PAINTED PROTOTYPE - Ahsoka (Rebels) Holiday minibust for Gentle Giant/DST

Ahsoka Tano (realistic Rebels version) Holiday-themed minibust, 1/6th scale. Prototypes painted for Diamond Select Toys/Gentle Giant, May 2022.

This was my favorite of all the Ahsoka versions I worked on. I love the beautiful portrait sculpt, and I was really happy with my paint of the lekku (head tentacles). For the lekku paint I was inspired by aquatic animals like killer whales, and I used a light grey wash to catch the wrinkles, which was simple, but exactly the effect I was looking for.

It hurt when the minibust was not well received. The fans were particularly unhappy with the colors of the convor (bird creature). Her convor from the show has very tropical coloring, but this was designed as our holiday themed bust, so the art director wanted to go with a snowy-owl type convor look. There are convor from the show with this look, as you can see from the reference in the last photo, it's just not what Her convor looks like.
Our holiday themed busts are hardly ever true to Star Wars canon, but I guess the fans just didn't understand the concept behind it.
I think there was also a lot of confusion for the fans about her face sculpt. This isn't the Ahsoka played by Rosario Dawson, and this isn't a purely animated bust that looks exactly the way she looks in the Rebels show. We have an entire line of minibusts that are realistic interpretations of characters from the animated show. Again, fans just... didn't understand the concept?
It's just sad for me, because I really did like how it turned out. I can't be upset at the fans for not liking it, after all these statues are made to bring joy to them. It's just sad it didn't work out in their eyes.