Friday 30 August 2019

Rainbow Daydream

Rainbow Daydream was my MLP Fair original custom contest entry for 2019, and also one of my favourite customs to date.  I tried a new technique with her, which was great fun, and which I'll definitely be using again.  I don't usually include a lot of progress pictures when I blog about my customs, but in this case I think it's worth doing.

Rainbow Daydream started life as a G3 Styling Rarity.  I started out by painting her face, neck, back, and down her legs white. Over this I painted the pastel rainbow colours that would become her symbols and sealing this paint job.  Then came the fun part: drawing on her symbols with white glue.
Yes, white glue.  Over the course of six sittings I painted glue symbols over all her pastel painted areas.  It took six sittings because a pony is not flat, and wet glue runs.
Once the glue symbols were finally done, I painted the rest of the pony a combination of dark blues and purples.  I had hoped that this darker gradient would be an interesting contrast to the pastel gradients, but a lot of the darker detail was lost behind the pastels.
Finally, I started carefully picking off the white glue to reveal her symbols.  This step alone took about three hours.  Eventually, all her symbols were revealed (and only two minor touch-ups needed!) and the whole paint job sealed.
Her hair was added as the last step, and I decided to do a yarn rehair on her.  This is the first time I've done a yarn rehair on a pony, but somehow it seemed like the correct choice for her look.  I combed out the yarn to give her a fluffier appearance (but not a perfume puff appearance).


I couldn't be happier with how she turned out, and with her second place finish at the Fair.  She received many compliments at the Fair and afterward as well.

Elf

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