Vinyl Figure

To start this Steampunk Megaman figure, I used a simple Creatology vinyl penguin figure. These are similar in size to Color Blanks figures and provide a great blank canvas if you want to get really custom. These vinyl figures also have proportions much like a lot of the 8 and 16 bit video game characters which work great for recreating them.

Sculpting with Polymer Clay

I used some polymer clay to sculpt elements such as the helmet, right arm and parts of the arm cannon. I bake the clay on the figure at a slightly lower temp to prevent warping of the vinyl.

LED Powered Arm Cannon

I took a clip on light’s battery compartment and stripped it down to a very small container and wires. I then soldered on a resistor and smaller LED light. Small plastic gears and miscellaneous other spare parts were added to make the arm cannon more mechanical looking.

Spining Shaft (Power Source) in Chest

For additional effect I added a moving component in the chest of the Steampunk Megaman figure. I took a small electric motor saved from a broken printer and mounted it inside the head of the figure. The shaft of the motor goes down through the neck where I connected, offset and painted broken parts from a motherboard. It creates a great spinning effect. A wire passes through the back to cordless phone battery back, disguised as tanks, that powers the spinning chest shaft. This battery back is removable and rechargeable via a phone base.

Steampunk Megaman video

See a full rotation of the figure in the video below as well as the spinning motion of Steampunk Megaman’s chest.

Just for kicks here’s a picture of Steampunk Megaman and 8 bit Megaman vinyl figures.  Both figures started with the same basic Creatology vinyl figure.

I found this little snow man Color Blanks figure that seem to fit the bill. Once I got started it was a process of adding some polymer clay to his face and feet and putting him in my oven for a first baking. For your viewing pleasure below are some pics of the original snowman Color Blanks figure and the figure once I started applying clay.

The Start of my Color Blanks Leprechaun – A snow man figure!

Sculpting features of the leprechaun onto the snowman Color Blanks figure.

I was recently asked if it is safe to bake these figures and I don’t recommend baking them in the same oven that you cook food in. I bought a used Nuwave (infrared) oven that I cook my figures in. The Nuwave ovens are small, much cheaper than buying a real second oven and will trap any fumes produced by the figure.

With the leprechaun Color Blanks figure, after the first baking I applied base coats of  acrylic paint to the hat, face and body. After the paint was thoroughly dry I sculpted the leprechaun’s jacket and beard. I then took the Color Blanks figure and put it in the oven for a second baking. It is important to note that I cook my figures with acrylic paint as well. As long as the underlying figure does not warp, the paint will hold up to the temperature.

With a few final paint & marker touch-ups, my Color Blanks Leprechaun figure is all set to go. Have a great St. Patty’s day!

The finished leprechaun Color Blanks figure.

This Christmas-inspired Frost Santa Color Blanks figure started as a large snow man with a LED light inside of it. I like RoseArt’s idea of the light-up figures and they look really cool with the pens colored on them as well. In the case of sculpting polymer clay onto the Color Blanks figure, the LED light does not show up well. It either has to be relocated or removed.

To make my Frost Santa Color Blanks figure I took the snow man figure and removed the LED light. Not to worry though, I am definitely saving it for another project. I sculpted some white and red polymer clay onto the snow man and turned it into a Santa Claus figure. After Some light blue and white acrylic paint I added snow flake details with light blue Color Blanks pens. Voila! My Frost Santa Color Blanks Figure is complete and has now joined our huge family of Christmas decorations.

Frost Santa Color Blanks Figure

Thanksgiving cornucopia Color Blanks figure

I started with a figure that had a can body shape. RoseArt was kind enough to send me some really cool and interesting figures to choose from this round and the can inspired me to create a cornucopia Color Blanks figure. I used polymer clay to modify the shape, acrylic paint for some color and Color Blanks pens for some details.

I then stuffed the Cornucopia’s open belly with all kinds of Kawaii style fruit & vegatables sculpted out of polymer clay. My 5 year old daughter who loves scuplting and drawing gave me a hand on this figure and helped sculpt many of the fruits and vegetables.

Thanksgiving cornucopia Color Blanks figure

Little Pumkin Girl Color Blanks Figure

Mix and matching color blanks figures

For this Color Blanks figure, I created a pumpkin hat, ghost balloon, pumpkin vine hair, a black dress and a little decorative pumkin out of polymer clay. She is painted with acrylic paints. The grassy stand is made out of a scrub pad.

