Meet Ember and Phantom Blacklock, steampunk pirates and scourges of the skies over Equilonia!
These are the ponies I did for the Queen of the Sky Frontier campaign.
I would be sorely remiss if I did not point out that there is still one custom pony slot open over at the Indiegogo campaign for Imperial Blood. Head over there and get your own vampire pony!
Ember is tough. She's the pony equivalent of late 30's, and already has some gold in her hair. Her fur's not smooth anymore, her hair isn't as silky as it was, but she's just as beautiful as ever. She's proud but not vain.
Ember was a Pinkie Pie II. She had some paint scuffs and her hair was fried. I cleaned her up and made her even more badass. I rehaired her with Dollyhair Nylon in Cherry Pie, Brilliant Black, and Sunlight.
I wanted her to look messy, a little smoke-stained, but still glamorous and beautiful. Regal, but strong and tough. I think I did okay. The pose really helped. The Diva/Sweetberry pose has so much personality. I did my best to add a little depth to the pure-D vampiness of it.
Then we have her twin brother.
Phantom fusses over his appearance a bit more. He loves his sister more than anything, and though their work often keeps them apart, he treasures the time he has with her.
I love his '80s rocker look.
Phantom started out as a G3 Valenshy. Like his sister, he's rehaired with Dollyhair Nylon in Brilliant Black, Cherry Pie, and Sunlight.
I wanted him to look clever, smart, sassy, a little playful. A bit of a trickster, and definitely proud of himself. I think I did okay. Again, the pose helped a lot. The Valenshy pose is dynamic and lively without being traditionally feminine. Combined with the dark body, I think it looks boyish, even with the gold eyelashes. He's just fabulous.
I drybrushed gold over Phantom's points, giving him a little bit of a fiery sheen. It's very hard to see in pictures but it's quite pronounced in person. It really makes him stand out. Pictures just don't do him justice.
Now, Valenshy comes with a big ol' plastic crystal embedded in the flank, so I dug that out, filled and sanded the irregularities around it, then put a genuine Swarovski in its place. It looks so much better!
I think he has a nicer butt than his sister.
The splash of gold flecks really look kickass against the black. I used real gold leaf flakes for their speckles. I wanted the flecks on their legs to look like sparks rising from their hooves, or sparks flying up through smoke.
And oh, my, they look so naked without their harnesses on!
Isn't she the sweetest thing?
I also used gold leaf on their upper eyelids, and an interference metallic gold paint for the rest of their eyeshadow. Both of them have metallic eyes – I lay down the irises in metallic gold and painted over that with red tinged with that same gold. The effect in person is sort of like a subtle glowing highlight in the bottom of the eye. Again, pictures do not do it justice in any way.
The best picture I got of Phantom's freckles.
His nose was kissed many times.
Red is a color that doesn't cover very well. You need multiple coats to get a smooth finish. Doing it with a brush takes forever and it usually stays pretty streaky. This time I tried something I read about in a tutorial and took makeup wedges and basically sponge-painted them. It looks GREAT, the only drawback is that it left their coats slightly rough, and not perfectly smooth like I like my ponies to be. I'll be trying to find ways to reduce that next time, though I don't know if there is one.
I used the same technique on Phantom to get the fade on his legs and face, and you can see how well that worked. He looks fantastic. You can see the individually-placed gold hairs threaded through their manes here. In the sun, they are dazzling.
And . . . naked again! I wanted them to be obviously related, but to have that opposite-numbers thing going on. Her hair is curly, his is straight, she's red with black, he's black with red. I think they are well-matched.
They look almost airbrushed. I'm proud. I don't have an airbrush and really don't want to have to learn to use one.
The harnesses are marvelous. They are completely removable and close with magnets, not buckles. I am unbelievably pleased with how they came out.
A closer look:
They're very similar to the harness I did for Madame Swallowtail, only they fit the other way around. They close with magnets, not buckles, for a smoother and less bulky look.
All the crystals on the harnesses and on the ponies are real Swarovskis in Siam and Light Siam. People have asked and yes, using real Swarovski stones really makes a difference.
You can't really tell, but the designs are tooled in and then painted.
All of Phantom's "leather" accessories are brown, and all of Ember's are black. The "leather" is EVA foam – craft foam – that's been ironed, shaped, embossed, and painted.
I love the little skull charms I found for the centerpieces! It's hard to see, but they're backed in red to match the backing on the wings.
A one-two shot:
Here you can see how they go on and off. I think they came out incredibly well.
They fold up so neatly!
Their little messenger bags open and close with magnets, and each contains half of a pirate treasure map!
Here's the two halves of the map shown together. It's watercolor pencil on parchment paper. So pretty! I forgot to take a measurement, but the whole thing couldn't have been more than 3" on a side. Each half has a ribbon and a seal.
