Saarlooswolfhound's custom repaints: 3/23/24 Special update!

Thank you so much everyone!

Aww, I love both of them but that photo of crosseyed Buck and his beautiful portrait!

Thank you Kelly. :)

They are creative and lively works!

More wonderful transformations.Besides Buck my fav is the Oryx!!

Thank you so much!

Ah, so many I've missed! That portrait of Buck is wonderful! I'll have to go see the other topic, too, but it looks to be such an exact replication. Love the picture of them together. Buck looks so surprised to see himself so tiny.

That turkey looks like quite an undertaking. I am so impressed with all the little details. That real animal is crazy look, that would be so hard to duplicate perfectly, especially on a tiny model! I think you really go very close, and represented the magnificent color range.

Beautiful work on the antelope and that prehistoric creature whose name I can't hope to remember from back on the other page. I think okapi looks good on everyone!

Missed your comment Jill, thank you!

I have had to take a break from my painting to deal with real life things. I have two more half done, but decided to share this one as it is complete.

When I was about 8 my family moved to Northwestern Oregon. Every morning when my sisters and I would walk to school on our porch there would TONS of banana slugs that could grow to be as large as 6 or 8 inches long! So when I found this china slug I originally wasn't going to do anything with it but then I had this idea...

Before
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A walk through my garden... would a squash make a nice meal? No not ready...
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Perhaps the raspberries? Not until the end of July.
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Oh! A tomato! But it is still green...
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Will have to settle for a pea pod.
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The best part was I showed my mother the photos and she had a small panic attack thinking we had a slug invasion!

very realistic! You were right to repaint it in a banana slug and not in a tomato one!

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

The best part was I showed my mother the photos and she had a small panic attack thinking we had a slug invasion!

I just furthered this experiment by holding the screen up to my own mother, just saying 'Look at this slug' without mentioning what kind of webpage it was on, so she had no clue if I was browsing something wildlife or gardening related.

She peered at the picture, said 'Wow', I scrolled up and showed her another shot, and she said 'I've never seen one like that before'.

I laughed and explained it was a model one someone had painted, and she says 'Well done, tell her well done, that's amazing!'

Thank you Andreas and Alain!

George, special thanks for you and your mom! I shared it later with a few of my sisters and they thought it was real for a moment too. I guess I did the real animal justice.

What a fantastic banana slug- and so so realistic, like others I definitely think it looks alive!

Great photos!! I first wondered why you would take photos of a real slug! Very convincing!

It's always great to see an invertebrate custom, it turned out nicely.

LOVE IT! I've long hoped to see a (real) banana slug one day, and here's the next best thing!

Never in my life have I seen a custom slug, and I didn't realize until now what a shame that is. It's really lovely!! I've actually developed quite an affection for them, because I keep them to feed that Garter Snake at work (which is a bit sad, when I get attached! But the one I collect are an invasive here, so . . . ). They're much cuter than they get credit for, I'm glad to see you've honored that with a little custom. :) It DOES look quite real, especially that first photo!

Late to reply but THANK YOU everyone! I am not a big invertebrate fan but it was actually really fun, albeit simple, to do.

Next few. Taking a month off made me a bit rusty... or maybe it was that these next 3 (last of the trio isn't quite ready yet...) don't have much texture nor detail to work with...

First model is of a species I don't really vibe with. Not that I don't like pandas, they are just one of those animals EVERYONE says they like only because they are "cute" and the person actually knows very little about them...(same with koalas, emperor penguins...). Anyway, I had to repair a hard scrape on the Safari panda cub. I can't easily tell where it was anymore (small fixes and alterations I can do, an original sculptor I am not). The color was inspired by Qizai, the only brown panda in captivity. Apparently he belongs to a subspecies of giant panda only recently recognized in 2005 from the Qinling Shaanxi area of china. Some have been spotted in the wild, but this color is quite rare and little is understood about them.
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Surprisingly he has a black nose despite whatever dilute gene he must have...
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They have such weird paws...
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And a bit more fun, a saber tooth cat cub. Really pleased with the general effect even though my stripes still leave something to be desired from me.
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I love the Qinling panda, been thinking for some time about making one too.

What a wonderful idea to paint this Panda with this rare colouring, I'm sure he'll stand out as one of the only, if not the only, brown pandas on your shelf! I love the overall effect of the cub's painting too, those colours really go well together and it all looks so smooth! He has such a sweet face too!

Thank you both so much for your words. :)

Since I got back into the groove of painting I couldn't make myself stop.

Next is the Bully German Shepherd from their smaller line of dogs. A beat up model from Kostas/spacelab (thank you!) And now repainted into a kelpie herding dog. A little more fluffy than the typical kelpie but I am very excited to have this breed.
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Next we have a nayab(?) Copy(?)... at any rate it is now a peruvian pelican. I had settled on this species because of the feathering on the back of the head and the beautiful coloration months ago. Then my friend Nando came back to this forum and showed one he has repainted! His post gave me the confidence to complete my own model and here it is:
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And last but not least... a kingfisher. I love these birds a lot and it was so hard to choose a species! Wanted to try something a little more colorful and settled on the black backed-/oriental dwarf kingfisher. I am not entirely happy with the result but I worked hard on it and I think it came close to the real thing... at least with my current skill status.
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I hope to prime the next 6 models soon. :)

Ooh, the kingfisher's very prettily done and I recognised the species at once! I especially like the two-tone effect on the flight feathers. Have you used some metallic/pearl to get the sheen or it is all clever paintwork?

I read 'kelpie' in the title and thought you'd gone into fantasy creatures for a moment there, but no, of course there's a dog type too, and very sweet it is!

Qizai! What a good idea to make a unique panda, which is admittedly difficult. I love him and his weird feet.

Perfect adaption of the cub, too. The color scheme for these new customs is my favorite - lots of golden browns and earthy reds!

Wonderful breed choice - we've always thought our dog looked like a kelpie mix, though we don't think he actually is. Great color choice, too. His little pink nose!!

And as always, I am always impressed when people have the patience to achieve bird paintings and customs. All those dad gum feathers! Awesome! LOVE the pelican! Both of them prove a lot of focus and attention to detail.

I didn't know a Qinling panda had such a nose.
All your works are looking wonderful and it is impressive how you got those vibrant colors.

All are beautiful! The dog is instantly recognizable, and the way you got the eyes is especially nice. I'd never heard of the dilute pandas before, although for me they are also not a species on my radar. The bird is lovely, but I truly love what you did with that homely whatsit, turning it into a sabercat cub! The color choice is great, the eyes capture you, altogether a 10! Bravo!