This little pumpkin girl Color Blanks figure provides quite a cheerful contrast to my other Halloween Color Blanks. If you haven’t seen my Zombie Color Blanks figure check that out too. Thanks for taking a look!

Zombie Color Blanks Figure

Step One: Creating a Plan for the Color Blanks Figure

The first thing I did was get a mockup of how wanted the figure to look.  In this particular case what I did was pose the figure in the coffin and then take a photograph so I would have an idea of how it would stand and how I would sculpt it more as a composition.  

Egg Head Color Blanks Figure in Coffin

Step Two: Disassembling and Modifying the Figure

As I do with all my figures, one of the earliest things I did in the creation process is take the figure apart and then start making any necessary cuts on the figure. For my zombie Color Blank I wanted to have the eyes glow so I needed to make holes in the eyes to see lights through. This also complimented the sculpting process because  I wanted to have some decay and have it look somewhat skeletonized.

Taking Apart the Color Blanks Figure

I cut the nose hole and eye holes and I also cut out a part of the head where it would have the brain exposed. Doing this also gave me a good area to work inside the head where I would be feeding wires for LED glowing eyes.

Step Three: Polymer Clay Sculpting

Sculpting is always my favorite part of modifying the Color Blanks figures. I really had fun sculpting clay onto the face to make my decaying zombie.  I added little black pieces that were fitted into the eye and nose cavity. There were small holes made in the eye pieces to connect the lights.  

Sculpting the brain that would be exposed out of the broken part of the skull was definitely a tricky part. The brain had to be sculpted larger than the hole and while the clay was soft I bent and place it inside the head.  I then fit it to the location of the opening of the skull as if I was patching it closed. Next I released it from the side of the head and left it free floating when I gave the head a baking in the oven. This way I still had room to work with wiring and then glue the brain up fitted when completing the figure.

sculpting polymer clay on the zombie color blanks figure

Step Four: Paint Base Coating

After items had been cut, reassembled and put back together, it was time to give the zombie a base coating of acrylic paint. The zombie was coated in greens and blues.

Zombie Color Blanks Base Coating

Step Five: Detail Painting and Sculpting of the Hair

I made and attached simple strands of black polymer clay hair after I finished up detail painting highlights and shadows with various acrylics. For the coffin I painted brown and gray acrylic paint and then poured on rubbing alcohol to the still wet paint. This can create various aging and cracking effects in the paint depending on the ratio. It helped to give more of an aged looked to the coffin. The alcohol itself evaporates away. One of the zombie’s arms was cut in half and then a piece of wire and hot glue was added to create bone tissue. For the rotting chest area, I cut a hole in the chest and used hot glue to make exposed ribs.

Zombie Color Blanks Details

Step Six: Wiring Up the LED lights in the Color Blanks Figure

I added a rocker switch to the back of the coffin, added a connector for a 9V battery and some wires to go up to connect the LEDs inside the head. I then assembled the Color Blank Zombie figure back together. The battery was housed inside the coffin. If you are not much for wiring RoseArt has new illuminated Color Blanks figures that come with LEDs that make them glow!

Wiring for Zombie Color Blanks Figure

Finishing Touches

Once the figure was completed, the LEDs were tested and then I took a hot glue gun and started making strands of webbing all over of the coffin. An easy way to do this is to add globs of hot glue to an area and let it cool for a few seconds and then take the glue gun and touch the glue. The glue will stick and allow you to stretch it down to another area. Repeating this process the hot glue will be stringy and will stretch out to create web-like strings.  Thanks for taking a look!

Zombie Color Blanks Figure

Pirate Color Blanks Figure

It occurred to me that I wanted to make this pirate have a companion parrot as well. When I was looking through my figures I noticed that I had mini Color Blanks figures so I selected one for the main pirate figure and a mini Color Blanks figure to be the parrot.

Color Blanks figure and Color Blanks mini figure

The next thing I did was create a sketch of my pirate and his parrot for Talk like a pirate day. I recommend doing this so that you can plan out some of your ideas for sculpting and painting. This also helps you build a material list.

Color Blanks pirate sketch

In my arts and craft supplies I happened to have this little wooden treasure box that still needs be painted and it worked perfect as an accessory to my pirate figure.

With a sketch and Color Blanks figure selected it was time to start disassembling and modifying my figure. I cut off the hands and one of the legs so that I could give my figure a peg leg and a hook for a hand.