They also have treasure chests with treasure inside – little stamped polyclay coins and some vase-filler or table-scatter jewels I picked up here and there. Seriously, I made like four hundred little Fimo coins.
The chests were lined with gold glitter paper. Shut uuup.
Ember also has her kitty, Spitfire, because I wanted to send a little something extra to that particular donor. Not that I am not super-grateful to everyone, especially the random drawing pony winner because I got a chance to make TWO FREAKIN' PONIES. But Ember's was a huge donation and I am so grateful, and it helped so much.
So now Ember has Spitfire, who matches her brother's colors. (The kitty is a Littlest Pet Shop kitty I also sponge-painted with a makeup wedge.)
You have probably noticed Ember's horn appearing and disappearing from picture to picture. It's detachable. With magnets. Magnets = so cool.
Anyway, they're quite a couple. I adore all the little details and making all their stuff was so satisfying and fun!
See how sweet they are? They're twins, and love each other more than anything. I actually have a story about them all written up, and which I will post as soon as the campaign is over. (If you like these pictures, throw us five bucks, eh? Shameless leg-humping, I know.)
AND OH HOLY CRAP NOW LET ME TELL YOU THE SAGA OF EMBER'S HAIR.
Here it is, looking pretty good. Slightly messy, big curls.
This is not my first attempt at her hair. Nor is it my second. Or my third.
This was the first time I've ever had something go so catastrophically wrong with a pony that I had to start an entire step over from scratch.
I tested my hair theory on a bait pony with decent hair. I wanted something Black-Widow-y, something shortish and messy and fun, something not high-maintenance. I was worried about the hair fouling in the wings. I got fantastic results just twisting the hair up on itself until it kinked, pinning it in place, running hot water over it, and letting it dry. Presto! Loose, messy waves.
That was what I wanted for Ember.
Hairing took two days, and overnight curing for the glue, then the first curling took another overnight.
What I produced was a pony afro. I mean it. The curls were TINY and super-dense and just . . . oh my god. And it actually looked VERY COOL, but not on her.
I tried to straighten it back out for a whole day, but could only manage to make it look terrible – it honestly looked good when I first took it down – and finally, in a fit of frustration, I sheared it off and started over from scratch.
Two days passed for hairing and the curing of hair glue.
New hair! I took this hair and tried to curl it. A day passed.
I took it down. It looked perfect.
Two days passed. I worked on Phantom. Ember's hair began to fall. The curl stretched out and sagged, and I realized I did not use hot enough water. I straightened it and curled it again. A day passed.
It didn't lay right. It wanted to flop over the wrong side of her face, and was just a mess. The curls were lovely, but they curled the wrong way. I resolved to wind the curls differently next time. I straightened the hair. I curled it again. A day passed.
I took it down. It looked good. I left it alone. The next day I decided – I don't know why I did this – that I needed to put it back in curlers as-is and set the curl again. I do this.
A day passed. I was no longer willing to negotiate with this hair. This hair, however it turned out, had achieved its final form. There was nothing further I could do. I was say your last goodbyes, chairs-on-the-table done with this fucking hair.
It looked pretty good. And still does. It is a bit more unruly than I wanted, but I actually like that about it. I like that it looks like she sort of rolled out of bed, flew off, and commandeered a ship before breakfast. I like that Phantom has his shit together so much more than she does.
So, if you're counting, that's around twelve days for this fucking hair.
I had a nightmare after I finished her that I was taking pictures, put her down to rearrange some stuff, and when I picked her up again, her hair was this awful, matted mess. First pony-hair-related nightmare.
Ugh.
Anyway, that's the saga of her hair. I just had to vent about it.
One more closeup?
And the very last one (yes, I airbrushed out Phantom's neck seam just to see if I could).
And there you have it!
I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Please comment and let me know! I worked really hard on these guys, even managing to get them done despite a creative slump, and am incredibly proud. I think they're possibly the best work I've done, and I sincerely, deeply hope that their new owners are happy with them. Sending them off was hard. It was so freakin' hard. And I don't usually feel that way about the stuff I make. This time . . . I was just a little in love with them.
Don't forget, they each have a little vignette I wrote for them, coming soon! I just want to reach goal on the campaign first. We're at 71% with eight days left to go.
And on that note I'll just point out that I don't do customs on commission, unless you nab a spot in a campaign. Otherwise, you have to wait until I do one, then try to catch it in auction. So if you want a pony, again, there's a slot left over at the Imperial Blood campaign. These ponies will be vampire-themed (read: will probably look slightly goth) with optional fairy wings and/or NSFW attachments. You can pick the colors, and I go nuts with the rest. They won't be any less kickass than Ember and Phantom.
Oh, yeah, feel free to link people here so they can see the ponies, if you know anyone who likes that sort of thing! I would love to show these guys off!
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