2013 Art Summary

2013 was a very interesting year for me art-wise.  I sold at my biggest convention ever in March(Megacon), and then took a step away from convention going almost completely.  I did great at Megacon, and enjoyed going to conventions to a degree, however I decided it was not really the direction I wanted to go with my art.  I wanted to focus on larger and more detailed pieces, as well as get a chance to work on more commissioned sculptures.  With more time to focus on each piece instead of rushing to get things ready for a convention, I do think the quality of my sculptures improved significantly last year!

January( fav.me/d5stq4a )- I started the year off with a bang when I got commissioned to sculpt two of my most favorite Pokemon!  I put my all into these two, and they remain my favorite pieces that I have done up to this point.

February( fav.me/d5uqkvt )- I was a little intimidated to work on Teemo, as League of Legend characters are full of wonderful details and I didn't want to leave anything out.  I learned a ton of new techniques on this guy, and it really paid off.  I was blown away to receive my first Daily Deviation on this piece!

March( fav.me/d6255ah )- I didn't do a whole lot of sculpting in March as most of my time was spent finishing little pieces for Megacon.  Toph was a piece that I had been working off and on for a few months, and finally finished in time for Megacon.  She is unique in that she was modified from a pre-existing figurine.  It was a fun little adventure creating her.

April( fav.me/d66y13n )- April was a tough month as I was dealing with a bad flare up of my neck and shoulder pain.  Technically the Spoink and Grumpig sculptures weren't finished until early May, but the majority of work on them was done near the end of April.  

May( fav.me/d66p5ak )- My first wedding cake topper commission, and such a cute and unique one at that!  This piece was a bit more difficult than I had expected, I am not nearly as good at flat angular shapes!

June( fav.me/d6cjo29 )- One of my proudest moments last year was being commissioned by a published book author to sculpt some of the characters from his book series.  Myn the dragon was the first piece I did, and I had so much fun with her!  It was also my first adventure into sculpting a winged creature of that size, I learned a lot from this sculpture.

July( fav.me/d6e0q6r )- I spent a lot of July preparing for the only other convention I attended last year, which was Megaplex.  My pop-out bottle cap sculptures got a huge revamp this year, which allowed me to create characters with much more personality and accuracy.  

August( fav.me/d6tzpuj )- One of my only human character sculptures this year, this piece was quite a challenge!  It was just such a cute idea, though, I couldn't pass it up.  My humans still need a lot of work, but this sculpture definitely helped push me closer to the right direction.

September( fav.me/d6my69c )- This month marks my adventure into resin casting, which has opened up a whole new world of options and projects for me!  My pop-out sculptures lend themselves very nicely to resin casts, and I have had fun creating all sorts of different critters.  I still have tons to learn on creating proper molds and casts, which I imagine I will be exploring more this year.

October( fav.me/d6tzptv )- I got a lot of interest in custom pet pop-outs this month, so much of it was spend creating these doggy bottle cap sculptures. 

November( fav.me/d6u7wiy )- The other piece I did for the book author, this one was definitely a challenge!  I focused a lot on the pose and trying to make sure the human-like body looked right.  Some other big challenges for me were sculpting realistic looking clothing, and hands with individual fingers.

December( fav.me/d7074ud )- A cute and unusual sculpture request!  I decided to try for a sort of realistic look, and spent a lot of time on the fur texture and painting techniques.

All in all it was a pretty neat year.  There are a few things I would like to focus on more this year.  I need to work on speeding up my sculpting process, I spent a lot of time on detail work last year, however my sculpting speed suffered terribly.  I would also like to take some time here and there for personal pieces.  Last year I was so busy working on commissions(which is not the worst problem to have!), that I didn't have time to make barely a single piece for myself!  Other goals I have for this year are creating more resin casts, and focusing on the character and personality of my sculptures.  

A huge thank you to everyone that has stuck with me through the years, as well as to all the newcomers!  I hope to continue improving each year, and be able to share even more fun sculptures with everyone!

Etsy Shop: www.etsy.com/shop/LeiliaK
Commission Info: fav.me/d3n177o
Instagram: instagram.com/leiliaclay
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