Tentacle Time

Back in September, I did a Hasslefree Jen Speed Paint Challenge. However, I never completed her base. I glued her to a Micro Art Studio pre-cast base and set her on the "I'll get to it soon" shelf. Six months later, I finally got around to it. I struggled with how to paint tentacles (which I later realized these are meant to be vines but oh well. Creative license!) I found little success in my previous attempt to paint them a dark Nightshade Purple with a few spot highlights here and there. A fellow painted suggested to paint them as skin with more subtle shading and blending. Bingo! 

I decided on a more saturated red violet to contrast with the lavender purple I'd been using for other parts of the miniature. Since the speed paint challenge called for a limited number of colors, miniatures can be reimagined and added to after the challenge & picture sharing is complete. My hope is that her hair appears more grey, while it works well with the "glowing runes" she's standing on. 

My biggest challenge was to make the tentacle-like vines appear shiny-- difficult to do with matte paint. While I didn't want to resort to paint-on gloss varnish (I don't care for things that are too shiny and distract from the rest of the miniature), I settled for a paint-on sealer than falls in between matte and semi-gloss. Without it, the tentacle-vines appear too chalky and stone-like. After two thin coats, I was happy with the results! 

This miniature's meant to be simple in her dusky, unadorned robes and natural facial features. Despite her simplicity, her belt beckons for a bit of freehand detailing. The raised, curved stone at the bottom left edge also has the potential to be an additional area interest. I don't want to get carried away just yet, so for now, I'll call her done as soon as I fix that "glowy rune" section I missed-- can you spot it? Yep, it's driving me crazy too. So close, yet never quite done!

Matte Tentacles

Matte Tentacles + 2 Coats of Varnish

Matte Tentacles

Matte Tentacles + 2 Coats of Varnish

Euterpe WIP

Euterpe - Black & White Value Study

After a frustrating first attempt painting Euterpe, I'm approaching this miniature in a different way. This time, I decided to envision this Greek muse with a rich olive skin tone. I really liked Reaper's "Olive Skin Shadow" and I decided to buy the rest of the triad with Euterpe in mind.

Once the shipment arrived, I experimented a bit with this skin color triad on a "Shelf of Shame" miniature Elori who, at some point, had two hands (the missing hand once held an epic scythe). I made the mistake of bringing an unpainted Elori to a D&D game years ago where she stood-in as an evil sorceress boss. Afterward, she fell into the black hole bag of NPC/monster characters and was forgotten about for some time. When I finally found her, she had a stump and her scythe was nowhere to be found. I'll still use her for experimental paint colors & techniques-- I'm convinced I should paint her with a bloody stump for an arm to practice painting blood effects.. but I digress.

Now that I had found the right blending mixes with this new Olive Skin triad, I knew I was ready to paint Euterpe! I used Olive Skin as my base and used a 50/50 mix of base color + Olive Skin Shadow for my first shadow color. I progressively deepened the shadows in thin layers before I applied a similar 50/50 base coat + Olive Skin Highlight for her cheekbones, forehead, the bridge of her nose and chin. I used the same first highlight in thin layers on the tops of her arms and feet. I need to paint her eyes before I apply the second brighter final highlight. 

I'm really happy with the rich, summer-in-the-Mediterranean skin tone! I'm glad I revisited her color scheme from the beginning. Many times I see the original miniature and one of two problematic things happen:

  1. I'm influenced by the painted studio version in my color choices. 
  2. I attempt to choose drastically different colors from the studio model.

When #1 occurs, I end up picking similar colors that I can't help but envision the miniature in. Often times, I struggle with colors I've forced myself to use in the desperate hope that it will end up looking like the studio model (nice try). I also think "If the studio painter thought these were the best colors, why would I try something drastically different?"

When #2 occurs, I challenge myself to envision the miniature in a completely different way and I choose colors that do not exist in the studio model. I find this limits my creativity as I force myself to avoid colors that I probably would have chosen from the beginning. 

Both #1 and #2 happened during my first attempt at Euterpe. When I saw the beautiful skin tone of the studio model, I thought, "Euterpe the flautist muse should have a delicate, fair skin tone". Another part of me thought, "But the studio model has a purple dress. Now I can't paint a purple dress". Both of these thoughts led me to spend far too much time trying to create something that felt forced to the creative part of my brain. When that happens, I'm rarely able to complete a project that I'm happy with. I don't always have to be happy with the final outcome, especially if I'm just experimenting with a new technique. However, I love the Euterpe sculpt too much to make any compromises! So I went ahead and chose purple for her dress, though it's more of an amethyst jewel purple than the muted purple in the studio model. Not that there's anything wrong with the painted studio version-- I just like my version to be a little bit different and I love rich, saturated colors!

I'm still in the blending stages of the purples-- I want her dress to really stand out with more contrast. In the end, it will have brighter highlights and darker shadows in the deeper folds. In the meantime, I need to decide on her hair color. Do I want something natural like a mahogany brown with golden highlights? Or do I want to paint her hair in a fantasy color, like an interesting turquoise? 

Moxy Space Adventuress WIP

Today I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with unconventional skin tones. I'm working with Moxy, Space Adventuress from the Reaper Chronoscope line. At first, I considered painting her to like Turanga Leela from Futurama, but I wanted to try a completely different, non-human skin color. I've painted purple and orange skin before, so now I'm experimenting with blue. I want to keep the hues bright and vibrant. At first, I tried mixing some of the blues with white for highlights, but the effect was too chalky. Here are the colors I'm using from the Reaper Master Series line:

  • Blue Liner 
  • Deep Ocean 
  • Marine Teal
  • Surf Aqua 

Since she's an alien, I wanted to do something a bit different for her eyes. Many eye sculpts are too small for much iris detail, but this sculpt allows for more added interest. It reminded me on an image I saw by Patipat Asavasena, an artist based in Thailand that uses a kaleidoscope of colors in his art. This work-in-progress photo (left) inspired me to paint a bright orange & yellow eye on Moxy. While her pupil is a bit darker, but it adds to the non-human effect. Later, I'll be going in to add some "makeup" effects in a light green. 

After that, it was time to block out different shapes and decide what colors her clothing should be. I wanted her vest to be two-tone and the vest portion and her glove to be black leather while the other part of her jacket is a ruddy brown. Her boots will be the same color as her jacket, but I still haven't decided what color her hair will be. I'm keeping her clothing fairly neutral, since her skin is such a vivid color. I chose a light beige for her pants and painted her jewelry and headband gold. The biggest challenge for me will be her gun. I've blocked out her blaster gun in a dark red color (a la "Gears of War"), though that may change as I edge it in lighter colors. Plenty more to paint on this mini, but I think I'll stop here for now. Until next time!