Chibi Twilight Knight WIP

I have the crud. AGAIN. This time from a friend's wedding this past weekend. This wretched allergy season has negatively impacted my immune system to the point where I can't go to a social function without catching a bug. Ugh. On a positive note, I was able to work in some miniature prep this past weekend. I put together Domina of Torment (Avatars of War), Fiama (Enigma), Wu Ling Shu (Bombshell) and a chibi Medusa that I'm not exactly sure where she's from. I also cleaned up Cheetah Girl (Reaper) that required no assembly. I ran out of super glue soon after that, though I was able to get them attached to the start of their bases.

After that, it was off to the wedding. I received this key upon checking in. It's like they knew I was coming! I'll have to hang this by my painting table. Love it.

Other than that, I redid my Twitter banner, which features the miniatures I've painted in the last year. The old banner was of miniatures I'd painted years ago and I figured it was time for a refresh. All but one of these (second from the right), I've painted in the last year and I'm super proud of them. Not all went according to plan, but I learned a lot and I tried to get my hands on different types of miniatures– chibi, sci-fi, animals, dwarves, dudes, etc.

While I'm working on the Kingdom Death Twilight Knight, I thought I'd pick up the Soda Pop Twilight Knight for fun. I joined a Google Hangout and painted some progress into this little one:

Here's a closer look. While she won't match the creepy skintone of her larger counterpart, this little gyaru chibi will be in themes of purple too!

Kingdom Death WIP: Twilight Knight

I haven't finished painting a Kingdom Death mini yet. I know, it's disgraceful, isn't it? I haven't worked on Twilight Knight for 26+ weeks according to Instagram. I figure it's about time I picked her back up. She taunts me from the Shelf of Shame. I imagine she says, "What? Are you intimidated– afraid to paint me? I know how much you've spent on Kingdom Death miniatures in the last year and you haven't finished a single one of us. SHAME! I'm already halfway done. You should paint me. And for the love of all things holy, PLEASE glue my freaking head on already!"

So I did. Glue her head on at least. I spent so much time painting her back only to realize her cape would cover it. Ugh. Here's where I left off months ago, and here's where I ended up last night:

However, something was missing (and not her head this time). I painted up the skin with unearthly pinks and purples, and the gems on her legs and sword hilt were bothering me. I tried to work some green into the tied strip on her sword, but it still didn't make sense visually. I thought the green standing out against her skin would be a good thing, but after re-evaluating half-a-year-later, I realized I never really liked it. So I used purple glazes to change the color and switched up the highlights a bit. I like it much better! The purple ties in the skin so much better and your eye moves around the miniature more freely. Now to decide what color to paint the cape and rework a few parts of her sword, change the color of her belt from grey metal to studded brown leather, and paint her hair. Oh, and the base. Right... so I may have more to do on this miniature than I thought but hey, I'm no longer intimidated by her! In fact, I'm really happy with how the skin turned out with the darker violet glazing.

She no longer looks like a pink marshmallow Twilight Knight– hooray! Maybe that's why she was so grumpy...

Have a great week! Until next time :)

New Job 2016

**Update 3/31/16

Hi all! I start my new job today at Global. This should be fun :) I'm in training all day and can't wait to come home and set up my hobby room. I'm finally getting over my cold and feel well enough to tackle this mess.

**UPDATE** A few days into my brand new hybrid job and I've been working late each night. I'm trying to strike a balance between my old job and my new job. I'm essentially working for two teams right now and trying to manage new expectations on both sides. It's been a real challenge but I'm passionate about supporting both teams!

I finally had some time after dinner to work on "my space" and, as you can see, I emptied several moving boxes and organized things to make for two nice "Before & After" pictures:

Before

After

It feels really nice to sit here with a glass of Malbec in hand and think of how I want to arrange this room. I'll definitely need a magazine rack for my painting/design mags. I've never had this much space to myself and I'll definitely need some additional shelving! I get a healthy amount of natural light through the big windows and it'll make for enjoyable painting on the weekends. I can't wait until I get some time to paint! It's been weeks since I've had personal time to spend doing what I love. In fact, it's making me a bit crazy having not painted in weeks.

I sent off my harpies and they should be arriving any day now. I hope the shopping box of doom turned out okay. They were super delicate and I was so paranoid that they'd be damaged en route: 

 https://twitter.com/mocha_minis/status/713392490603286530 

In any case, it's about time I started on a new commission. I think this will fit the bill! It's been awhile since I've painted a badass female warrior. I can't wait!  

The best news is, after three weeks of waiting, we'll finally have internet! I can't tell you how frustrating it is to not be able to come home and get on the Internet. Free wifi cafes are barely reliable and with how little free time I have, it's been a real struggle. Hopefully this is the last blog post I have to write using my phone keypad! We should be back to the new normal by Monday. Thank goodness! Until then :)