Ponder Stibbons

 I've build plenty of characters from Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld books. The wizard of Unseen University have always somehow been my favourites. They're never really the main characters (except in Science of Discworld books, if they count) and they rarely (but sometimes!) go through very touching or impressive stories... but there's certain charming homely silliness in them and it makes me happy. And Ridcully is my favourite character, in general. The charm of UU has made do rather obscure characters like Senior Wrangler or Chair of Indefinite Studies, but I've never built Ponder Stibbons before - even though this youngest and keenest member of the faculty is quite established character in the series. And his name is Finnish translations, Aatos Stibbons, is one of the best.

I've had WIPs of Ponder before, but they never developed further from the face and the hat. Pterry described (in Soul Music) Stibbons wearing a robe of correct lenght but in washed greenish-grey colour, with pockets and a hood with bit of rabbit fur; definitely some references to youth clothing as he has a sort of parka. He has glasses and wears a hat, of course - a wizard would be naked without one. And he was never able to grow a beard. Unlike on Ridcully, I didn't aim for very expressive face, as that would have been hard with the glasses - and Ponder is more mundane character! The face has some offset and SNOT tricks though. I'm pleased with the jaw, which uses new-ish 1x1 curved slope (or bow); it was also used on Ridcully's big potato-nose.

Greenish-grey could be achieved with both sand green and olive green. I used both of these for pleasant combination, olive bringing some life and depth to washed out sand green. The hat brim uses a rubber band hidden between the plates, somewhat illegally maybe. The sides just hand there, making the nead shape and breaking the blockiness of the overall impression. I think making a satisfactory hat was the key point here, and the rest was more or less basic character building without bigger challenges.

The arms are standard issue, and Stibbons has plain grey shirt under the robe; it could read "I actually am a rocket wizard" but it doesn't. The robe has the mentioned fur collar and hood, breaking the smooth curved slope areas, and two dark tan horn toggles. There could be more but I had only two horns in this perfectly fitting colour. The side pockets in olive green balance the scheme, and they hold some magical printed parts. Within shaping I've given Stibbons some belly, which I believe is mentioned in the books. The legs are not poseable except for standard turning-round, but this is not very action-oriented character, so what the hell. White stockings gave some Discworld feel to it somehow, they are taken from Paul Kidby's art. Ponder also has a note pad - I think he generally should have one; it gives the right expression.

I think Ponder turned out to be a solid character build, and while it's not very dynamic, it had pleasant mix of smooth and rugged surfaces. The senior faculty is almost completed now - the final member appears soon-ish.

-Eero.