Bonaccia: Bodice, Cloak, Blade

I did the shading and highlighting on the piping on her bodice, then went back and highlighted the cloak. Last, I've started the blade. That's a base coat and a first round of shadow. I think it's just finishing the blade and then painting her base that's left.

Bonaccia: Bodice

Today I put highlights on Bonaccia's bodice. Then, rather than go on to the cloak, I put in the gold piping. I wanted to see how it was going to all go together. So far, so good.

Bonaccia: Boots, Cloak, Ruffles, Bodice

Today I put the top highlight on her boots and gloves, though I may go back with a bit of a purple glaze since everything else has a bit of purpley highlights. I did the ruffles, then painted the bodice purple and re-based the cloak with the same purple. Pretty sure I like it better than the black cloak, though I don't love it as much as I thought I would.

Bonaccia: Hair, Boots, Gloves, Cloak

I finished Bonaccia's hair today. It's an experiment; I want it to read as black, and went with a much more saturated blue-purple than I would usually use. Have to see what it looks like when everything else at least has a base color on it.

I continued the expermienting. Her sleeves and leggings are a not-quite-black that leans purple, the boots and gloves are a true black, and the cloak is a neutral but less dark black. The differences are visible, but they are also very subtle so they are only apparent if you look very close, under good lighting. I'm not sure I like that much black; I am thinking I will change the cloak to a dark purple instead. I finished the highlights on the sleeves and leggings, and started highlights on the boots and gloves. I want to give them a shiny, glossy look, so I will finish them up with white, and probably end up pulling back some of the blues that are there.

Bonaccia: Mask, Hair

I continued on with Bonaccia today. Did the mask, including some freehand detail, and started on her hair. Just a base coat on that so far. Her colors are going to be purple, black, gold, and white, but I haven't quite decided where everything is going to go yet. Probably the tunic will be purple, and the boots and gloves black. The ruffles will be the while. The sleeves, leggings, and cloak...not sure yet.

14!

Here's Lanaerel, all finished.

Also got in a little work on Bonaccia, just detailing what there is of her face.

Lanaerel: Bits & base

I've got his gold bits and silver buckles finished, and have the base there or mostly there. He's done, but I might futz with the base a bit more before I call that finished - paint some of the leaves, particularly the ones in back, and maybe add a bit of water effect. Or I may just leave it as is. In any case, he's almost done, but I'm not quite ready to give him his number yet.

Lanaerel: Tartan

I moved on to the cloak today - putting the tartan pattern on there and then shading and highlighting it.

This is simplified from the source, but if I tried to put all the detail of he source pattern on there it would be pretty busy, even overwhelming. Also, while there is shading and highlighting, there's less of it in both amount and level of contrast than what I'd do on a plain surface. While you need to shade and highlight your freehand, again, here I didn't want to muddy things.

I still may have overworked it some. I'm letting it sit for a day or two, and I'll see what I think looking at it with fresh eyes.

Lanaerel: Leather, Base

Got back to work on the elf today. I started by shading and highlighting the leather bits. Next will be getting back to the cloak.

I also started putting together a scenic base for him.

This is a piece of bark glued to a plastic base, then spray primed. I added some milliput on the ends to fill it in and make the ends less abrupt. It's not as detailed or textured as the bark itself, but I plan to cover it with grass and foliage and such, so I just need a general shape.

Bonaccia, Marcus: Basing Skin

I didn't feel up to doing anything that would take actual concentration today, so I just went with base coating skin on Bonaccia and Marcus.

Lanaerel: Sleeves, leggings, cloak. Also, new projects.

First, an update on Lanaerel. I shaded and highlighted his sleeves and leggings. Then I kinda stalled. I wasn't feeling real motivated. Somebody suggested a try doing a tartan type thing for his cloak, and that sounded interesting. I looked for some potential color schemes and patterns, and after a few minutes with Google I settled on this guy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_tartans_of_Canada#/media/File:Tartan_of_Nova_Scotia.png

So I've re-based his cloak with what I see as the base color for the pattern, or at least something like it. This also serves as a color check to make sure the color will be OK. It'll be a little less strident once the pattern is on, but this will still be the main cloak color.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are in Saturated Land. It's definitely not a color scheme I'd normally use, but that's why I'm sticking with it. Probably next I'll go back and finish off the browns, and then come back to the cloak.

I also spent some time prepping my next two projects. Marcus here is the next of my Arena Rex gladiators. I'm not going to make that much of a dent in my collection this year, but I'm going to keep trying.

And this is Bonaccia from Freebooter minis. She's from my box of pre-primed figures, most of which I spray-primed years ago. In general, these minis aren't cleaned up as well and many have grainy primer. I prepped them a long time ago, at a time when I was using spray primer a lot so I'd prime a bunch of stuff before winter so I'd have plenty to work on while using spray paint wasn't a likely thing. At the time, I wasn't doing as good a job at cleaning up my figures. So now, most of these are in the 'speed paint' category - things to do just for fun, with low expectations. That being said...she does look like fun.

Lanaerel: Tunic

Shading and highlighting on his tunic. For got to do the shading on his hair...hopefully tomorrow.

Lanaerel: Face, Hair

Some progress on our elf friend today. I finished the shading and highlighting on his skin and did the details on his face, then moved on to his hair. I think the hair is pretty much done, though I may go back and add some shadows on the underside of the curled areas.

Lanaerel: Catching Up

This is Lanaerel Grayleaf. He was the June Dungeon Dweller figure from Reaper Minis, with the studio model pained by me. There's a guide available here: http://www.reapermini.com/dungeondwellers, and a video at http://www.reapermini.com/.

This is a second copy with all the colors blocked in. I'm going to finish him up as a gift for a friend. I may change some of the colors from the original, in particular the hair. I'm just starting to work on shading the skin here.

I'm still here!

Yes, it has been a long time! I'm still here and I'm still painting, I just haven't been able to do an update for a while. I've been travelling a fair bit and also working on commissions. Also, this has happened and been cutting in to my hobby time:

This is Ripley. She is a 4-month old Bernese Mountain Dog. She currently weighs in at 32 lbs, and still has a lot of growing to do.

So, be patient, and I promise I'll be back to doing updates soon!