Not my best steel ever.

So, I finished the highlighting on the blade of the sword. Also did the first couple rounds of highlights on the gold, but that still has a ways to go. I may need to brighten back up the recessed parts of those bracers, too. I wanted to shade them down, but maybe not that much. Now it looks like the filigree is on top of another material. That wouldn't be bad, if it had been what I was going for. It wasn't. I'll probably finish the highlighting and see how I like the look, then decide.

He's got a few jewels, too. They'll be red, like the sash. There are no jewels sculpted on his necklace, but I'm going to paint red jewels on to the three large pendants to carry the red color up to his face. Maybe should have made his eyes red too, but I don't think I'm going to go back and change that.

Metals

Today I did the shading and highlighting on his belt, and started the gold metals. I also did the shading and the first round of highlighting on the blade of his sword.I'm not sure what to do with the wrist bands and the scroll work on them. I may fill in the recessed areas with a darker shadow color (same one I'll use to shade the grooves on his belt buckle and just do the gold highlighting on the scroll work.

I am pretty happy with the way the colors are coming together.

A little farther along.

Got a bit more done on the shadow demon. Highlighting on the linen bits, and a base coat on his belt. I wasn't sure about the red, but I think I like it.

Also started on his sword. Have you been wondering where his right hand is? Here it is. I'll be using the same set of colors as I did for his loin cloth, but it's metal, not cloth. So the trick will be if I can make the highlighting/shading on the sword sharp enough to read as metal when the same sets of colors are being used as cloth elsewhere.Also, I'm going to try to make the sword read darker than the cloth.

129!

Here's the lizard man with his finished base.

And the shadow demon - some highlighting on his clothing, and a little bit of deepening selected shadows and lining.

128!

Finished the other pair of spiders. They are much like the others.Still not my favorite swarm, but they'll serve fine for the purpose for which they are intended.

And I've almost finished the lizard man. It's just his base left, now. I'll finish that up next time.

Next time, back to the shadow giant. It's past time to get some of this stuff finished.

Critters

Started the second set of spiders. These will be black-ish. I used RMS Dark Elf Shadow for the base coat; it'll be dark enough to read as black but still allow for darker shadows. I hope.

And I finished the armor on the lizard man - highlighted the steel, did the gold bits. Next will be the shaft of his spear and the tunic...and the back claws on his feet that I missed when I was doing the claws.

126!

Finished the spiders. They're not great but will do fine in the 1st level dungeon of choice.2 more left that I'll probably zip through just like these.I'm not super fond of the sculpt; I like the idea but in practice it's kind of hard to see what it's supposed to be a pile of. I suppose if you are much more particular about how you paint them you can make that less of an issue.

And I worked more on the shadow demon today. Spent a while futzing with his skin before realizing that I wasn't really gaining anything by doing that - I was just making more work for myself because everywhere I tried to smooth something, or wake the highlight s little wider/narrower, I'd mess up and then have to fix just to get it back where it was. Doh...I do need to put a highlight on the bottom edge of his belly button, though.

So I moved on to his hair, horns, and gave him eyes. Also put a base coat on his tunic.I like the tone of the cloth but think there's not quite enough contrast against the skin. I'll lighten it up by using that base color as it's shadow and bringing the whole thing up lighter, and I think that will help. The hair is light blue, same as the highlight colors in his skin. It's blown out in the photos, but I'm pretty happy with it.

I'm also starting to think about what I'm going to do with those bracers. They look like they should be metal, but I'm not sold on that yet.

Back to the shadow demon

But not just him. For starters, I put darker shadows on the armor an pole arm. That's P3 armor shade, which dries kinda shiny. Next I need to highlight the armor.

Also, finally got back to the shadow demon. I put highlights on his skin.I may try to smooth a couple spots more, but in general I'm pretty happy with it. I'd also originally planned on taking those highlights up higher, but I'm not sure now that I want to. Maybe just in a couple spots.

And I starter a Bones spider swarm. I have four of these guys. The first two, obviously, will be brown. These will go fast - a wash, a drybrush, and that'll probably be it.In the picture, the paint is still wet in the nooks and crannies.

