Surly Drunken Leprechauns

This week's session of D&D Encounters involves one of the great underappreciated D&D monsters: the leprechaun. Mine are going to tower over the PCs' plastic miniatures. They also look inebriated and surly. I would like to point out that I mixed the acrylic paint for the reddish hair myself (red and bronze).




Leprechauns have a long history in the D&D game. Here are some from the AD&D Monster Manual impishly (although the imp is a separate entity all together) slanting the word LEUCROTTA from the corner of a page.

Jabba the Hutt Cupcake Replica

I found an image of a Jabba the Hutt cupcake on Reddit about a month ago and decided to replicate it in clay. I think I missed a few fetid folds around the mouth.

Creatures Newly Born

I spent tonight making more D&D minis, in addition to a flat version of the Johnny Cash-voiced Space Coyote from the Simpsons episode "El viaje misterioso de nuestro Jomer." The miniatures for this evening are wildens, creatures newly born of the Feywild as a response to the intrusion of the Far Realm on the world. I tried several molds for the faces, including Yoda and Nien Nunb, before settling for working out the faces on my own. I like how they came out. I wasn't successful with the bodies and had to resort to using the minotaur eraser mold yet again.

The wilden in the middle is blindfolded because I was trying to use twist ties to hold them up. I realized that they were more likely to destroy the wildens either now or when they're dry so I removed them while the pieces were still malleable.




The three wildens together:




And here we have unicorns.

Key Drama

This is another image of the shamrock key, hung from the wall, without a glare.




This is the oak leaf key, but it appears to have been burnt and chipped in the kiln. Luckily it wasn't a terribly complicated piece to replicate.




The damage up close:

Wererat Wall Hanging

I could probably get away with lying and saying that this is just a painfully cute mouse, but I must be true to myself: it's a wererat modeled on the classic D&D illustration below. I considered painting the nose pink, but I think I'm going to leave it the natural clay color.




Filth fever, anyone?

Umber Hulk Wall Hanging

As far as I know, the umber hulk is a D&D original. It's one of those combination monsters, in this case part nasty bug-faced creature and part bar bouncer, as can be clearly seen from the illustration from the AD&D Monster Manual below.


This is the umber hulk wall hanging. It has two sets of eyes, which can be disorienting to those who look upon it.




The compound eyes are easier to see when the simple eyes are missing:







The original drawing:

Shamrock Key

In this season of D&D Encounters, Beyond the Crystal Cave, four keys are needed to enter the fortress of the main villain Soryth. The keys are a shamrock, an oak leaf, a rose leaf, and a sprig of mistletoe, and this is the first one.




The color of the ultra cheap acrylic paint used is actually called "Shamrock." The picture below shows the color better, but I can't get it to come out without a distracting flash reflection.

Hallucinogenic Edna

This is a hallucinogenic image of Edna Krabappel (not Crandall), Bart Simpson's perpetual fourth grade teacher. In the episode "El viaje misterioso de nuestro Jomer," Homer eats Guatemalan insanity peppers at a chili cook-off and goes on a psychedelic journey. When he looks at the already grotesque Springfieldians while tripping, they appear even more distorted. This is an interpretation of the image of Edna Krabappel in that episode. When she speaks, she sounds like one of the off-screen adults in the animated Charlie Brown films: "Wauh wauh wauh-wauh. Wauh wauhh. Wauhhhh."





As Robert "Sideshow Bob" Underdunk Terwilliger once said, "You only get one chance with Edna Krabappel." I have now had my chance.





An image of Edna from the episode. I thought she needed a sixth eye to make her symmetrical.

Silver and Gold Giraluna

This is the Giraluna, the Dream Queen of Leo Lionni's Parallel Botany. This particular giraluna is a replacement for the one destroyed by my cat. Parallel Botany illustrates a taxon of imaginary plants which can best be described as undead.

Satyr Bulges

These are satyrs for an upcoming D&D Encounters session. The head is from a Jesus action figure. The body is from a minotaur eraser. The eraser does not include an anatomically correct crotch, so I attempted to include a bulge for the sake of mythological correctness. The satyr to the right didn't get a bulge as he was probably out drinking wine when Pan was handing them out.




The crotch of a satyr:




Extra mudmen minions:

Mudmen

This week's session of Beyond the Crystal Cave involves an enchanted pool of mud and a battle with the mudmen that live in it.

There are two types of mudmen in the encounter. These are the worthier opponents - potentially deadly rather than merely annoying.




The other type is the mudman grasper, easily destroyed minions, the function of which is to get in the way, limit movement, and lengthen the encounter rather than pose any serious threat. They're cruder and less well-formed. I actually need 5 of them so I made a few extra, but they may not make it into the kiln before the game on Thursday. That would indeed be unfortunate.




The one in the middle has shiny buttocks.





The scenario immediately reminded me of this scene from Dragon's Lair, the 80s laser disc arcade game animated by Don Bluth.

Partially Finished Six-Pointed Giraluna

This is the Six-Pointed Giraluna to replace the one destroyed by Calvin. I still need to paint the round objects inside.

Evil Clown Outlines

Here are the outlines left on a wooden shelf in my yard from spraying acrylic sealer on Evil Clowns 5 and 4.




Evil Clowns 5 and 4:

Echo Spirit and Spirit Echoes

Session 2 of Beyond the Crystal Cave features an undead creature called the Echo Spirit. There is an illustration of an ethereal knight, but this is how I pictured the Echo Spirit, cupping its hands to make its howl echo throughout the cavern.




The Echo Spirit can summon a series of Spirit Echoes, easily destroyed but potentially annoying undead animates. Here they are, complete with shadows and beige sweatshirt texture.















This is was made from a mold of an object from my post-Halloween shopping spree. It's not meant to be a Spirit Echo.

Hamadryad Boobs

Beyond the Crystal Cave calls for a hamadryad and this is what I came up with. I was imagining her as a tree spirit, so she has a trunk for a body and branch-like arms. I also thought she should have breasts, but the only breast molds I had were for a larger doll. They would have looked small on the doll, but my hamadryad came out well-endowed rather than slender and willowy. Also, her head is from a resin Halloween statue of a witch and everyone knows that witches have fangs.

Evil Clown 5

This is the fifth and I think last of the series of 2011 Evil Clown flats. This one is also partially glazed and partially painted with acrylics. The beige blob on the hat is a circle of tiny skull molds. The face is shaped from a mold of the Misfits fiend/Crimson Ghost logo.




The beige blob of tiny skulls:

Evil Clown 4

This is #4 in the 2011 series of evil clown flats based on the clown bed from the Simpsons episode "Lisa's First Word." By #4, it has mutated considerably from the original image. The inside of the mouth is glossy and reflective because it's Ragnar's Black glaze. The baby faces on the hat are also glazed. The rest is painted with acrylics.



Just to clarify, that was baby faces and not baby feces. I have my limits.

Hateful Eye Ranting

I noticed the two beholders I had on my shelf in the studio gallery were missing. I spent last night and this morning worrying if they had been stolen and what the appropriate course of action would be if they had. Would I be justified in removing all of my work from the gallery? Could I possibly convince the powers that be at the studio to compensate me with two months of free membership? Could I get them to forgive my current $40 clay debt? Would I be obligated to leave the studio entirely? I received a text that the two of them had sold for $30. I'm relieved they weren't stolen, but I'm disappointed that I asked that little for them.

While swimming laps and worrying about the missing beholders, I decided to make an image of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs with the words "Hate Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry."


Beholder 2




Beholder 8: The Hypno-Beholder