Experimentation

Speed painting larges masses of infantry has consumed my thoughts over the last few days. I know I have been focusing on developing a technique to paint miniatures professionally and am not leaving that desire behind, I greatly enjoy putting painted figures on the gaming board. To paint large amounts of infantry in this manner would prevent me from ever painting a full army. So the use of washes is an idea that has been bouncing around in my head for a week or so and I finally put brush to metal tonight. I think I've come across a process that will allow me to paint up a large amount of figures nicely in a short amount of time. I'm pleased with tonights results and look forward to refining a new technique.

I'm still painting...really, I am...

Its been a long time since my last post. I was working on epic Skarre and was very pleased with her progress until tragedy struck. I dropped her on my painting table and one of her horns broke off, taking a layer of paint from her forehead with it. Once glued back on, a line where the paint broke was clearly visible. This was enough to permanently sideline her. Instead, I picked up a Reaper blade maiden and painted her up.

There should be pictures here, but I cant get the size right. Guess I gotta wait and use photoshop at school.

She took about a week to paint up, after about a week of trying to figure out what to paint. I think this may be a pattern thats starting to emerge. It's been a while since I've painted, but I think I'm about to settle on a new figure to paint.

I recieved an Xbox 360 for christmas, so that definitely put a temporary damper on my painting desires. After beating Gears of War and Bioshock, I think it may be time now to pick up the brush.

Happy new year everyone!

Epic Skarre

Started her tonight, so far I have put two hours into her.
Hopefully this will help me keep track of how long I spend on this project.

Epic Haley done

I finished the epic Haley I've been working on for the past couple of days. I'm pleased with the way she came out and can see a definite improvement over my older models. There are still areas I need to work on, such as skin tones and faces and improving the smooth transitions between shading and highlights.

I was looking at Marika Reimirs CMON gallery and was inspired how her work has improved over the years. I can certainly see the same progression in my figures, though I'm not at her level yet.

I'm excited as to where things are going and can't wait to paint my next figure.

Just a quikie

Tonight I painted the jacket of kovnik Joe and blending is coming more naturally to me. I suspect that after awhile it will be like second nature. I'm very excited about the direction my painting is going.

I want to keep painting but I must go to bed.

6 am will get here sooner than I know it.

Eureka, pt 2

Yesterday I stumbled across the correct way to utilize the two brush blending system. I painted most of Nemo tonight and am very pleased with how he's turning out. There are still areas I need to work on, but for the most part I am pleased with my progress. Small areas are difficult to blend effectively on and I will have to experiment with them a bit.

After a full day of painting, its time to go to bed.

I will try to have pictures up soon.

Eureka!

I have felt as though my paintings skills have platued ove the past year or so. I have kind of been turned off to painting in the meantime, perhaps experiencing a bit of painters block. I knew I could produce better results yet my figures were consistantly mediocre. I tried new techniques to try and push my figures to the next level, and while a few of them helped, I still was not where I wanted to be. Then I decided to give two brush blending a shot. I had read about this in the past, but for some reason was wary to try it. I decided to give it a shot about a week ago and all attempts ended in frustration. The paint ended up being too thick, the highlights were too gradual so it appeared there werent any there, or the highlights were too drastic.

I started a topic on the PP forums to vent and recieved support from my fellow painters who also experienced difficulty with this technique. Terrarin of Brushthralls fame suggested it should just click after a while.

Well, tonight, it did. My technique needs some refining, but the basics are there. I already think in this early stage the figure has what I thought was lacking. I plan on perfecting this technique and throwing my hat in the ring at the P3 painting contest at Gen Con next year. No amount of drugs could get me to the high I'm experiencing right now.