Jynx: Hair, skirt

Got back to Jynx today. I did shading and highlighting on her hair and dress. I'll do the same on her jacket, then go back and put in the purple from the orb. I tried to place the highlights as if the light were coming from the orb, which of course it will be in the affected areas. I am planning on making it so that the globe is not putting out that much light, so its effect won't reach past her face and torso.

I did also work on Kalee and the sorceress. I did the bit of putty that Kalee needs; she'll be ready for primer tomorrow. I also did some gap filling on the sorceress. Neither of them look different, so no pictures.

I do have some basing ideas for the sorceress - I'm thinking I'll put her on some kind of gothic roof or tower. That made me think of Mistborne, with all the Pushing and Pulling to superleap around buildings. So, I'm going to call her Vin, even though she doesn't look much like that character.

Kalee and Sorceress

I didn't have a lot of time for painting today, but I did get some work in on continuing the prep on the sorceress and Kalee.

I did some gap filling on the sorceress, and added another of her bits of cloth. Next I'll need to gap fill that. Also, she still needs a name.

I also moved Kalee's arm so I could get the sword and shield attached. She's glued to the base and the sword is glued on, but the shield is just temporarily stuck in place. I'll paint it separately and then attach it. She is pretty much ready to start - there's a casting flaw on her leg that I need to fix with a bit of putty, and then she'll be ready for paint.

Jynx: Shading and Highlighting Skin

Today I got back to Jynx and worked on shading and highlighting her skin.

Now, the highlights look weird on her face and hands. That's because I'm going to do the globe as a glow effect. So, her hands will get a lot of light from the globe, and it will be lighting her face from the front and below. I've placed highlights with that in mind. Later, I'll go over them with purple glazes to give it the right hue.

I've also decided to try to make her eyes glow with the same purple. This may be a mistake - I don't often see glowing eyes that look successful to me, and the fact that hers are tiny isn't going to help.

Source lighting is one of those things that will often look kinda weird until it is mostly in place, so expect her to look kinda off for the next few sessions.

Class example. Zahra: Primer. Sorceress: Some more pieces.

I did another demo mini for a class I'm planning for this year's ReaperCon. This guy is purposely low contrast.

Yesterday I did some puttying and gluing of pieces on other figures I've started. In part, that got Zahra ready for primer today.

She's got a lean to her. Part of it is the sculpt, but part is also how she's on the base. That's not going to be changing now - I had so much trouble getting her solid on the base, I'm not going to mess with it. She has a couple more pieces, but they will have to go on after the main body is painted.

And finally, I got some of the wavy bits of cloth for the sorceress.

Those pieces are not fitting very well at all. I'm going to have to putty them a lot, and then after that I'll add more. Also, I have not been able to figure out how she's supposed to fit on her base. Most likely, I'm going to build a custom base that fits where the various bottom pieces actually are.

Jynx: Color Blocking

I started with testing a skin color I haven't used before on Jynx - Reaper Bones Warrior Skin. It's a similar value as RMS Tanned Skin, but a little more red and less brown. As I was debating shadow colors for her skin, I decided I was going to make her orb spell effect thing there glowing purple. Glowing means OSL.

OSL requires a little planning and forethought. Color choices can have a pretty significant effect on the end result. So, I decided I wanted to do a color test before getting into shading and highlighting.

One of the guidelines for effective OSL is that the light source needs to be the brightest thing on the figure. I mean, it's a light source. So the purple globe will end up with a white center. It also means that the surrounding things - her clothes, hair, skin, etc. - need to not be light colors. That's why I went with a darker Caucasian tone.

Next, that purple is going to be the basis of the highlight color everywhere the light from that globe falls. So, it needs to play nicely with the colors it's going to get layered on to, but also not look like a 'normal' highlight color for those items.

Anyway, I think these colors will work (though I wish the purple was a little more saturated - I might be able to fix that), so next time I work on her I'll start with the shading and highlighting. At that point, I'll talk a bit about OSL and the directionality of highlights and shadows.

Next Projects!

I spent most of this weekend doing prep work on some things that will be my next projects. There's four of them, which is really too many, but so be it.

This is Jynx from Hasslefree:

She is based, primed, and ready to paint, and should be pretty quick. Which is why I decided to work on her, because the other things I have are going to need a lot more pre-paint work. She just needed a minimal bit of cleanup and to get attached to her base.

Next is Kalee, also from Hasslefree.

She's a 40mm figure, which is kind of an unusual scale. She's mostly together, but needs a little gap filling where here head is attached. Also, there's a scabbard that's supposed to hang off her belt on her left hip, but as the figure is now it won't fit in there. I need to warm the resin and bend her arm out a bit at the shoulder to make room. Even if I do that, it's going to be a pretty tight fit in there. So I'm debating whether I want to put the piece on or not. She also has a shield that will go on her left arm, but that will have to be put on after paint. It covers a bunch of stuff. I want to put the pins in it so everything will fit when I do that, but first I need to decide if I'm going to move her arm.

Here is Zahra, from Arena Rex:

Her other hand is holding a whips that kinda circles around the figure. It's going on later because it'll be in the way of pretty much everything if I put it on now. It's also metal, which makes it less fragile than it would be if it were resin, but it means that it bends easily (and eventually all the bending will lead to a break). So that weapon is going on later. As it is, this piece is going to be a challenge. The point where it attaches to her base is very small. Also, she needs some gap filling where there were bubbles in the resin.

And last, is some kind of sorceress from Ares Mythologic. I don't think she has a name, so I'll have to think of one. This is a 54mm figure.

I've put together her main body here. Her missing hand has a sword that will a. be in the way of painting and b. is again thin and bendy, so it'll go on later. I've done that dance with bendy swords before, and it is not fun. I have some gap filling to do on the leg joins here, and then I can see about putting on the rest of her pieces. The sculpt is meant to be kinda floating in the air, and it uses these long pieces of cloth  from her clothes to hold her up. There's also a base that came with her...I may or may not use it. Putting her together is going to be a lengthy process with many stages.

4!

Noxious is done! I'd been hoping to get 2 figures a month done this year, and he's a little late, but so be it. (To be fair, I have done a couple commission pieces, which puts me above 2/month).

My next project is another commission, so don't expect to see much for a few days.

Noxious: Sword, shield

Painted the sword, or most of it, and base coated the shield and attached it. There's also some straps on the sword hilt that will be dark brown, I just forgot to do them while I was painting the shield.

Not too much more!

Noxious: Loincloth, wrappings

Today I did Noxious's loincloth and the wrappings on his feet and arms. I went with a light color because I think he needs some more range in value. His shield will be dark brown, so that should end up with a nice spread from light to dark tones across the whole figure.

Couple more sessions, and I think he'll be done.