Hand Painted By Black UniGryphon
(Kandice Kathleen Zimbleman-Wang)乌独角兽(烏獨角獸)任思麒
Windstone Editions is a company that produces limited amounts of sculptures made by master sculptor M. Peña. The sculptures are used to make molds, then those are used to make copies from the original. These sculptures are hand painted by a team of artists, usually with airbrushing. They are also very distinct by their glass eyes, and their fantasy, mythological, and whimsical themes, as well as the fact that they are all animal sculptures.
The figurines are very valuable, and often go up in value.
After a while, many artists began to crave blank sculptures, so they could paint their own, so the company began producing several lines of sculptures specifically JUST for artists to paint their own.
These Paint-Your-Owns (PYOs) were pretty expensive. So, I'd been wanting some for a LONG time.
I'd 1st heard about these PYOs from my online friend,
Swandog, whom also got a rare limited edition version prototype of the "Kirin" (Japanese Dragonlike Deer-ish Unicorn) 烏獨角麒麟 which has an antler alicorn, instead of a regular horn alicorn.
So, for Christmas, I ended up getting 3 of them!
The 1 I wanted THE MOST was the
Kirin (Japanese Unicorn). So, my spouse got it for me, for Christmas.
I also wanted a
Unicorn (Western European) but THEY SOLD OUT
LITERALLY the day,
to the minuet, my friend was about to purchase it for me. So, he got me the Griffin instead.
You will noticed that I painted all of my figurines dark on a black base. Well I am
Black UniGryphon. I also went with some Purplish colors as well, and painted my Kirin to be similar to a mother of pearl, but I hand painted it to appear that way, since I couldn't get the dark iridescent mother of pearl. I did, however, purchase
REAL nacre which is REAL
mother of pearl, made from real shells and pearls.I has some of that on the white parts.
Also, to note on the Kirin (unicorn) are the hooves.
When I was younger, my grandfather had a horse (named King) and his hooves were black. So, when I grew up drawing horses & unicorns, I always drew all horses and (white) unicorns with BLACK hooves (
or since it was the 1980s, it was the popular Metallic GOLD).
But, when I was a teenager in High school, I found some artists which painted, or illustrated, unicorns that they would paint with ivory white hooves. So, when
BLACK Unicorns became briefly popular in the mid 1990s, I ESPECIALLY liked the look of the
WHITE alicorn (horn) with white hooves on the
Black Unicorns. So, ever since, I do
ALL unicorns with ivory white hooves (and alicorn/horn). It's kinda my signature.
When it came to doing the hooves on the Kirin, I actually redid them several times, so as to be PERFECT, since I was SO
PICKY! I had to scrape them a number of times, to get the old paint off, then repaint several times.
Then, I got a
Winged Wolf.
I was VERY tempted to paint my Wolf white-ish, but when I was lacquering my Griffin & my Kirin, I was so pleased with my results that, I painted the wolf dark also.
I painted the wings (on the wolf) to be inspired by a type of
Song Bird called a "
Starling" in North America. A favorite of mine. Unfortunately, the colors don't show on the camera like the human eye can see. (Plus, it's winter, and I live in the North, so, not enough sunlight at the time I shot the photos.) So, I might try to photograph these again, outside, in the summer.
NOTE:
Now, there's a special note to tell about my paint job. I wanted something totally unique, and close to my inner vision (within my creative mind) so, I began looking up lacquers, and
I found a special lacquer from JAPAN by
Tamiya Color, that shines purple and Green in different angles. I'd never done this before, and had never heard of anyone else doing this.
The lacquer was actually specially formulated for plastic hand modeled, remote control, hobby racing cars' body paint finish.
It was a REALLY good move on my part. I would also like to paint some 2nd versions of the same figurines, in white base colors in the future (if I can ever eventually get to afford doing that).
What's interesting about getting a Windstone Editions' PYO is the company's website, which allows you to upload photos of your painted figurine, for FREE.
Windstone Editions PYO Gallery
I got my own FREE gallery also:
Black UniGryphon's PYO Windstone Editions Gallery
What I also like about the website is that they often allow & encourage their staff artists to paint their own rare sculptures, and sell them on the site frequently.
It's a very lovely company.
If you're thinking about investing in the Windstone Editions PYOs, I would say it's definitely worth it. But, due to the high cost, I would recommend practicing on other figures 1st.
I actually practiced the entire Autumn on Dragons, to be confident enough, and sure enough, to paint my Windstone Editions PYO.
Here are some which I practiced on 1st:
