't aware of until fairly recently. I want to help out this organization further, so for the month of April, 20% of all my sales will be donated to Painted Dog Conservation.


Um. All I have to show in the way of pictures right now is what I have of the dog so far, which if all goes according to plan will be complete and in Australia within the next three weeks:

A pig and a preview

Introducing the new model of pig, Flying Pig (which sold immediately):

Birth of a kea, part 2

When we last saw our kea, he was a little blob with wings but no beak or legs. Let's move on then!

Some of the photos in this post are taken by my lovely assistant Stevan, and are therefore blurry and terrible, but well-intentioned!

Make and attach the tail in the same fashion as the wings; first I made a flat shape of the darkest color, then poked feather-shaped layers of different colors on top of it. Once it was constructed, I poked it onto the kea's body, adding a bit more of the dark-colored wool to the underside to better blend it.

Birth of a kea, part 1

HOW TO MAKE A KEA. In which I demonstrate my sew-free, sturdy and stable method of attaching non-wool beaks and legs to wool creturs!

First: make the body, out of core wool or batting (it is faster than roving, I think).

More previews, on two different fronts

The alebrije is done! Huzzah! But tomorrow, if weather.com is not lying, will be a much better day to take pictures. So for now I'll just show you the most exciting part:

The teeth are made of these great irregular beads I found. I love the way they look.

While I wait for tomorrow's clouds, I've not been idle. I know I am way behind on the keas. I'm sorry! I've been dyeing wool all day trying to get accurate kea colors and kicking myself for not choosing a solid-colored animal instead. But I'll make it work somehow!

Dyeing notes. Note the stray alebrije sketch and the hoatzin/springhaas drawings showing through from previous pages.

Of these tests drying outside, I can really only use the fourth one for the kea, maybe some of the third. Not that the other two will go unused!

Hyena alebrije preview

Ah, poor little alebrije. If I didn't have two jobs, you'd be done by now.

A preview:

First bit of progress on the hyena alebrije

Good morning! I seem to have taken over the dinner table again.

Springhaas mishaps

Right! So, since you last saw our hero, he was armless and adorable. Trouble is, springhares don't really look like that. They look more like this:

So I made him less vertical, made his ears shorter, his eyes a little less wide, his face flatter and wider, and his feet longer. And gave him little T-Rex arms. Voila!

Then there was the matter of color. I decided to try dyeing him directly. So I applied the dye (Culinary Colors) with a foam brush, and stuck him in the microwave. I was nervous because I wasn't sure hot glue, which I had used for his eyes, was microwave-safe, so I probably didn't bake him as much as I should've.

The result was a sad, soggy, overly fuzzy, blotchy little dude. I gave him another coat and another ride in the microwave, but that didn't really help matters.

Evidently this would not do (or I was just going about it the wrong way, but the microwave-safeness of it made me nervous). So I went and bought myself some nice Corriedale top wool, and dyed it. No hot glue to worry about there, so it came out much nicer colors.

Then I set about applying it to the Springhaas, and learned that applying a top coat of wool is actually much less of a hassle when the under-wool is dyed a similar color, as opposed to white. Less top is required to make it look decent, which means less hours of work and less distortion of the core shape.

And that's where I'm at right now, woo!

Next up: Springhaas

He still needs arms and some color, but I am so happy with the way he looks so far. I'm really hoping the dye job that awaits him doesn't ruin anything. He's already been subjected to a couple of experimental techniques just in the structural side of things.

Pedetes capensis

Pink thing status: saccharine

I generally try, at least in theory, not to go for "cute". I am trying to go for something at least somewhat scientific. The process of making creturs makes me familiar with their structure and details, and I want to transmit to the viewer some of the learning experience of it. The hyenas are kind of forcedly cute because they are so small; details like toes get blurred out in the scale and details like sex organs (fascinating as hyenas' sex organs are) are kind of censored in the spirit of a G rating. But then there's critters like the axolotl, around the cuteness of which there is no way.

Axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) 

Almost there!

This one should be done by tonight, I think. Oh dear I'm late for work.

Further progress on the pink thing.

Can you guess what it is? ENNHH?

Finished hoatzin! And on to the next cretur..

Almost done with the hoatzin

His legs broke, gotta make him new ones.

A progress in a similar direction

Soon: a shop!