"By the Power of Grayskull!"
-He-Man, Gaurdian of Grayskull.

Will you incur the rath of the Goddess, Teela'na? In this world there are those of us who are obedient to the Goddess. She is and always will be the true form of the Sorceress. When Mattel came out with the Teela pictures, I was rather pleased, but upset over the lack of snake armor that would help identify and differentiate Teela from "The Godddess". As time wore on, I became increasingly dissapointed by the way Teela was turning out. The fears of breast augmentation, bad paint, and the most evil of evils!!!....Das BOOT!!! --caused me to consider making a more....adequate Teela. Well, after gettting my first Teela I was actually a little more pleased than I thought I would be (maybe just because it was Teela), but that wouldn't deter me from making a Goddess figure. Well, I am a fortunate man. On January 21, 2003, I finished the Goddess figure. I had managed to snag a second Teela Figure, and the second I got back to campus I started work. I used a single package of Maroon Sculpey, 4 Testor's Model Paint (Red, Metallic Red, White, and Dark Green Pearl 1/2), along with a Gold Testor's Enamel Pain Marker. I scraped and cut away some of the unnecessaries (Skirt, Das BOOT!!!), and boiled and reshaped her hair. As you can see, my Goddess isn't very "traditional". The original Goddess was basically Teela with a breast plate and hood. It seems so simple, but when the question arose as to why Teela didn't have her Snake Armor, it was explained that it couldn't fit in with the modern look of the toy line (an animesque influence). I found this quite funny as I had grown up when UPN had Anime (ahem...let me clarify, Good Anime) every friday night, was a huge fan of video games that had an anime style (Street Fighter, Mega Man, etc), and as time wore on, used this style heavily in my art. The Goddess, and Teela, were a crucial part to my art history, and naturally i mixed her in. This design of the Goddess has been in my head for quite a while, and I think that it ties the anime look nicely with the Goddess. For starters, I enhanced the breast plate. After ripping off Teela 2's breasts, I started reconstructive surgery with the intention on a smaller bossom. I used a layering technique to get the stomach scales of a snake, and dragged this up behind her head for the collar. The design is of a cobra collar on a breast plate armor, held in place by a sort of bustier. I put trim on the edge of the collar, and used that to tie in the breast jewelry of normal Teela into the Goddess. The rest of the armor is rather original. In that Teela's main weapon is a staff, I used some inspirations from the lance and pole fighters, armoring the foreward side of the body. Her right arm and leg have a scale stamped armor plating, complete with sabatons. I was going to shave off and remake the knee-pads, but found that their color and design fit nicely. I repainted the white to make it brighter, and get to some ignored areas, and also redid the gold to less gold, more metalic shade. The jewels on the vambraces and tiara, and the eyes of the snake head are painted in an irridescent green. Probably the biggest change, and most anime influenced piece, is the new Cobra Head Mask. This is the part that was probably holding the Four Horsemen back. Traditionally, the Cobra head is a hood that she wears on top of her head. Unfortunatly, to do this, one would need to destroy the tiara, and the pony tail. Well, we can't destroy the ponty tail! My idea was to create a Cobra Mask that would hide the identity of the Goddess, but could be removed to show her true beauty. It is made almost entirely of two pieces of coiled Sculpey, wound around in such a way to make the cheeks, eyes, and head of a cobra. To fit the mask on, however, I had to shave out part of the interior, and the top right portion. This allowed the mask to fit snuggly under the whisps of hair. I also gave Teela a makeover. I changed her hair from pink-brown to red. The paint was supposed to be matte red, but still has a bit of a glossy tone to it, causing it to look like the rest of the armor. I changed the lipstick color to pink, and used white paint to shrink her irises. In the Teela prototype pictured in Toyfare, Teela had a very focused gaze that made her look so much cooler. Unfortunatly, when the toy came out, Mattel had let her escape with doe eyes. "Grrrrr!!!"I say to thee!

