Status Update

1.  I've been working a lot of hours on the job lately and unfortunately it has left not a lot of time to post updates and work-in-progress as I'd like to - I've also been going through a little bit of a creative drought, but I'm still intent on keeping up with the blog and with painting. That brings me to...
2.  I'm putting the painting of Tsathogga, the Frog God, on hold for a bit for several reasons: I masked off the figure and started working on the rest of the skin - I started with a dark green, thinking that I'd paint him a near-black green and apply bands and mottling of different colors and he'd look amazingly awesome and I'd be able to move on to other details of the figure... yeah, not so much; I don't think the dark green works at all, he looks way too reminiscent of "Gollum" from the old Rankin-Bass animated version of The Hobbit, and I've been racking my brain for a while now trying to think my way out of the corner I've painted myself into while suffering from a great lack of inspiration; The other day, I had inspiration and I think I know where to go from here with the colors to use and everything! But that brings me to...
3.  I have several new commisioned paint jobs to work on at the moment! My work schedule has slackened somewhat, I'm expecting some more free time, and just when I was wondering what to do with myself and chomping at the bit to get back to spraying Tsathogga new and better colors - all of a sudden I have other figures that I have to work on for a customer instead of painting a very large, gross frog for my own enjoyment. These new figures are all very cool - a variety of investigators from RAFM's Call of Cthulhu miniature line to be painted to a high standard but for gaming use. I'll be posting updates as I get 'em and I'm working in small batches to fit within my still-somewhat-limited schedule - Tsathogga seems like the kind that can patiently wait, and after him, I believe I will be working on several Malifaux gangs.

Tsathogga, Part 2

 I've been painting away in fits and starts on Tsathogga, The Frog God - today was the first weekend day I've not had to work at all in roughly a month-and-a-half and moreso, I actually had an opportunity to get some decent work in on this guy's underbelly. (Not complaining about working per se, more about the lack of free time...) There's been a few other pics I've taken of various color stages on his underbelly and neck, but when it came right down to editing pics tonight to post something, I don't really think they showed anything worthwhile compared to this last one - essentially I went through a number of color changes, from greyish-green to pale grey to fleshy and finally, to this point which ends up being a combination of all of them!

 While I think I probably should go back and add another layer of highlighting, between how this looks photographed and the feedback I received at this season's first meeting of the Michigan Historical Miniatures Club earlier this week, I really think I ought to just push on and start adding coloration to the rest of the figure. In case my as-yet-untried airbrush masking skills crash and burn I won't have so much to redo, or more optimistically, when I get the rest of his skin tone and blotches and stripes and things blocked out I can decide how exactly to lighten up the underside a bit more - cool colors, warmer colors, more grey, and so forth.

 Feedback, as usual, is always appreciated - especially any suggestions on how to approach realistic contrast of a figure at this size (again, he's almost a good foot long from tip of his front hand to back of his hindmost foot). I'm guessing the easy answer would be to "exaggerate the highlighting and shading even moreso," but that's something I consistently struggle with, even on much smaller figures.

Tsathogga, Part 1

 Since shortly after GenCon, I've been working on a limited release casting of Tsathogga, the Frog God, from Center Stage Miniatures. This has got be one of the largest figures I've had the pleasure of painting, and definitely the largest resin casting I've ever worked on. Roughly a foot in length and molded from light grey resin, the detail on this figure is amazing - assembled from multiple parts, it surprisingly has minimal mold line issues and no bubbles in the copy I received. In all honestly, the trickiest part about assembly was pinning the arm and resculpting the gap where it meets flush with the body - other issues with the casting were fairly minor; I had to fill a few small cracks in the base near the body where the resin seems to have separated as it set, similar rough cracks in some of the deeper folds in his skin, and I had to dig out what I assume was solidified mold release agent in some of the deeper crevices on the body.

 I've made some progress in painting since this initial pre-primer pic and hope to post that shortly, but essentially I'm currently working on the figure in sections and trying to take as much advantage of the fine details already sculpted onto it as possible. I'm envisioning the underbelly as pale and sickly-looking, with blackened extremities on the upper body, pale, dead eyes, and a bright colored tongue to offset the rest of the more muted palette.

