Tentacles

I've been attempting to paint shiny tentacles without resorting to glossy varnish. While a layer of gloss varnish is a great all-around solution for rendering a shiny surface, I wanted to challenge myself in my painting skills. In any case, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning of my personal lack-of-decision-making:

Thank goodness for social media. I needed a second opinion. After that, I took Denniz's suggestion and started on the base of my most recent Speed Paint Challenge #4. I've wanted to finish this miniature I mounted on this base from Micro Art Studio. I really like this base. I'm attempting to paint glowing rune-like shapes & glossy tentacles emanating from her feet, as if she's summoning magical energy to defeat potential foes. 

I'll need to consult my Color & Light book for a few tips. The biggest obstacle I have is the two-dimension vs three-dimensional issue. While it would already be a personal challenge to paint the dark, shiny tentacles in a two-dimensional format, I need to paint it where it looks interesting and accurate from most angles. My approach was to wet my brush and give a light wash over the tentacles. This way, I could mimic the natural highlights that the light source would identify. It's not unlike a "Paint By Number", reminiscent of those old children's puzzles I enjoyed as a child. In any case, I decided to once again use social media to reach out for some additional advice. 

In the meantime, I'm opening a box of prize loot won from a Reaper forum contest where I won second place in the Single Figure category. Jasper was nice enough to sort & ship miniatures he'd been storing, after his friend closed a miniature shop. The best part? He gave us the opportunity to pick from the mostly out-of-production miniature hoard & he then arranged to have them sent all the way from Canada. So generous!

I'm truly looking forward to giving these miniatures a new home where they'll be lovingly painted in addition to having a "Cool, where'd you get this one?" story. These minis are classics and easily date back to the early 90's. While it's exciting to paint recently-released miniatures that are newly popular in the industry, there's something rewarding about the knowledge that you're probably the only person on the planet painting this specific miniature at this one point in time. 

In the meantime, if you haven't watched the new Star Wars trailer, you should. After chuckling at the light saber that sprouted hilt-like additions (What?! That's not a thing!) and the fudgesicle land speeder, I admit this has more potential than I initially thought. Some of my best childhood memories revolve around the original trilogy, so I'm keeping an open mind, despite being an enthusiastic, reasonably discerning critic when it comes to Star Wars. Many of us have been traveling over this Thanksgiving weekend, so if you haven't yet seen the Star Wars trailer, enjoy!

Freehand Fun

I admit, freehand has intimidated me in the past. So I decided to buy two of this miniature and try weird stuff on the first paint-through. In case all went downhill in a spiral of painted drama (because every once and awhile it does), I knew I'd have a backup! This mini was all about trying new things outside of my comfort zone. 

Apart from painting on her mouth and giving her super-shiny anime eyes, I wanted to focus on Tish's dress and practice painting contrasting black & white. I added some swirly motif elements to her sleeves and some red & white striping. (And now that I'm seeing her photographed, I need to go in and clean up the right sleeve edge). I also painted on a red and white band on her upper torso. I played with the idea of blending the black & white and adding stylized vinyl-looking highlights on the lower part of her dress, making it look shiny. I've never tried that before and while I could do more blending like around her bust area, I kind of like the stylized spider web effect it has. 

I have a few more things to do, including blending out her eye makeup for a smooth makeup-to-skin transition, and I may even try a tiny border along the bottom edge of her red cloak. All in all, this was a really great way for me to remove myself from the "safe" painting choices I tend to make and a nice practice in trying something new. At the very least, I'm no longer intimidated by freehand and I have many more ideas I'd like to try in the future!

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!