That said, a scary figure wouldn’t be common (who would want to remember their loved one in such a way?) but wouldn’t be unheard of either.

I’m sure that’s not what you meant though, you’re probably thinking along the lines of more detailed. I may try one with a smaller scale—the 18 inch tall one here is life size—and sculpt the skeletal details to see if I can find a way to make a correctly detailed skeleton look peaceful. The poses help, but even with the most peaceful pose in the world it can be difficult to get past the fact that you’re looking at a skeleton. However, that’s what the concept art phase is for, and if I’m going to take the time to do these I may as well explore available options. It’s a fairly safe bet that all of the variations I churn out over the next few months will look very different from the one above.

I’ll get some more votive figure concept art up for sure, perhaps with some sketches since those don’t take nearly as long as a sculpture. I have about two pages worth of concept sketches for this guy here that were used to explore ideas.