 If anyone has suggestions or tips on working with larger size figures versus the usual 1" tall scale that I'm mostly used to, by all means comment or post links. I'm trying to do this big guy as much justice as I can, since it is truly an awesome figure.

Back From the Dead! (Again!)

 It's been over a year since I last posted anything on this blog and, well, suffice it to say I wasn't exactly in the painting mood any more for a long, long while for a number of reasons. Recently, though, I've been spending time with a good group of friends who convinced me to go to GenCon with them. I found out there was a painting competition and although I had missed event registration by a long shot (I think it was July at this point) and I've been working a job that occupies roughly 6-7 days of my time on most weeks, I figgered I'd make the best of it and even see if I could crank out an entry to put in!

 In no particular order, I'd like to throw out a few "thank you's" from GenCon (albeit belatedly): to my wife, Jennifer, for lots of support and well-wishes; friends Jason, James, Will, Charlie, Paul (and Wendy!); Lyn Stahl - you rock!; Meg Maples (of Arcane Paintworks and Privateer Press fame); Drew Williams, sculptor extraordinaire; Izzy (I'm horrible with names, but you were very kind and an awesome artist!); Justin McCoy, aka 'misterjustin' of Secret Weapon Miniatures - it was great to finally meet you in person after all these years; the folks from Reaper Miniatures (Shannon Stiltz, Jen Kaufman, Martin Jones, and several more I'm sure but I suck at remembering names); and the awesome gentleman painter at the Privateer Press booth who critiqued some of my figures. If I've forgotten anyone from that crazy week, there's no offense intended - I feel I was in amongst a lot of great company; a little fish in a very large pond, as it were.

 And yes, I did finish a single figure entry, a Reaper Miniatures Wraith Harvester... mostly in the 3 days leading up to the painting competition deadline, where I got to sit at the GenCon demo tables upstairs and hobnob with greatness. My entry didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, but it made it past several of the initial cuts so there's that - I also got some good feedback on it and I'm fairly sure I know why it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped (and more importantly, how to improve on that in future). And then there's the "old school" converted Games Workshop Chaos Lord of Slaanesh that I painted several years ago and put in just for the hell of it as a second entry - oddly enough it ended up on the shelf right below the single figures that placed, which I'm to understand means in the selection process that the figure I painted up specifically for the competition was rather underwhelming compared to one I just put in as an "afterthought."

 With any luck I'll post some pictures soonish here and make this "hello again" wall of text worthwhile, but not tonight - It's late and I've got work in the morning.

2012 Chicago Games Day and Golden Demon Stuff

  I went to the GW Chicago Games Day this year with some friends and entered 4 figures in the Golden Demon competition. I am happy to say that all four made First Cut and that I won a Silver Demon for my entry in the Lord of the Rings category, a Dead Marsh Spectre!

  I finally got a chance to sit down this morning and take and edit pictures of my entry, and am in the process of taking and editing pictures of my other Golden Demon entries. (I also managed to take a decent number of pics of other entries in the competition, most of which managed to turn out halfway decent - editing those now, as well.) I'm not even going to go into my opinion of the Demon area design this year versus when I last entered stuff back in '07 and '08, other than to say that the figure cases were much improved even if the area itself was horribly laid out for viewing and I think actively contributed to the perpetually long line present all day.

Without further ado, pictures of my Dead Marsh Spectre LotR entry:

  For what it's worth, here's my "new" photo editing process: I took single pictures of the figure from all sides under 3 100-watt Reveal bulbs (a little closer in the front, also doubled image size for all pics), used the automagic Color Balance (didn't bother with cutting back on the red shift a little like I used to do), duplicated the image in 3 layers, adjusted the Histogram settings for the upper two layers (the first with adjusted high and low value range, 1.0 Gamma and -2 Midtone Compression - the second with the same high and low value ranges, 1.2 Gamma and -2 Midtone Compression), middle layer transparency of 70%, upper layer transparency of 60%, merging of all layers, editing Sharpness (Radius 0.6, Strength 100, Clipping 10), and auto image Clarification. Suggestions appreciated from anyone who has more experience with editing or color balancing photos!

