Snow Wraith (How to Train your Dragon)

One TV series I have really enjoyed and admired for the past couple of years is the How to Train your Dragon series, recently released on Netflix (June 24th). As I "binge watched" all the episodes, I couldn't help but admire the beauty and animation of the dragons; especially the Snow Wraith. I decided to make a real life model of one for the fun challenge.

A lot of thought went into creating it, the cost, what materials to use, and how to capture the effect that it came from an ice environment without ice. I also decided on making it as a head mount (similar to ones hunters collect like deer, bison, .etc).

Materials: One hard decision was whether to use fur (which I typically use) or fake leather, like a real dragon's skin. I evaluated a variety of samples. After thinking for a while I decided to use fur since it has a cleaner look and no seams and has a perfect overall soft look. The "bubbly fur" was a bit risky but ended up working very well to give a scaly effect,

Details: While creating the piece I studied the photos very closely and drew some concept pictures. That influenced my decision on how many layers of "skin" would be around the eye. I ended up with one layer on top and two on the bottom which helped give the eyes a squinting effect (since vision is very limited in blizzards). I also used my airbrush to give more depth and personality to the head. One final detail that I am very please with was the effect that sparkly glitter felt gave. It's purpose was to give a glimmer effect the way real ice sometimes does. Using it around the mouth helped the mouth stand out even more.

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  Ice Dragon (Large)

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  P1020524 (Large)

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  P1020513 (Large)

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  P1020521 (Large)

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  P1020513 (Small)

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  P1020518 (Small)

Technique: For the underlying structure I used PVC pipe, a Styrofoam ball, foam, and lots of hot glue, One new technique I used was encasing a piece of wire between two pieces of felt, allowing the felt to bend but keep its shape and reinforcing it.

Conclusion: As always I learned some new things and am very happy with how it turned out.