Color Blanks figure disassembled

Next it was time to start working on the face. I love sculpting faces! This is where you really have a chance to give your Color Blanks character. Using polymer clay I started sculpting the face, peg leg, boot, hook and coat cuff.

Color Blanks pirate figure starting to take shape

You’ll note from the pictures that I completely filled in the areas with polymer clay where there was originally a pattern of hair on the Color Blanks figure. I also cut off the little cowlick that was on top. This made it easier for me to add a bandana and hat.

Color Blanks Pirate – coat and bandana details

I used speaker wire and polymer clay for the eye patch and some simple craft wire for the earrings. More polymer clay was used to make the pirate’s coat, shirt ruffles and belt. I also found some little skull charms to use in the belt and one that I would later use on the hat. For the facial details, I painted with acrylics.

For the parrot, I removed the ears and tail from the cat figure. I sculpted on some polymer clay to make a beak and more bird-like features and then painted with various colors of acrylic paint to make it look like a little parrot.

On the finished Color Blanks pirate I’ve added a polymer clay hat along with a little cross bones skull charm. The little parrot mini figure was glued to the top of the head. I finished with various other acrylic paint enhancements and some Color Blanks markers to touch up. The treasure box was filled with little plastic beads and then coated with some gold acrylic paint to solidify the treasure inside.

Pirate Color Blanks figure with treasure chest.

Back-to-school Color Blanks Figure

Step 1: Select the Color Blanks figure

The first thing I did was get a general idea in my head of what I wanted to do the Color Blanks figure. Once inspiration struck I went and looked for a figure that best fit my idea.  In this case I used a Halloween themed Color Blank that resembled Frankenstein.

Step 1 – Select a Color Blanks figure

Step 2: Create a sketch of your Color Blanks figure

The next thing I needed to do was sketch the concept that I had in my head. The idea was to take a little character and turn it into a school bus. Popping out of the school bus / head of the figure were all kinds of school items. I also decided to give him a large backpack. I remember riding the bus when I was in school and it seemed like I was always carrying a backpack around with 30 pounds of books. I wanted to exaggerate this a bit with the idea of the huge backpack.

Sketch of Back-to-school Color Blanks Figure

Step 3: Take apart the figure

As with other Color Blanks figures I’ve done in the past, I disassembled and cut the pieces. I then took the pieces and sanded them down to make sure there were no rough edges and everything was relatively smooth.

Step 3: Take apart the figure

Step 4: Paint base colors on the figure

From this point it was a process of painting base coats on the necessary pieces.  I needed to paint most of the character yellow, much like a school bus, so it was important to get as much of it as possible coated and let it dry.

Step 4: Paint base colors on the figure

Step 5: Create a felt-acrylic paint T-shirt

I wanted to make the character a T-shirt and rather than having to bake something directly on the character I went with a different technique to create one.  I cut little pieces of felt and shaped them into a shirt. I dipped the pieces of felt into white acrylic paint and laid them onto areas of the figure almost in the same manner that you would with paper-mâché.  After I had the coated felt positioned correctly, I reassembled the Color Blanks figure and let it dry.

Step 5: Create a felt-acrylic paint T-shirt

Step 6: Select Eyes and Ink Details

While the main figure was drying I selected various sizes of Wiggly eyes to be used for the character as well as some extra ones that would be painted to create the lights of the school bus. After these were dry I glued them to the figure and starting inking lines using the Color Blanks pens.

Step 6: Select Eyes and Ink Details on the Color Blanks figure

Step 7: Hot glue some school supplies to the figure

Next after some more touch up painting and assembly of the head to the body, I took a variety of small craft letters and school themed buttons and started assembly of them in and on the head.

Step 7: Hot glue some school supplies to the Color Blanks figure

Step 8: Make a backpack for the Color Blanks figure

While some of the hot glue cooled I started to create a backpack and a pencil out of polymer clay. The straps of the backpack were actually made of some left over ground wire that I had.  After baking the backpack I hot glued it along with the straps to the Color Blanks figure. I then did touch ups with paint.

Step 8: Make a backpack for the Color Blanks figure

Step 9: Final touchups and a Color Blanks photo shoot

After a couple more touchups, a photo shoot and some post work in Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator, here is the final back-to-school Color Blanks figure below.

