The Once and Future King Part 3

After wrapping up the knight and Saxon figures, I returned to my 4th piece for the Crystal Brush Competition, Arthur.  I painted this figure back in December but was stuck on the base.  The figure represents a young Arthur right after he has pulled the sword out of the stone, so I wanted the base to fit that scene.  I checked out some reference material and I also looked up pictures from the Disney movie (why not?).  The main element of the scene would be the stone and anvil, but I wanted a little more to fill up the space.  So I decided to include a banner as well.

These aren't especially tough things to sculpt/create, but my sculpting skills are near zero so it was challenging for me.  To make the anvil I began with some blocks of balsa wood for the basic shape and then used milliput to fill it out and add the rounded shapes.  Same with the stone, a larger block of wood for the volume and then a thin covering of milliput for the rounded edges and some texture.  I took a few attempts on the banner.  The first try was milliput, but I had trouble getting it smooth enough without falling apart.  I also tried cutting it out of plasticard and then using heat for some waves.  But that didn't quite work for me either.  In the end I used some thin brass sheet that would retain its shape when bent.

To paint the banner I went with a red and white color scheme.  In part because it matches colors from the figure, but also because of a story regarding Merlin and a red and white dragon.  So I worked the dragons into the banner along with a sword.  I intentionally kept the details to a minimum so the banner would not draw the eye too much and the figure would remain the focus of the scene.

I initially had the rear of the banner as just a plain white and red... but that seemed a little too boring.  So I added an image of the sword in the stone/anvil and the main quote about the sword.