I was making a couple of customs for my niece and nephew, and decided to base them on Hello Kitty and Pikachu. I looked at this as less customizing than sort of creating 2 "new" platforms to then customize.

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phk_blank_all by another_waver, on Flickr

Pikaiju was ridiculously fun to sculpt. This is actually the second one I did. I created another Pikaiju and 3 different heads for it, before deciding I didn't much like where they were going. I don't have pics of those yet, but I'll try to shoot them tonight and post them here tomorrow. They pretty scary ugly, but you can see the evolution pretty clearly. This is the unpainted one from the comp. Actually, now that I look at it, this was taken before I added the final stuff to the body and arms.


pikaiju_wip by another_waver, on Flickr

And this is the part where I "show you my ass". Big pics to show all my paint flaws. Because there's not much point in asking for crits if I don't show the weak shiz. So without further ado, my ass:


pika02 by another_waver, on Flickr

pika03 by another_waver, on Flickr

pika04 by another_waver, on Flickr

pika05 by another_waver, on Flickr

pika06 by another_waver, on Flickr

The sculpting is Prang DAS Air Dry clay. Ears chopped and moved back and slightly out. I knew I was gonna add some weight here so the ears are screwed into the head so they're solid. Tail is a heavy plastic notebook divider, primed. Anchored on the inside.

Paint was Montana and acrylic. I tried to spray dark orange "against the grain" of the scales, then spray the other direction with my medium yellow. Then just tried to get a bit of pop with some simple highlights. Blacks are all acrylic, with a couple coats of gloss varnish.

I feel the sculpting is much better than the paint. The wings are weak sauce, no doubt. I was embarrassed when I faced Orange Bat in round one. THOSE were wings.

In retrospect, I would have made a few different paint choices. As per a comment in the Battle, I would have added some dark brown to the eyes, and tried to get the white highlights a bit cleaner. I might have created a little more interest with a more contrasting rather than complementary color in place of the orange, maybe a blue-ish or purple-ish hue. And I think I might have done more painting with acrylics. I tend to like what happens there, but I'm usually too afraid to wreck things. The kaiju thing could have been pushed harder by throwing out the Pikachu color scheme and doing a Blue Hawaii or something, but I didn't want to get too crazy as my nephew wouldn't understand what that was all about. I was unsure he'd dig it at all, think it's too weird already, but my sister told me he pronounced it "wicked sick" and said that's good.

On the kaiju topic, my main influence with the sculpt was Brian Flynn's Dokuwashi. I didn't get what I wanted exactly, but if you know the Dokuwashi, you'll probably get what I was trying for.

Okay. Fire away. I got thick skin, little ego, and a hankering to get better at this stuff.

~Mark

Well to be honest..you pointed out anything I would have stated haha..still a bad ass custom man

I'm my own worst critic.

Sculpt looked amazing. Let's start off there.

The colors could be much more clear. They looked amazing when the picture was small, but seeing it bigger, there were a few places you could improve. The color choices weren't off, but rather the cleanness of the colors.

I loved this, it was the one that stood out from the start for me. I was really glad to see it go to the final.

Aside from a little more practice applying the paint, you've got the mad skillz!

I fixed it for you.

Your own critique of the piece was very complete, minus one thing. You should probably do that whole critiquing thing to yourself before you run out of time next time lol.

Great Piece, was this idea just a stroke of genius kind of like a thought bolt or did this develop over time?

The very first idea that this came from was to take 3 platforms, 3" Dunny, 4" Trikky and 7" Munny and turn them into three asian icons--Pikachu, Hello Kitty, and Ultraman, respectively--and then do a themed set of customs that ties all 3 together. The series would of course be called "P HK U". (I love playing with words as much as playing with clay.

With Pikaiju specifically, it sort of came from a few pieces that have been sitting for a bit now... A Boo-Berry, Count Chocula, Frankenberry set that takes it's inspiration from Wacky Packages (did I just date myself there?). Taking "gentrified" monsters and monstering them back up a bit.

Dead on with the running out of time too. Somehow any comp piece seems to expand to fill every second before the deadline. (I stupidly added Pikaiju's wings the day before the entry deadline.)

your sculpting is amazing! i can't fault it...something i'd love to have. the only thing i'd say is applying the paint onto the design. But to me it's just sticking out on the eyes and no where else. Maybe it's because the black is so strong.

All I have to say is the same as everyone else. Sculpt was awesome, paired with an interesting idea. Paint seems rushed, so many places you could have gone back over and cleaned up the edges (most notably on the eyes). One has to be extra precise on the boundaries of light and dark color applications (the black and yellow of the eyes and the black and white with the light reflection dots). Do you still have it? Now that the contest is over and no time restraints, I would go back and clean it up, giving that great sculpt the paint it deserves

Definitely going back to touch him up, with special attention to his eyes.

You know, now that I look at it a little more closely. I think the wings actually detract from the figure, and that it would look better without them. Definitely, post up some pictures after the touch up

Totally agree about the wings--I always seem to have trouble saying "it's done!" and walking away, always thinking "i should try adding (fill in the blank)". And then regretting it. :/

Another of my favorites, I do think the eyes are a bit rushed I find the end of a brush make great eye dots and I do agree that the wings could go.

It's the best way to be. Nice work!

Gahhh, got busy and couldn't get back to this piece (and it's for my nephew who wouldn't care much about tightening it up anyway), but I'm already incorporating the crits into some new pieces, in particular going much more slowly with the brushes to get cleaner lines.