Back-to-school Color Blanks Figure

Free PDF download

For your convenience you can download the below Ladybug Color Blanks Tutorial as a printable PDF guide to aid you in creating your own custom Color Blanks. 

 Download – Color Blanks Tutorial (PDF) – 1.68mb 

For this ladybug Color Blanks figure I went with the vehicle set.  It comes with a little car, a figure, some stickers, and four pens. The little white car and the figure offer a great palette to let your imagination go wild. The Color Blanks package suggests ideas such as a racing theme but I had something very different in mind. This is the great thing about these little vinyl figures; that you can create virtually anything you want with them. The sky’s the limit!

Color Blanks Ladybug figure at the beach!

Color Blanks Vehicle Set

Step 1: Plan your Color Blanks Figure

I started by creating a sketch of the figure that I wanted to have.  The figure set comes with a paper that you can sketch your ideas on or you can download printable templates from colorblanks.com and create a plan for your figures with those. I’ve been drawing all my life and prefer to draw my ideas in a sketch book. When I was all done with my sketch I created a little ladybug and a ladybug car. Two very significant changes I made to the figures were changing the car into a convertible and the ladybug had a different shape head than the color blank.

Color Blanks ladybug sketch

Step 2: Disassemble and modify pieces

Once I started working with the figure I disassembled its pieces, which always makes painting, modifying, and adding clay easier. I then needed to make necessary cuts to the figure or in this case to the car. I cut the roof off the car and basically turned the windshield into a small windshield that the Color Blank could see over. This also seemed more functional to me as I could stick my figure in the car. After the rough cuts with an X-Acto knife, I sanded the edges.  The vinyl holds up well to sanding with any desired grain sandpaper.

Disassembling and modifying Color Blanks

Step 3: Base Color Painting

The next thing that I did was paint any items I could with a base coat of the final color that they would have. Even though the head wasn’t properly sculpted yet it was much easier to have a coating of the skin color underneath the sculpted area to save time on detail painting.  Also getting the car and various body parts colored so that they could dry while I sculpted saved me a lot of time!

Starting to paint base coats on the Color Blanks

Step 4: Sculpt Polymer Clay Modifications

I took polymer clay to sculpt modifications to the tires making them round instead of marshmallow shaped. I used craft wire to create antennas for the ladybug and car. The tricky part here is the pieces have to be baked and the vinyl does not hold up to the heat really well. Polymer Clay recommends being baked at 275° but you will end up with severely warped figures if you do that. I usually bake my figures at about 240° or just the necessary pieces for a slightly longer period of time.

Adding Polymer clay to Color Blanks

Step 5: Assemble, Touch-up and Photograph!

After all the pieces were baked and assembled I did some final paint touchups and photographed my ladybug on some colored card stock. I did some post work in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to add in a beach scene. Now this little ladybug Color Blanks figure is ready to cruise by the beach!

Color Blanks Ladybug figure at the beach!

Breath of Fire 4 Ryu Custom Creatology Vinyl Figure

I like working with RoseArt’s Color Blanks but these vinyl figures are a good alternative if you can’t get your hands on any. The Creatology penguin figure that I used from Michael’s has a comparable thickness of material to a Color Blanks vinyl and was easy to modify.

Vinyl Penguin figure from Creatology

I based my custom vinyl figure off of the incarnation of Ryu from Breath of Fire 4.  If you’re familiar with the Breath of Fire series on Nintendo and Playstation, this is the main character and each game has a different variation of him with key similarities but a different back story.

Ryu from Breath of Fire 4 on Playstation – Reference Artwork

To start my custom modification of Ryu I took the Creatology penguin figure and I modified him by removing the beak with an X-acto knife. I then added polymer clay to make a nose and ears. After finishing the resculpt of the head I baked it at a low setting; approximately 245 degrees.

The next step was to paint the base color of the skin and then start sculpting hair, clothing, and his sword. In order to make the sword more stable I inserted a piece of small metal wire into the hand and arm area before sculpting a polymer clay sword around it. After another baking of the custom vinyl Breath of Fire figure I finished it off with more paint details and added some additional touchups with my Micron pens. Check out the finished figure below!

If you have a Michaels store in your area you may consider picking up some Creatology figures there. As an alternative I would definitely consider going and getting some of Rose Art’s color blanks and doing some custom vinyl sculpts yourself!

Breath of Fire 4 Ryu Custom Creatology Vinyl Figure

Breath of Fire 4 Ryu Custom Creatology Vinyl Figure