MOC: Victorious Tiyan

 This character build was a comission work. She is Tiyan Jolkai, a spirited Saayequtai girl from Laura Luotola's book Suoja - Kaupungit ja paluu (The Sphere - The Cities and Return). The creation is based mostly on the book description, with some inspiration from Päivi Hakanen's cover art. Tiyan is here in her rizikesh battle match gear, with the truncheons and light but practical clothes, with muted colours suitable for lower and lesser city-level Kándu.

I began the build with the head, which is somewhat unusual. The character was described having a long, outwards-pointing nose, brown spots on the face and green hair. Inserting the hinge piece nose into the "stylized mark three female" head deemed lot of pedantic SNOT to every direction, but turned out pretty good. The hair took pretty much every kind of small dark green pieces I had around, but I think the angled bangs on the forehead give it the needed elegance. The hair was shorter at first, but I later realized that the ponytail disappearing behind the back gave the creation some depth.

Torso and upper legs came out pleasantly streamlined without losing the mobility. I've always found trousers challenging, and this was not an exception, but inverted 4x6 wedge slopes worked surprisingly well with 2x2 brick modified with ball sockets, and the four-stud-wide hip joint made the connection almost seamless. The almost organic feel of the textiles, a scarf tied over the breasts, is captured with very excessive use of curved slopes; I like them very much, it's good to have plenty of them around. Some of them are angled with plate hinges, again covering some of the shoulder joint without devastating the mobility. The curved slopes continue to the sides and the back. I'm very happy with the little detail of Tiyan's scarf being tuck under the belt and continuing over the trousers.

The arms are based on ideas used on Kuohu, but with ball sockets on the shoulder; good mobility seemed natural to martial arts -using character. Tiyan has also leather wrist bands, which helped to hide some construction bits. Again, curved slopes are used to achieve look of muscles on the upper arms. Hands are basic design, while the batons are slightly modified from those I've been using from City Watch characters from Discworld books. Plain lower legs are again adapted from design used on Lingeán, but with 1x1 1/4 circle tiles bringing some elegance. The boots are short not to slow down the user with their weight, and rather thin-soled to retain agility. The joints are sturdy enough to support one-leg poses.

-Eero