Miniature Monday · October 19

October 20, 2014

Happy Miniature Monday! I did some work on Lord Ironraven this weekend & updated his WIP page. I never thought he'd turn out well enough for me to want to finish painting him. Honestly, he was just supposed to be a practice in silky fabric texture but has turned out to be much more!

Not only have I practiced silky fabric & TMM (True Metallic Metal), I'm trying blue/black hair and painting jewels on this mini. Below are the steps I took to paint the jewel on his shoulder armor section. [Click on the image for a larger view]

I'll need to get creative in how to make a respectable base post-paint job (shame!), but otherwise, I'm really happy with how he's turned out so far. I usually only try one or two new techniques per mini, but Lord Ironraven has been a study in silky fabric textures, TMM (True Metallic Metal), blue/black hair, and painting jewels on flat surfaces.

Today also launches the next Speed Paint Challenge! This time, the miniature suggested & chosen is a Hasslefree miniature:

This time, the Speed Paint Challenge timeline is a bit different: we'll have one month to order, ship & paint this miniature for anyone who wants to participate. Everyone is welcome! On Monday, November 16th, we'll share our results through social media (using the #speedpaintchallenge via Twitter) and I'll be posting my own process here on my blog. The rules are still the same and we'll have four-hours-or-less to paint. I'll be ordering my Hasslefree miniature on Monday-- more information to come!

In other news, I'm relieved to report that the saga of the stray dogs has continued on to its next adventure. Over the last week I helped shelter two young strays from two powerful storms that blew in, and drove them across town to a vet who would examine and hold them for three days while I tried everything I could to find their owners. Sadly, it became apparent that they were abandoned, so I dipped into my miniature savings and paid for basic vet exams, flea medications, and admittance into a local, reputable shelter. I admit, I wish I could have taken them in and/or adopted them myself and it was so hard to say goodbye. One day, I'll have the means to foster & help more, but in the meantime, I know I did everything I could to help them. With a little more luck (which they've had plenty), they'll soon find their new & loving forever homes!

Dracula · Work In Progress

October 16, 2014

I was able to paint a bit last night after a whirlwind of dog rescue madness. Long story short, these pups still don't have a home and we need to find out what to do with them fast. Trying to get in touch with rescues that may be able to foster them. In the meantime, we've taken them to the vet to get scanned for microchips (no luck) and get basic exams. Fingers crossed that if they are indeed abandoned (which is becoming increasingly likely), we'll be able to find a new loving home for them as soon as possible. That way, I can revert what little free time & energy I have back to painting :)

This Castlevania-inspired Dracula is a work-in-progress. I've been setting aside at least one hour every Wednesday so he'll be complete before Halloween! Here's what we've got so far:

Speed Paint Challenge 3

September 29, 2014

Happy Miniature Monday! I'm happy to report that I'm getting faster with this speed painting thing. Again, I'll use "Speed Painting" loosely, since I consider anything between 2 - 4 hours a creative race against time. This past week, a new mini was chosen by @catafracture, a new participant in our last #speedpaintchallenge. The Reaper Bones miniature we agreed upon was cheap ($2.79) & Bones in general are relatively low maintenance and don't require priming-- perfect since I would need to paint him while traveling. The standard rules applied: 7 colors, less than 4 hours. Here's what I came up with in 3.5 hours total (4 hours if you include the increased drying time):

I didn't expect humidity to be as big of a challenge as it was. 30 minutes into my initial venture, I found that the paint layers just weren't drying-- adding considerably to my overall paint time. Very frustrating after spending the time unpacking & setting up my mobile paint station:

Two days later, while I was still waiting for the weather to settle down, @EpicBlueMouse suggested I take advantage of the humidity and work on wet blending. Why not? At the last minute I changed up my color scheme and swapped out the metallics I had in store for the weapons in order to focus on a cool orange/purple cape concept. It was fun to try and blend rich orange into a dark purple and see how quickly I could create a nice transition. Lastly, I blended the edges of the cape into a lighter, rich purple and was grateful for the mini hair dryer I had available. Without it, I'd be watching paint dry for ten minutes in between each layer.

I chose to focus my time & effort on the cape color transitions and the details of his armor. The weapons (especially the back view) suffered somewhat, but I think the sacrifice for the end result was well worth it! My final seven paint choices were as follows-- all from the Reaper line:

Leather White, Blue Liner, Marigold Yellow, Burning Orange, Monarch Purple, Nightshade Purple, Dark Skin