Thumbnail Thumbnail The picture is linked to a larger version so that one can see the detail. This is Teela....in my eyes anyway. This was the product of 2 hours of straight drawing on one of my high artistic times. It is completely free-hand, and I really like it. Honestly though, you can see how it is free-hand. The head is a bit to large (partially an illusion form the tiara and ponytail...but still), and the bottom half of her legs are too long. DAMN YOU MATTEL AND YOUR INFERNAL BARBIE DOLL! Some of my artisitc explorations with Teela are: 1.) Hair Lenght. The original Teela had hair that, when down, would, at most, reach her shoulders. This is similar to the style seen on the Origin of Teela Page. The one dillema with that is that the early comics with Teela's hair down in such a fashion, reflect the 70's view of hair. Watch Dukes of Hazard, Lavern and Shirley, or Even that 70's Show, and you will see the affect that was sought out for Teela by the early artists. NO!!! She needs the pony tail: a barbie-like pony tail at that. The new toy will have hair, that when down, would reach her upper thigh. The cartoon Teela had ridiculously short hair. It would have come down to her chin...maybe! The short hair was nice, but to short to be playful. The new, longer hair is just too long. It would get in the way. She is a warrior, not a princess. I prefer to see hair that would reach her middle back when down, and reach her shoulders when up. Also, she is a red-head!!! The original Teela was blonde, and this was reflected in a lot of the early comics. The Teela I had was a burnette, but the hair faded so quickly, and I was so consumed by the cartoon it didn't matter. The first edition Teela that was released, and the cartoon, both portrayed Teela as a Red-head, and so she will remain a red-head. 2.) The jewel armor is going through a lot of phases. I am a fan of mandarin collars. I like the idea of a standing collar, like on all previous examples of Teela, but I don't like cleavage. I am not a breast guy! So instead, I added a jewel choker that pulls the body suit up to the neck, allowing for a smooth cascading figure for form over the bossom. I kept the traditional breast plating of the curved golden pieces, but the detail in the center and front I changed. The original Teela has a simple unjeweled connection that links to the collar, and cascades down into a single leaflette with a pair of tassell-like pieces hanging from either side. I prefer to share the wiast design among the entire outfit, so I brought the three leaflettes up to the bossom. Also, the proto-type glaive for Teela was a Fluer de Les. I decided to use this as the weapon in the picture, and carry this desing into the detail. Teela seems to have a connection with this symbol. The fluer was explored again with the the new Teela that is appearing in stores sometime in 2003. One of the biggest jumps came with Teela's belt design, and hip garmant. The original Teela wore a body suit that ended in a hot-pants design, reflective of the late 70's fasion. This was topped with a belt, a second belt of jewels, and a frontal leaflette decoration. The new Teela wears a mini circle skirt, and the belts and leaflettes. I don't know what they were thinking. The skirt isn't that bad, but the leaflettes just don't look right. most of them are too big. Anyway: I don't really like either. Instead, I went with a bikini style bottom that rises extra high on either side, showing off the "love muscles" (the front of the hip above the thigh). I like the asthetic appearence of the jewel belt running across the bear hip. 3.)The boots are varied from the toy. The original had the classic bound and fur boot. The new toy has the same boot, except it is higher, and has a knee gaurd. In the seventh grade, I created a character and used a design where a set of boots was worn, one folded down, and the other standing up. I incorperated this into Teela with the single thigh-high, vs. the calf-high fur lined boot. This also reflects her fighting style, gaurding the forward right leg. I also prefer the heels. This was introduced in the cartoon. However, unlike the cartoon, the obvious idiocy of putting captain of the royal gaurds in stilletos is outstanding. Instead I put Teela in a pair of low thick heels, similar to, but a little higher than, a man's cuban dancing shoe. Also, I abandoned the bound boot look. It looks to primitive in my opinion. A portrait of the Warrior Goddess Teela from 2005, with face touch-ups in Nov. '06. This is the design I was trying for in my custom Goddess figure. To the Shrine of Teela'na-The Goddess To the Shrine of Teela-The Woman Follow the Origin of Teela, the Sorceress, and the Warrior Goddess in this free webcomic. Back to the Harem