Painting
/See more painted stuff on my sculpting page.
Droids
I custom-painted Chopper (from Star Wars Rebels) and LO-LA59 (from Kenobi), and built and painted BD-1 (from the game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order).
Chopper was just a matter of adding accurate colors and weathering. LO-LA59 was painted to match the main outfit that little Princess Leia wears in Kenobi.
BD-1 was more complicated. Parts of this model came unassembled and unpainted. It had been designed to be glued together to sit on a desk. I wanted the end product to have a weathered paint job, articulated joints and sound, so there was a lot of experimentation before I could paint.
FUNKO POPPY LI
Paint was only part of the process to cobble together a custom Funko Pop of the character Poppy Li from the Apple TV+ show Mythic Quest. I go into detail on her page.
How to Train Your Dragon
2018 was the Year of the Dragon for us. The movies, graphic novels and TV series in particular are rich with icons and images that beg to be painted, so I did. My daughter loves mobiles - and this one practically painted itself.
I started with a blank 10” wooden disc and painted the symbol from the Book of Dragons onto a brownish background approximating the look of leather. Then I chose 22 images that would look good on the mobile and painted them onto blank 3” discs. They are Viking shield designs, dragon class types, shoulder and belt armor, and amulets.
Boxes
ART OF THE ARTIST
My daughter really loves the character Sabine Wren from the TV series Star Wars Rebels. I covered a box with symbols from Sabine’s Mandalorian uniform: the helmet on top, her shoulder armor on the sides, and the rebel symbol on the front. (And the white loth-cat, because it absolutely had to be there.) It was especially fun, given that Sabine is the artist of the crew and painted all of her armor herself.
CAGE-FREE IF NOT ORGANIC
My daughter loved the Jan Brett book The Easter Egg when she was little. I painted a set of nesting eggs in the style of some of the eggs and textures in the book. And there’s a robin. (Spoiler alert.)
RIVER HILLS
I painted two nesting boxes about 20 years ago for my brother from photos he took of the house we grew up in and the view from its garden.
FURNITURE
MOLLY’S CHAIR
For my little niece one year, I painted a chair with a Winnie-the-Pooh theme.
MINNA’S CHEST
We had a wooden chest that had been made for my great-great-aunt in New Mexico. It was stained so dark that the amazing detail that had been hand-carved into it was nearly invisible. Although the preservationist in me did cringe, I went ahead and painted the trunk in traditional southwestern colors and I really love it.
JAY’S FOOTSTOOL
My brother has a fondness for the Tetons, so that’s what I painted.
THINGS THAT HANG ON WALLS
HEIGHT CHART
I made a height chart for my daughter when she was about three feet tall. She’s always had a thing for anything medieval, an interest that has only grown stronger years later as she now soars past five feet.
THE OTHER HEIGHT CHART
I also made one for my nieces depicting New England birds on a birch tree.
YOU HAD TOO MANY MIRRORS ANYWAY, NARCISSUS
The ne’er-do-well bagpiper boyfriend for whom I painted this mirror nearly 20 years ago had the misfortune to dump me just before I was about to give it to him, so I got to keep it.
Star wars
QUADNOCS
Properly weathered props are essential to any Star Wars cosplay, so for our upcoming trip to Disneyland, I took a cheap broken pair of Stormtrooper binoculars and repainted/weathered it to go better with my Rebel Alliance costume.
Hand Fans
I attend a lot of Renaissance and medieval faires. Doing so whilst wearing eight yards of wool or linen skirts and a corset makes one rawther hot, so I got good at the decoration and use of hand fans. The first two are the one I use now and the one I used until it fell apart about ten years ago; the latter two I gave to friends.
