20!

And, to round out the year, here is the finished Freja.

And that's enough green and purple for a while, I think.

20 figures (not counting commissions) isn't bad for the year. Not the best count I've had by far, but not the worst, and I'm proud of a lot of the work I did this year.

I hope to start up next year by finishing up a couple of the projects that I started last year and then stopped working on/abandoned for other things. Also, very soon you should start seeing planning for my World Model Expo entry.

19!

So, here's what I was working on for a big chunk of the month I wasn't posting. It was a Christmas present, so I didn't want to post anything until it had been given. That's done now, so...here's Cthulhu.

This is Reaper Bones Cthulhu. It's a large model - 9", according to the package. The first thing to figure out was how to hold him while painting him. My husband made this handle that could be screwed into his nethers.

After that, I airbrushed a shadow and base coat on. Didn't get any pictures after just the airbrushing, unfortunately.

With the base coats in place, I went on to shading a highlighting. This is early in the highlighting process.

Shading and highlighting took a while. He's a big guy. Here he is, farther along in the highlighting and shading.

Once I had the shading and highlighting of his skin the way I wanted it, I went on to his scales.

...and also his spines and claws.

Once his body was complete, I went on to his head. I had a separate holder for the head so I could work on it without it being on the body.

After the head was the wings, and then basing him. I used the base he came with but put it on a wood (cherry, if you're curious) platform that my husband cut for me. I had to adjust the base a bit as well, as he didn't quite fit on it the way he was meant to. I filled in the hole in the stone slab his foot was supposed to go into because it wasn't reaching, then drilled another hole farther toward the inside of the base.

And that's all of him.

Freja: Armor

Worked on Freja's armor and leather bits today. I should get her finished up tomorrow. All I need to do is put some highlights on the armor, paint a couple of straps on her shield, and the base.

Freja: Tabard, Coat

More work on Freja. I think the first time I painted this (I'll show that one when this one is done, for comparison) I made that jacket thing more metal armor. This time I've decided it's a sort of quilted jacket thing.

I'm back! And, Freja.

Yes, it's been a while. Holidays and working on commission stuff that I couldn't post. Should be back to normal from here on out.

I started working on Freja Fangbreaker today. She is destined to be a table top figure...I mean her to be a quick and easy 'palette cleanser', if you like, to wrap up the year before I get back to Skarre.

Skarre: Hair Highlights

I started putting the next lightest color on Skarre's hair.

She has a lot of hair.

I'm being very generous with this round of highlights as I want the dark brown base to be more of a shadow color. So, there's a lot of this lighter brown going on. I'll keep working up from here.

18!

Finished up Maya tonight. That was doing her holster, her guns, earrings, metal bits on the belt, and then of course her base.

I tried for a grimy, abandoned gym/shower type look on the floor, along with some blood streaks. That might not traditionally go with the 60's vibe and the go go boots, but this is my world. Bad things happen.

Maya: Dress, Boots

I finished texturing Maya's dress. I don't think it really works at conveying the intended effect, but I learned from it. One thing I learned was to do the whole thing at once, or at least set out the base pattern if there is one all at once. I didn't do a very good job of keeping the pattern consistent.

I also did her boots and belt. I went with white, even though that may cause problems later with her base. They just really needed to be white. Also base coated the holster for her sidearm and its harness.

Maya: Texture

Experimenting with putting texture on Maya's dress. I'm using rows of  light and dark dots to give it the texture of woven heavy yarn - dark dots for the 'holes' between the stitches, and light dots for the yarn. The light dots go slightly above and offset from the dark dots to make a row of stitches. I'm not sure it really works, but I don't hate it and I'm going to finish it out. I've only done the top two thirds of the front of her dress so far.

I'm putting in highlight areas by using lighter colors for the light dots. For the shadows, I'm using darker shades for both the light and dark dots, and then glazing in some shading like normal over the dots.

Maya: Hair, Dress

Finished Maya's hair and put a base coat on her dress. She's wearing what looks like a sweater dress, so I'm going to try to put some texture on it. Wasn't up for starting that tonight, though. It'll be a bit of a project.

I'm also tempted to make her boots white now, but that'd be asking for trouble. It'll draw the eye down to her feet, which is not what I want. Also, the base she's going on will be white-ish tile, so there may be issues there.

But we'll see. Right now I really want those to be white go-go boots. If I do that, the belt will have to be white as well. Harness for the holsters still needs to be black.

Maya: Skin, Hair

Finished Maya's skin, including her face, and put a base coat on her hair. While I was doing that, I saw her ears are actually sticking out through the hair so I put flesh tone on them.

Pet peeve: eyes hidden under hair. A note to sculptors: putting a figure's eye under its hair is challenging, yes, but not in a fun way. More of a 'OK so she's cross-eyed, live with it' sort of way. Especially when you make tiny little eyes already.

Skarre: Finishing Face. Also, Say Hello to Maya.

I finished Skarre's face today...mostly. I'm not sure about that right eyebrow. I was going for a arched/lifted look, but I think it just looks placed wrong. Dunno. Gonna think on it. Other than that, I smoothed the shadows and gave her some highlights.

Also started on her hair.

And here's something I hope will be a quick project, just something to work on when I don't feel like working hard on Skarre. This is Maya, from Hasslefree.

Skarre: More Shading

I was reminded that with larger scale figures, you have the space to get more variety of tones in. So I went back to the stuff from the workshop I took earlier this year. According to that, faces will have bluer shades on the bottom, red across the cheeks, and yellow on the forehead and nose. Now, they mean for that to be subtle shades and tints, and subtle is totally not what I'm doing with her shading.

So, I added blue on the bottom and red across the middle. The yellow will go in with the highlights.

I have lots of work to do yet. Those shadow colors need a lot of smoothing and for the transitions to be made less stark.

Skarre: Still Shading Skin

Continued on with the Skarre bust today. I knocked down that shadow a bit, and then promptly brought it back up by putting in my deep shadow color, which is purple. Not a dark desaturated purple like I use often, but a saturated violet. I have a lot of work to do yet on smoothing and some placement issues, but I like the color.

Skarre: Shading Skin

I started this one a while ago, then worked on other things. Now I'm getting back to her. Didn't do a ton, just started laying in some shadows for her skin. It looks smoother in person. I'm wondering if what I should do is put in a lighter transition shadow.

17!

Wrapped up Halmar today. The OSL isn't great, but he's supposed to be a short project and I want to move on to other things. I like the stark contrast on his face, but the rest is kinda meh. The bottom is basically untouched by the OSL, which I think is correct based on where the light is and how he's standing, but may not be so correct based on what looks good.

ReaperCon Roundup

ReaperCon 2016 has come and gone. Went, had a good time. In the competition, Takhi got a gold and the diorama got a silver. Both are what I expected.

While I was there, I painted this guy (16!):

He's another Bones figure for gaming.

I also started this one, meaning to practice some OSL. Didn't get real far at the con and want to move on to other things now that I'm home, so I'm finishing him up quick and dirty, but with the OSL. This is with maybe 4-5 hours of work. I need to do the belt and mess with the orange a bit, then do the base, and he'll be done. Blends are not exactly smooth and I'm not sure I'm happy with the OSL effect or not. I decided to go with a pretty stark look to the OSL, and I think some parts carry it off better than others.

15!

Here's Micon, all finished with his base!