The brief was for a design that combines a bear, a unicorn and a cupcake. In addition to basic internet research I also solicited some design and color ideas from the Midjourney image generation AI.

After initial sketches to confirm the broad direction for the project I developed rough 3D models at scale to explore the physical space and final size. It’s important to gauge the impact of the design at scale. In the initial pass everything was too small. By the final sculpture I’ve determined that I can make eyes, nose and toes read by exaggerating them. I printed samples on an AnyCubic resin printer in water washable resin.

Painting was the most challenging part of the process. Attempts to paint a solid version of the model proved impossible in the absence of telekinetically sensitive brush fibers. Ultimately I split the model into tiny keyed parts and it was well worth the effort.