  I'll be posting pictures of the rest of my entries as I can, also work-in-progress photos of a commission I'm currently working on for 5 very cool 101 Schwere SS-Panzerabteiling Tiger I tanks from the Flames of War game.

Last WFB Empire Amethyst Wizard WIP

 At this point, I think I can safely say that I've put as much work as I'd like into this Empire Amethyst Wizard without going too over the top, being totally nitpicky and fiddling with things to the point that I've done with previous competition painting figures.

 The base is finished with texture added, now painted, and a "spot color" element to tie the green areas together in a "triad" of sorts so the color looks balanced with the majority purple/violet in the rest of the figure's coloring. With input from Brandt over at Toadkiller Miniatures and my wife, the back of the figure now looks much less bland and "boring" that in previous postings.

 I think the liquid appearance effect I attempted in the flask turned out nicely, and while I'm not completely sold on the glass appearance effect I tried on the upper part of the flask (mostly due to the wonky bottle shape, or at least that's the official reason), I think that turned out reasonably well also.

Here's a pic of the wizard prior to spray sealing (a little fuzzy due to the image being taken on my iPhone):

Feedback, suggestions and comments would all be greatly appreciated. As per my intent with this guy to paint him up specifically for sale (as opposed to "for keeps"), I'll post details of the auction and such when I get that aspect of things together - haven't sold any painted figures of mine online yet (outside of commissions) so I'm looking forward to this!

Nearly-Finished WFB Empire Amethyst Wizard

 Awright - a roundup of changes/additions since the last posting about this guy: I added another slight highlight to a few select skin areas - bridge/tip of nose, knuckles, etc. I added shading to the gold skull at the top of his scythe and used the same sepia/burnt umber wash color to add a little more definition to his skin tones, especially depressions like his mouth, between his fingers, sides of his face, arm areas where they blend back into his sleeves, etc. I used the same dirty/rusty color on the blade and back end of his scythe on both sides, although why it shows up darker on the right side pic versus the left I have no idea. A light drybrushing/wetbrushing of Mithril Silver on the top edges and in striations down the scythe blade.

 I worked up smooth transitional highlights on his outer cloak with a thinned-down 1:1:1 GW Space Wolf Grey/VGC Hexed Lichen/GW Black Ink mixture, and then glazed the whole thing several times once dry with GW Badab Black - it's a nice paint when you balance the figure so it can dry evenly into depressions w/o tide pools. I also added striations on his beard with the original purple/grey highlight color I worked up to on his outer cloak.

 I worked up the wood grain on the wood of his scythe with fine lines of GW Graveyard Earth, 1:2 Graveyard Earth/Bleached Bone, VGC Sepia Ink, and then a slight glaze of thinned down VGC Sepia Ink to tie it all together more.

 As for the bottle, the highlights and interior "glass" color are painted on (minus a little glossiness from my paint thinners) - never tried anything like this before (it's quite a bit different from painting simple gemstones, I tell ya) and I'm really curious what you guys think of the finished bottle. I added more of a color fade from light to dark on the vivid green of the liquid in the bottle, too, as a part of tidying up the darker glass areas. If anyone wants more detail on the painting or colors used, just ask!

 I've got a little something decorative planned for the base so as to balance out the other greens with a "triad" of spot color. Aside from that, I'm thinking just plain muddy dirt appearance and a few patches of burnt-colored static grass. I had been considering some freehand to make it more saleable, but I think I've already put in more time and effort than I'm likely to get back in an auction for him so I don't think I'll do any of that, but I think the base decoration will be pure win... and who knows, I might actually get some decent bids out of it with a long enough auction.

 Would and of you readers familiar with selling figures online recommend a Buy Price or some such on eBay (or are there better mini auction sites, even?) - I still haven't sold any mini-related stuff via that route in all this time, so this guy will likely be my first. I was thinking a minimum price of at least $19.95 US - I don't consider that to be excessive considering he's a high-end tabletop character model, I put a fair amount of time and work into him... and I've no idea what to expect.