Seahorse
In working on a commissioned wedding project, I was inspired to create a seahore sculpture. This build only took a few days, which was nice after working for the dragon over six months and not getting anywhere. This originally started out as part of a mosiac (which will have its own page when its done), and then just took a life of its own.
Originally, I was going to make the nose pointing outward, but it looks better pointed downward. Also, I was trying to build the mosiac studs upward (which is a more common way of building), but the shape looks better with the studs sideways. I was able to get more detail into the flow of the body this way.
The pectoral fins and dorsal fins needed to be thinner than the body, as they tend to be softer-looking than the rest of the fish (a seahorse is a true fish). The pectoral fins were easy with some wedge plates, but the dorsal fin was a bit more complex because I couldn't find the right plates for shape, and a plate on its side isn't symmetrical (studs on one side, but not on the other).
The mosiac also doesn't have an eye on the seahorse because I don't want it to take away from the wedding scene (as it's only the background), but the sculpture needs life. The eye is larger proportionally than you would see on a real seahorse, but I needed to give him personality.
Because seahorses are usually in plants, I wanted to give him some contrast between the green plants and the seahorse. Most seahorses I've seen tend to be in various shades of brown, but there are a lot of photos of yellow seahorses, which make them very bright.
After he was finished, the seahorse could stand on his tail. This doesn't really put the seahorse in any context, because usually you see them swimming in seaplants or coral. The final touches adding some seaplants for the seahorse to hang out in.
I haven't decided if I want to make some coral to go around him, but I might extend on this a bit. If I do, I'll update the page :-)
Some stats: 8.5 inches tall, lots of yellow plates bricks, and my best guessimate is around 500 yellow pieces, and about 50 random plant pieces.
More pictures are available at my Brickshelf folder, including the progress.