Wednesday 29 February 2012

Scavvy (1994/2012)

A little blog filler before I expound on my previous entry (old school ogres tomorrow!).

I first painted this Hiveworld Scavvy waaaay back. I considered it finished even though there were little bits not quite done. Recently mounted on a Citadel scenic resin base (which was when I noticed the unfinished bits). Its not bad. Wish I had some green stuff for the right arm (only had milliput), its passable though the shoulder isn't built up enough, sword and forearm from a readily sacrificed C01 fighter, left arm from an early Imperial Guardsman.




Right, ogres to finish off now...


~J~

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Future Projects

This entry is about written promises. Or more accurately, a written goad. Seemed to work last time.

Promise 1 - Recreate McDeath's Last Stand.

Promise 2 - Complete Project Ogre.

Promise 3 - Paint something NICE not GRIBBLY!

Promise n - where 'n' is any number of diorama ideas floating around in my head and forming a queue.


Of course I am really just speaking to myself here. Pay me no attention.

~J~

PS
For the committed readers of blogs, I will detail each of the above over the coming days.

Friday 17 February 2012

Khymerae

Simultaneously completed last night, a pair of Stygian horrors courtesy of Jes Goodwin. I wonder if Jes has Wayne Barlowe art books in his library. Does he even have a library?

I did a cursory search for other painted examples (just to see what others have done), but it seems not many are that bothered with these models... they should be though.





Technique: there was absolutely no 'flat' painting on these, all was done with washes of two primary colours (over Vallejo white primer): Vallejo Prussian Blue; Windsor & Newton Finity Alizarin Crimson; Portrait Pinks from Liquitex, used for a little highlighting in between primary washes; some Vallejo Black for the eyes and deep shading; Daler-Rowney Silver ink for claws, etc. Base was sculpted with standard Milliput with bits of slate and painted in Vallejo browns, later darkened by mixing in some GW Charadon Granite. 

I'm ambivalent about the basing: I was aiming for a streaking effect, to suggest speed, and the texture is OK-ish in that regard, but I found the lines were too linear during painting. Something more like a chevron enhanced by light brush flicking would have been better, I reckon. Anyways, they look decent enough as is, a touch alien, otherworldly (not a terrain you would easily find on Earth)...

~J~

Post Scriptum.
Why silver ink. I had thoughts of alien physiology while painting these. I'm aware of things like comparative biology and such, but I didn't want to do the obvious 'bone' thing. Why couldn't an alien monster have evolved metal laced bone weaponry? 
(yes, like Wolverine) 



Thursday 16 February 2012

Lapsed Logo

Stop gap logo quickly composed in Photoshoppe. Perhaps sitting a little large on the top, could do with a nice border too, and a nice textured background behind the text, more grunge. Miniatures?

Oh yes, a pair of Dark Eldar Khymera's to be blogged here this weekend. Finishing them tonight.

Friday 10 February 2012

Stuff on the go

Keep threatening to sit down to paint but end up doing something else instead. These are jobs I MUST finish dammit!
Technically, the Lava Dragon has been waiting to be finished for over 15 years FFS. The Wyvern ought to be done soon, found some great painting reference in a modern book of dinosaurs.



These Khymeras are examples of my recent approach to painting, 2 colour wet-on-wet washes as a base coat. The left Khymera has had more layers applied. MUST FINISH Grrrr!

~J~

Thursday 9 February 2012

Something Gribbly This Way Comes...

Chaos Champion on Palanquin of Nurgle (1994)


Another old favourite. I still find it interesting to look at, despite the fact it is really so horrible in its subject matter: worm ridden, half rotten.... bleugh.

It was experimental at the time and has many imperfections, mostly parts that look half finished. It presages the way I am painting lately, which is to build up depth and contrast and colour variation through multiple washes, in a wet-on-wet fashion. Nurgles' subjects present opportunities to be less than careful about how the colour is applied, messy and mixed up. The Champion is painted fairly conventionally, but for the other parts, I wanted them to feel like background, in a way influenced by an artist featured in White Dwarf #96, Ian McCaig.

I did something similar with an Ral Partha Imperial Dragon, a basic base coat on the treasure pile, then lots of mono-colour washes, getting deeper in tone away from the dragon.

I'll be adding some detail views here when get around to editing them.