This is a sculpture of The Lady of Pain from the Dungeons and Dragons Planescape setting. I wanted to try some patination techniques to corrode some brass and the character is shown as being made from corroded brass, so it seemed like a good plan.
My original attempt is pictured further down the page, but this is a more recent version which is much more detailed. I put together a build log covering the piece and even had some fun creating a CG version of Sigil, the city that The Lady of Pain governs in the Planescape setting.
Here’s my build log.
I’ve made loads of different versions of the character and I’ve slowly improved my technique. They’re made by cutting out pieces of sheet brass to size, soldering them together and then corroding them. The face is made from resin which I sculpted in clay, moulded and then painted to match.
My original attempts weren’t that accurate but as collectors from around the world starting getting in touch asking me to make them versions of the character, I started including more and more detail.
To get it as accurate as possible I traced around the image of the character from the game and then created a template I could use to cut out the brass pieces.
Because the original image has quite alot of shadows it was easy to miss detail around the shape of the blades and the background, so I kept spotting new details to include.
Here’re some pics of my original attempt at the sculpture.
And here’re some of the other versions.
The design’s grown in complexity over the years. It was becoming quite time consuming to cut out all the individual pieces of brass so I created a resin version that was much easier to put together. I can just pour the pieces out in resin now instead of cutting out all the brass pieces.
Of course that does mean I have to paint the corrosion on instead of using chemicals to produce it, so I do still find myself making brass ones occasionally so I can get the genuine corroded look.
This might only be of interest to hardcore Planescape fans such as myself, but one of the pieces I made eventually made it into the hands of Dave Zeb Cook who was one of the primary designers of the game. He confirmed that the original Lady of Pain image was a sculpture rather than a flat image. Robh Ruppel also commented on the thread and said that his wife Cindy sculpted the face and the guys from ‘mapping’ had worked on the blades. I wasn’t sure what he meant, but Colin McComb who was also a designer on the Planescape setting later commented on my blog and said that the this referred to the department who created all the maps from the game.
It was great to be able to speak to some of the original designers and I hope that the original sculpture is still out there somewhere. It’d be great to see it!
Credit to Dana Knutson, the original designer of the Lady of Pain and Cindy and Robh Ruppel, Dave Sutherland, Dennis Kauth, Diesel LaForce, Rob Lazzaretti, Steve Beck. Dave Zeb Cook and Dennis Kauth who were all involved in the creation of the original sculpture used for the Planescape setting.
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