A little better with the eyes

I went back to Karick's face and cleaned up the eye and the highlights. I think it's better.As you can see, I also started on some of his clothes. I should find some pictures to double check, but my mental image of jedi and sith has them sticking to minimal colors and lots of neutrals. Another thing I noticed on this guy is that the metal used by Guild of Harmony appears to be quite soft. So, everywhere I filed him, there are noticeable file marks. They don't really show up in the pictures, but they do in person. Now that he's got a couple coats of paint on, I'll see if they are still objectionable next time. If so, I'll try putting on a couple coats of brush-on sealer as a gap filler and see if that'll smooth it out a bit more.

And I put some shading on the metal bits of the lizard man. It doesn't show up great in the photos, but it's there. I'll do another layer of darker shading next time.

*&!*# Tiny Little Eyes

So, I started with finishing off Karick's skin and doing his eyes. It took many tries to get the eyes so I was happy with them, particularly the left one. Then it turns out, the eyes look very different depending on the angle you're viewing them from. The angle the camera was at...not so good.Going to have to go back and revisit that, I think. Same with the shading on his face. Under the lighting I was working with, it looked fine. Here in the picture, it's not very balanced between the left and right sides of the face. Gonna have to go back and futz with it some more.

And, put some metallic on the lizard man. Not too much going on here, it's just a base coat.This guy is going to move along fairly quickly, so I may focus on him until he's finished.

Bits and Pieces

Did not do a ton today.

Put in the lizard man's head, upped the highlights on his skin, and did his teeth, claws, and eyes. Next for him will be his armor.

And, gave Karick's skin a base coat.

Whatever happened to the shadow guy? Don't worry, I'll get back to him soon.

Lizard at Paint Day

I went to Paint Day at a local game store today. Had a good time, met some folks, saw a lot of new talent just starting out with painting. :) And, I took this guy to work on. I did shading and highlighting on his skin. I'll need to check it again tomorrow in better lighting, but I think it's OK. I still need to do the areas that are going to be red, which for him will probably just be the rest of his face and the bits of crest that are sticking out between armor plates.

What's with the blue on the armor? Well, I'm going to use metallics on his armor, and base coating under steel with a blue is a technique I learned from Mr. Michael Proctor. It makes a solid base for the metals, which tend not to cover well, and also adds a little depth to them.

Next for him will be finishing off the red bits on his body, then probably eyes, teeth, and claws, then the metals.

Getting Back

Yeah, it's been a while. I had a sick cat, and then the holidays, and some other projects I had to get done. But, I'm back now.

I've prepped another guy. This is Karick-Dar, Apprentice, by Guild of Harmony. He's just got primer on him. The second picture is the base I'll put him on. It still needs a little more cleaning up.

Tomorrow, a local game store is having a paint day. I plan to go, but haven't yet decided what to take to work on. Might be the lizard man, might be the shadow demon, might be this guy. Might be all three and then I'll decide what to actually work on when I get there.

No, really. Deeper shadows.

Not a ton of work on this guy today, but some. I used Nightshade Purple, which is so dark it can look like black, for the deepest shadow areas on his flesh, as well as for lining. It's a subtle difference, but it is a difference. Not sure if it'll show up in these photos or not. Next will probably be starting to highlight his skin.

Deeper Shadows

I did a second round of shadows on the demon. I went with the dark green, because it's not what I'd usually do. Time to experiment a bit. I'm pretty happy with the results, but I probably will come back with a last layer of Nightshade Purple for the very darkest bits and lining.

Shadow Demon

Picking up the shadow demon again. He's got one layer of shadows on his skin now. I did them in a bluish purple. It doesn't show up great in the pictures, but trust me, it's there. I'm debating what to use for the deep shadow color. Maybe a darker purple...maybe something like a brown. I'm trying to bring some variety in colors into the shadows rather than sticking with the same tones, just darker. I wonder what a really dark green would look like...though, I'm not sure that's where I want to go for the overall look.

This guy is big, so doing one layer takes most of the evening. The good news is, once his skin is done, the rest should go quick.

Next lizard man

Didn't get very far today. The weather we've been having has been giving me headaches, which makes painting somewhat more difficult. But I did get a start on this guy.