How to Make Your Best Drastic Customs

 Originally published August 22, 2016.

Each custom I attempt involves a little more sculpting, both additive and subtractive, than the last.  It is both exciting and challenging to tackle a project a little more complex than anything else you have done, but it's the secret to growth.

This mare has been just that, both exciting because she is my first jumping custom and challenging because her neck presented all sorts of proportion and biomechanical problems.

Drastic customs in general are challenging, and to help you with yours, I'll walk you through some tips with today's post. 

Step 1: Be Fearless & Dive In

Make a plan.  Grab your reference, mark out your cuts and areas to resculpt, and then just dive right in. It's always better to start something and leave it half finished, than to never start at all.

Step 2: Always Be Open To Criticism

Sometimes you can become too focused on your work.  I emphasized the back and spinal position so much that it came as a surprise when fellow hobbyist's pointed out the awkwardness of her neck.  I'm so glad they spoke up and glad I took the time to rework her because, as these next few photos show, she certainly improved.

Step 3: Sometimes References Are Tricky

​Good reference is a must for every custom project, but never trust it blindly. Why? You'll get tunnel visioned, and you'll miss things. I got so caught up with the length of my mare's neck that I never saw the other problems until fellow hobbyists pointed it out.  Even then, it took a while to get past "but it's the exact same length as the reference!" to realize that the problem was actually the shape of the muscles.

Reference is great, but don't get so focused that it leads you astray.

Step 4: It's Okay to Take a Step Back

I often remove things if that's faster than trying to fix it. I've made friends with my Dremel and my sandpaper and I've found that the next attempt is almost always better than the first.

Step 5: Know That Every Project Has Its Growing Pains, and That's OK

Sometimes "ugliness" is part of the process.  I have never rescultped this much of the head (it was almost an original sculpture at this point), so I put on more clay knowing I could always sculpt it down to the correct size later. 

Step 6: Always Check Your Work From Multiple Angles

This is a big one. After all, our works aren't flat. They need to look good from every angle to be realistic. I had a 3D professor constantly remind us of "multiple reads," reminding us to ask ourselves how did our work "read" from multiple angles.  Hold up your custom, spin them around, take photos, whatever you need to do to check proportions and details from all angles.