Much like Mr. Hanna, I've never completed the search for every Stone of Barenziah in Skyrim. While the reward is considerable, it's an incredibly frustrating side quest for a couple of reasons. The biggest being the fact money ceases to be an issue long before you're able to track down all 24 stones.
That said, the stones themselves are really cool. Luckily, that motivated Mr. Hanna to create his own and share this detailed tutorial on making your own.
I love how Ordacraft uses texture in their work. This owl shaman mask is a good example, with the scales and fabric of the actual mask serving as a foundation for the rough natural textures of the horns, primitive beading, and the braided dreads.
The Real Schlitzie returns to our pages with this fantasy trophy mount of a dog-bird-lizard-goblin shark..thing. Click through for a gallery of WIP shots.
Our latest Cthulhu idol comes to us from artist Camilo Aldana. I like how they reproduce the faceted look of chipped stone figure.
Jason Soles of Gods Below returns to our pages with this fetal skull cast in bronze. The perfect macabre paperweight.
After a too long absence, Chris from ChunkaNuke Props returns to our pages with his recreation of the transportalponder from the "Old World Blues" DLC for Fallout: New Vegas. I really appreciate his old school, trash-bashing approach to prop creation. Nothing wrong with 3D printing, of course, but there's something to be said for hand-crafting an item from found objects.
This barbarian shark armor from Arte sul Cuoio is just amazing. There's so much to like here. The layered elements, leather textured like real shark skin, shark's teeth adornments...the theming is perfect.
Artist and propmaker Alexei Andreev brings us...uh...this fleshy thing. It looks like something that should be floating in a jar of formaldehyde.
No, not the necessary acceptance that you're getting older and will
eventually die, but the thought process behind aging and distressing a
prop.
Professional designer George Ledo brings us this insightful discussion about antiquing props.
He's speaking to an audience of stage magicians, but his thoughts on
developing an aging treatment hand in hand with the item's backstory are
equally applicable to Lovecraftian artifacts.
Antiquing isn’t a formula; it’s a concept. That’s a phrase I learned a few years ago when Donna and I attended a class on how to make paella, which is a Spanish seafood dish. One of the first things the instructor said was that there’s no “classical authentic recipe” for paella. Paella is not a recipe: it’s a concept--a traditional way to use rice, and chicken, and chorizo, and locally available seafood, to make a one-course meal for several people.
An effective technique is to think of the object as having a history, and of each part of its history as being a “layer” that can be addressed separately. Although it’s impossible to create a “how to” list about antiquing props, I’m going to show a couple of hypothetical examples of how I would go about doing this, using standard theatrical techniques. This will of course delve into the actual design of the prop, but I’ll focus on the antiquing.
Vulture Productions showing off an amazing Halo ODST armor set, complete with a full load out of weapons.
Sergey Belov of Forest Totem Workshop brings us this patinated Cthulhu idol. Click through for a full gallery of pictures, including closer looks at the interesting detailing of the supporting column.
