July Speed Paint Challenge

This Speed Paint Challenge was more like "Panic Painting Challenge". I did get a head start on him last week, but after getting sucked into playing co-op Minecraft until midnight last night, I woke up at 6am this morning in order to complete him on time. (I probably need more discipline in my life). In any case, I finished in time and met my own expectations. While the Speed Painting Challenge time limit is 4 hours and the paints are limited to 7 colors + black and white, I wanted to challenge myself with a more ambitious timeline. I successfully clocked in at just under 3 hours and only used 6 colors + B&W. Huzzah! I chose the Reaper paints below for on "Scroll Guy" (aka "Darkrasp" from Reaper's Bones line):

  • Blue Liner (instead of Black): Robe, eyes
  • Linen White (instead of White): Scroll, bone scythe blade, eyes, jar highlight, chains
  • GREL Flesh: Skin highlights, jar
  • Tanned Shadow: Skin base, beard
  • Shadowed Stone: Scythe weapon handle, beard, jar, chains
  • Clouded Sea: Robe highlights, jar, eyes
  • Aged Bone: Scythe weapon handle, beard highlights
  • White Sand: Scroll 

In hindsight, I probably could have gone without White Sand on the scroll and mixed in a drop of aged bone for the shadows. However, I wanted it to stand out and the yellowed paper effect was my goal. I'm also very pleased that I was able to focus on the weapon rather than the cloak. I love painting fabric and I often fall into the trap of spending all my time on leather and fabric rather than weapons (see a previous Speed Paint Challenge). If I chose to spend more time on him, I'd focus on more interest and smooth blending in his robe and create a glowing rune effect on the scroll, but as it is with Speed Paint Challenges, you have to choose a focus that's important to you and just go with it! Ready for some work-in-progress photos? Oh yeah. 

WIP Photos after 1 hour:

At the 2 hour mark:

The last hour I spent on details: highlights on his weapon and chains, smooth blending on the mystery jar, his beard, and (crazy as I am) his eyes. I just have to paint the eyes! Even though his eyes are in shadow under normal lighting, I wanted to include these close-up pictures as well:

Without further ado, here's "Scroll Guy"! I can't wait to see what everyone else came up with too!

It's Back!

The Speed Paint Challenge is BACK! A few months ago, we had a fun thing going where we'd choose a miniature to paint about once a month & share our results on social media. It's a fun way to interact with painter friends near & far and it's always interesting to see what everyone comes up with. Since many of us were part of the previous Reaper Kickstarters, we would choose a Bones miniature for the challenge-- they're great for speed painting and super-affordable too! However, some of our overseas friends weren't able to find Bones as easily as we could here in the U.S., so we switched it up for challenge #4 and painted a Hasslefree miniature of their choosing. 

Everyone's welcome to join-- here are the basics for this round:

THE MINI: Reaper Bones "Darkrasp" 

At $2.79 (US Dollars), you can't beat it!

THE TIMING: 4-HOUR LIMIT

But you don't have to use it all! Some people paint some epic stuff in 2 hours or less. The standard 4 hour time limit makes these painting challenges beginner-friendly. (The extra time is helpful when painting minis with more detail too).

THE PAINT: 7 COLORS + BLACK & WHITE

Again, you don't have to use 'em all, but this comes in handy-- especially when your palette includes metallic paints! 

THE SHARING: Monday, July 27

When you're done, share it on social media and tag your friends-- I personally love Twitter for this! Using #SpeedPaintChallenge  will make it easy for everyone to find & see your stuff!

Want to know more? Here's my full process for Speed Paint Challenge #2 from last September. But don't just look at my stuff-- other painters came up with some great minis too!

Some even posted about their process & results on their blogs:

Excited yet? You should be! If you don't already have this mini, go order it now! We still have a week and a half to acquire and paint "Scroll Guy"! Don't forget, on #MiniatureMonday, July 27th, we'll be sharing our results. I hope you join us! Can't wait to see what you'll do with this guy:

Good luck and happy painting!

Speed Paint Challenge 4

Happy Miniature Monday! We have a Speed Paint Challenge to share today! Long story short, every few weeks, on Twitter, we'll do a #speedpaintchallenge where we have a limited number of paint colors and a limited amount of time to paint a miniature. It's so much fun to see what other people come up with!

This week, we featured Mystic Warrior Jen from Hasslefree Miniatures, suggested by @PaintsandStuff. We decided to have 4 weeks in between the choosing of the miniature and when we shared it. That way, we had plenty of time to order, ship, paint, and share! Fun fact: We moved it to Nov 17th since last Monday, Denniz was just getting back from the Monte San Savino Show last week. Super-excited for him-- I hope to attend one day and enjoy the culture, food, beautiful countryside, and of course, the miniatures! 

While we had plenty of time to find four hours or less to paint this miniature, I regrettably procrastinated:

That's alright though, I still had a great time! As far as my colors went, I chose these 7 from the Reaper paint line (from left to right):

  • Leather White
  • Dark Elf Highlight
  • Monarch Purple
  • Brown Liner
  • Olive Skin Shadow
  • Golden Shadow
  • Golden Skin

I painted last night between 9pm and midnight putting me right around 3 hours. Thank goodness she's so tiny and doesn't have too much detail-- otherwise, I really would have failed this challenge. As it was, I took too much time in certain areas and could have made this a 2 hour mini. However, those eyes were a true challenge and I spent about an hour on her face & hair alone! Although I didn't get around to painting the base, we agreed that basing was optional. I'll finish painting the base at another time-- hopefully this week, and not when I'm falling asleep at my desk! I did fully intend to finish the base, but seeing as how excited I was getting about possibly painting OSL (Other Source Lighting) along the ground from her imagined purple glowing Vibroblade, I couldn't bring myself to rush it. There are also vines or tentacles that stretch out in front of her feet that could be painted to look like she summoned them for battle. So much interesting potential!