Sorcerer: Gold Base Coat

 Today I got everything that's going to be gold base coated. Some of it was already and those parts I just touched up.

Sorcerer: Staff, Boots, Hair, Scroll

 Today was shading and highlights on the staff, boots, and hair, and I also painted the scroll.

I did a lot of futzing with the brown areas. I used a couple more of the Scale 75 paints for the highlights, but the color wasn't quite what I wanted. The first round of highlights was a very warm brown, and the second was a much more desaturated, cool brown. I didn't have much hope it'd play well together and give the overall look I wanted, and I was not wrong. So, I ended up doing a couple glazes over it to get more of the tone I wanted and also to reduce the area of the first highlight. It's still not as good as it would have been if I'd used my usual colors for brown-that-reads-as-black, but it's better than it was originally.

Next I'll work on the golds, which I think will make a big difference.

Sorcerer: Highlights, Shading, and More Highlights

 Finished the highlights on the teal, and shaded and highlighted the magenta.

He doesn't look it yet, but I think he's going to come together nice.

Sorcerer: Contrasty bits

There's more highlighting to do on the teal, but I spent most of tonight prepping some new projects and I didn't have a ton of time after that for this guy. So, instead I base coated the veil and loincloth thingy. I was expecting the color to be more red than magenta, but the magenta is fine.

I should really spend some time focusing on this guy and get him finished up. That'll probably happen soon - the things I'm prepping all need bases or plinths to be cut, and that may not happen for a few days. 

Sorcerer: Shading & Highlights

 I've redone the shading on the sorcerer and starter the highlights. Much better.

Sorcerer: A Thing That Didn't Work

 I got back to the sorcerer today, starting to shade his cloak. It did not go well. Sticking with the idea of using all the Scale 75 paints, I mixed the reddish-purple color I had used to block in shadows before putting the figure together with the base teal, and got a slightly purple-ish gray. I was dubious, but went with it. It got chalky and pale as it dried. When I went back with the straight-red purple, it was quite clear it just wasn't going to work. So, I'm going to go back over everything with the base coat and change my shadow color. It won't be one of my new paints, but so be it. I'm probably going to switch to a dark blue.

11!

 Finished Vin today. I painted and glued on all the unattached bits, puttied some of the gaps after placing her, and painted the putty. 

Some of the skirt bottom areas are more visible than I was expecting, and I probably should have done more with them...then again, it's not where the focus should be. I wish she stood out better against the backdrop...I'm not sure how to fix that. Making her hair dark wasn't enough. I also wish the piece had more of a 'night time' feel to it...I do know how to do that in theory, I just didn't do it. But it's done, and honestly I'm pretty content with how it came out. 

Vin: Put Together

I finished Vin's skirt today and put her on her base. She's not done - I still have to paint and attach a couple additional small pieces, like her other hand. There's also a couple build issues I'm going to fix. For instance, the extra bit that I put back on her skirt hits against one of the columns, so she doesn't sit quite down all the way on the base. I am probably going to jam some putty in underneath to fill the gap and hopefully make the join a little stronger.

I'm probably not going to fix the gaps between the little pillars and the base. I don't think I could without making it look funky. 

As a whole, this piece is working out more or less the way I wanted. It has some issues:

• Construction issues where things don't join as tightly as I wanted.
• She's pretty fragile - I would not want to travel with this piece.
• The window works, but really looks best when it's backlit. It would be better to have some LEDs in the back or something to make that happen.

Vin: Still Skirts

Shading and highlights on that one side of the skirts. This is probably all I'm going to do with that, but I'm not sure. 

Vin: Skirts

 I've got a plan for dealing with Vin's skirts now. I'm going to do the parts on one side, get it complete while using the other side as my holding spot, and then do the second half. Hopefully I can move around where I'm holding it, or hold it in less visible areas, and try to do it quickly to avoid too much rub-off. We'll see.

Anyway, I re-primed and started the base coat on half her skirts. I've decided to make them red at the top, transitioning to purple part way down. The purple I'm using is very transparent, which will help with the blending at the transition, but be terrible for coverage on the bottom. So, I have more base coating to do.

I'm not going to worry a ton about shading and highlights on the lower parts, as they're not going to be very visible. 

Vin: Boots, Eyelets, cleanup

I finished Vin's boots, did the rivets for her bodice and boot laces, did the boot laces, and then cleaned up the spots where I'd slopped paint on to her skin while working on the boots.

I also re-attached that bit on her skirt(s) in preparation for painting them. I need to re-putty it as well, but hopefully it'll stick this time.

Vin: Boots

Continued on with the boots. I base coated whatever those things are around the boots, shaded them, and just barely got started on highlights. 

I'm going to have some cleanup to do on her legs once the boots are done. Reaching in to get all the boot area has been a bit tricky.

Vin: Bodice, Boots.

 I didn't have a lot of time today, but I did manage to get the detailing on the bodice done, at least some of it. There are some rivets I need to do. I also started on her boots.

Vin: Bodice Shading & Highlights

 I got back to Vin today, putting shading and highlighting on her bodice. This is clearly her adventuring lingerie. I wasn't super careful with it; a lot of it isn't going to be that visible, and the detail work will also obscure things somewhat.