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From Sketch to Sculpt: Hobgoblin Thoughts
🕑 Added 2024-12-10 21:26:23 +0000 UTCHello dear Adventurers, Collectors, and Merchants!
I hope you're all enjoying the Malakim!
😊 A few days ago, I was sitting in a restaurant, waiting for my food, and, as usual, I started sketching on the paper placemat. I always do this when I'm waiting. There's something so satisfying about using a ballpoint pen on thick rough paper, it’s the best.
Most of my monthly sets are born like this: me trying to capture the images in my head before they disappear. It’s mostly just lines, curves, and an attempt to capture the attitude of the creature.
This morning I was watching a stain in the dark gym floor, and I saw an Orr'ug with hun barbarian thin mustaches and a fur hat, this happens a lot, haha.
The first thing I sketched this time at the restaurant was an elongated silhouette: a short torso, long limbs, pointy ears, and a sharp nose. Basically, a very long goblin! I love drawing goblins, and the long-legged one was really fun to sketch. In my universe, these are Hobgoblins—thinner and taller gobbos—and I absolutely adore them.
I haven’t worked on Hobgoblins in years, and after the massive effort of last month’s armored and feathered Malakim, I wanted to let myself flow freely with drawing and sculpting. And honestly, I LOVE making goblin faces—it was exactly what I needed to recharge!
The Faldorn forest tribes have been calling for more variety, so I decided to expand the theme by adding these Hobgoblins. Plus, they’ll be fully compatible with the giant spiders mounts from the small Faldorn Goblins (goblin in the picture below, to the left, for size comparison) and the owlbear-like Nightmaulers of the Greatgoblins!
After finishing the sketch, I rushed home because I couldn’t wait to start sculpting. A few strokes, and the face was already there, almost exactly as I’d drawn it. It took a few days to make the full body, but I was thrilled with how the first one turned out.
The challenge with falling in love with a sketch is that you have to respect it. I couldn’t miss the attitude and proportions of the character I’d drawn, even though the sketch was a messy 2D doodle with no sense of 3D structure. I spent four hours just fighting to get the legs right, but eventually, I nailed it.
Afterall the sketch display the hobhoblin from a higher camera, I couldn't recreate exactly the same angles from a front view.
From there, extracting the pieces to prepare a symmetrical version wasn’t too hard: from this stage, I could roughly output a modular figure of the same unit each day. Here, in fact, you can see the Hobgoblin B (the second modular), as I exported it and Dave, our amazing painter, brought him to life!
I like to have yellow/green goblin, and brown/red Hobgoblin. It really works so well!
Thanks, Dave!
I love these creatures. The last time I worked on Hobgoblins, I made boar mounts for them—called Razorbeasts. Looking back, they feel very cartoonish and goofy compared to today’s standards. Many years ago, when I first sculpted them, 3D printers weren’t as advanced, and I didn’t yet have a clear sense of what would translate well after printing, curing, and painting.
Now, with years of experience under my belt, I’m confident I can create much better-looking boar creatures from scratch. When I think of boars, several inspirations come to mind: the wild boars from Princess Mononoke, Ganon in his various incarnation from The Legend of Zelda, and a few other subtle images from here and there, even Pumba (even if he is a warthog).
My style is the product of my passion, expecially as kid, for japanese games and few anime (anyone loves Lodoss War?), combined with my love for the fantasy world, expecially the Lord of the Rings books and the serie of The Elder Scrolls. After many years I started to appreciate the style that naturally was born and how it evolved through thousands of hours of drawing and sculpting.
I also want to play these Hobgoblins in GUILDS, our dynamic card-and-miniatures skirmish game! And to do that, I need boars that live up to our new standards. So, I dedicated a full day—9 hours—to finding the best lines and proportions for this Warhog, and another day of war just for the armor. Honestly, I’m really happy with how it turned out!
I really like the result, and I hope you’re as excited as I am for this release. I needed to relax and sculpt something I truly wanted to make, without overthinking the last few months or the plan ahead.
Sometimes, as artists, we need that to recharge—especially when we don’t take breaks. 😊
See you on our socials!
A big hug,
Andrea
Comments
Artisan Guild
Thanks Jim! Happy you find them useful
Artisan Guild
Of course! And well, we make saddle compatible, so you could put the hero (i'm making an heroic mount) on any other mount we ever made :)
Artisan Guild
Fantastic! I'm literally sculpting the warhammer of the first hero NOW :)
James Wroten
I really like this look! It reminds me of Warcraft trolls. I'm getting ready to start a campaign and am playing a hobgoblin multiclass. I also just happen to be voicing him like a warcraft troll. One with a mount and a warhammer would be perfect
Jim Sørensen
These look really nice. All sneaky and cunning. The modularity of the kits also makes it possible to add even more variety to the smaller goblins. So a double win. Great work as always.
Crafty Kenobi
That so cool, I need some boars for a D&D campaign I'm running lol. Any chance to make the hero ride a giant boar? (I need one for one of the boss encounter). Keep up the great work!
Artisan Guild
Lodoss War is probably my favourite Anime, great aesthetic and old-school fantasy feeling with a japanese tweak! Thank you :)
Artisan Guild
Thanks! I also adore goblinoids!
Artisan Guild
Thank you Arsenio!
Artisan Guild
Thanks for the suggestion :) I'll try something in the future
Artisan Guild
I'm glad to hear that!
M1TTH 01
Yes this is perfect to go along with my Orcs bugbears and goblins. I'm looking forward to this release
Dotai
Your new Hobgoblins are very interesting. I love the paint job. The lanky body sort of reminds me of a skinny Goliath. I do hope you make some Goliath mini's soon, they would be a cool addition to your amazing collection.
Arsenio Gárate Jauffred
Ooooh man these Hobgoblins are awesome! This is how I envision them too, just larger elongated goblins, well done mate!
Christopher Stevens
I love the goblinoid races and hobgoblins are my favorite. The 2 pictured look awesome and I can't wait to see the rest.
Emmalee Stanwood
Lodoss War is by far one of my all time favorite anime. These are already coming along so well! I can't wait to see what you create to go with them 😁❤️⚔️
Artisan Guild
Amazing, I'm happy you like them, and Lodoss War! Seeing Lodoss War after reading The Hobbit book was great as kid
Eric
Lodoss war has got to be one of the best anime of all time. I always dread boar minis but these look beyond great. I can't wait to print them up and add them to my collection. Thanks for being awesome.
Artisan Guild
Thanks for your comment :) I'm preparing some very cool poses for the boars!
Caylon DePalma
This was a great read. Thanks for sharing your passion for the craft with us. I can definitely see the boar god inspiration from Princess Mononoke in the sculpt. We appreciate your creations and gladly pay for them!
Artisan Guild
Thank you so much! :)
Failtruck
Really love these posts talking about your process and where you get your ideas from :)
