Colors!

I promised all the colors I used, so here they are:

Black Grey #862
Intermediate blue #903
Flat Aluminum # 993
Neutral Grey #992
Black #950
London Grey #836
Cork brown #843
Flat Brown #984
Cavalry Brown #982
Red Leather #818
Black Brown #822
Dark Sand #847
USA Tan-Earth #874
Red #947
Goldbrown #877
Chocolate Brown #872
Orange Ochre #824
Basic Skin Tone #815
Beasty Brown GC-43
Sunny Skin Tone #845
Ivory #918
Medium Olive #850
Flat Green #967
Citadel Flesh Wash
Citadel Dark Green Ink

Too lazy to put them in the other numbered order right now...

Stage 12

Okay, I did the freehand on the bolter and tried some on the tabards.. Then thought it sucked and painted over it. And with that, I will say this is a done mini. I just need to spray her with Testors and glue a lil bit of grass on.. I could try and do more freehand, but I think it looks good enough and part of painting is knowing when to stop.. I think I may do one of these live paintings in the future, but it'll probably go for a week and not a day.

So, children wwhat did we learn today?
I learned the importance of a good wet pallette, I learned Red Bull glows in the dark, I learned my body doesn't like getting it's rythem thrown off, and most importantly I've learned the value of good friends. (Group hug, freeze frame of everyone smiling, roll credits) :P

Stage 11 and a half

Okay, so after I got out of that coma, I fixed the face a bit by adding a bit more Ivory to the edges. I also reworked one of the eyes, though it still looks the same when I photograph it.. Anyways, I like to practice my freehand before I do it, so I knew I had to put a Fleur De Lis on something, so I'm thinking of putting a Renaissane-y patter around it, but you can see on this index card how I progress, even after attempting it for a few minutes. I've found the best way was to make a point of paint, and make a curve from it, then do the inside. I'm thinking of doing it in Orange Ochre and Sunny Skintone to make it gold embossed. I'm either going to go lighter or black wit the freehand on the robe tabard.. it may be too dark already, though.

Stage 11

The Face was done with Cork brown and Ivory, with the eyes being first painted black, then the whites painted with Ivory and the pupil was put in with Black Brown, the same was done for the teeth.. Okay, now that it is "officially" done, I need some rest before I can try and tackle Freehand, which is tricky for an artist on the best of days. I said I get it done in two days and if I sleep for one, that's my problem, so everyone think up questions or comments on it!

Stage 10

Tried to get a nice view of the hair, but the best shot would be slightly above it.. Anyways, I tried to do a plainum blonde look, like Ephereal Stern, so I thoughtI might be able to lay lighter colors over a colored area... but after a few strokes, I think I liked the blonde even though it wasn't white as I'd like. Anyways, I used Vallejo Game Color's (the ones that mimick Citadel's paint) Beasty Brown GC-43 for the darker areas and mixed with Orange Ochre #824 then to Sunny Skin Tone #845 and Ivory #918. I used a mix of Suny Skintone and Ivory to pick out strands, then went over them with straight Ivory.I also did the Grenade a dark green with Medium Olive #850 and Flat Green #967, with some more Citadel ink, Dark Green this time (though you can't see any of it, really).

Tooshy wants to know how I'm getting such a matte finish.... Luck? I really have no idea, I am getting some glossiness on the darker parts of the robe, but for some reason my black is glossy, even though it says it's matte. For sealers I use testor's to make it nice and matte.. I was just debating what a matte finish on a Metallic mini would do today (well, yesterday technically) and I didn't think I wanted to find out at a big risk... Face is next!

Stage 9

Obviously, the copper came out how I thought it would: cool! I used mostly Red Leather #818 and Basic Skin Tone #815 with some Cavalry Brown #982 for shading in some areas, and Citadel Flesh Wash for blacklining (in the copper pattrn, I already blacklined it with black).

N.H. wants to know how I would've stripped a mini in progress. I have a brush with stiff plastic bristles, so it can get into some areas smaller than a toothbrush, but not by much. I usually just use water, which is enough to get the paint off because usually if I need to strip in progress, it's because I just did something I didn't like. I eithr do that, or fingernail or the old standby brutal hobby knife.

Stage 8

Oy.. this had to be the hardest gold I've ever done.. I usually use skin tones, but they weren't cooperating, so I used Dark Sand #847, Goldbrown #877, Chocolate Brown #872 and some Orange Ochre #824 in some places. The heacache was the shoulderpad when I figured out it wasn't working and I had too many coat on.. I could've tried to strip it, but I don't have the armor mix anymore, as much as I tried to save it. Hopefully, Copper will go better, even though I haven't done it that often.. then it'll be hair and skin time, sneaking that grenade in there somewhere!

Stage 7

I must say I'm getting lazy, this would have been done about an hour ago, but I got ont eh computer and surfed.. Well, the leather is a mix of Black Brown #822 and USA Tan-Earth #874. I hate when there's tiny litle details on leather like that.. comes out looking weird, maybe a little of the darker mix would help. I also used some watered down Red #947 (tell me, who makes two colors with the exact same name but different shade? Vallejo.) to saturate the bolter more.. And if you notice, I messed with the pipes every now and then, I think this is the best it gets, so I stop them now. I think Gold NMM bits will be next.

Speaking of NMM, Unc from Confrontation forums wants to know how long the armor took. I think about 4 hours total , but durng this whole thing I can't paint for more than around 2 without needing a break. He also wants to know how much I hin my paints.. I usually add one drop of mixed flow aid to bottles now to keep them smoother, but I usually only add one drop of slow dri to a mix of a small glob of paint.. maybe 6 drops. I thin paint to the consistancy of milk for things like skin, because it needs the layers.

Stage 6

HIGUYSIJUSTHADMYFIRSTSIPOFREDBULLANDIWANNAPAINTPAINTPAINTPAINT!!!!!

Really, it's like that.

Okay, so Paint from the Confrontation would like me to put the Numbers on my Vallejo paints. I'll do them all in a wrap up later, but on the bolter I used Flat Brown #984, Cavalry Brown #982, Red Leather #818 and blacklined with Black Brown #822. I might add more shading later, but I think it looks brighter in real life.. maybe the light of the lamp is messing it up.. But I did a more Mars brown, because following tradition, all Boltrs are painted red from the Mars forgeworld. Master crafted bolters are yellow, but she needs the color and I wouldn't think she is a veteren. Also, last time I forgot to mention I did the skulls with Dark Sand #847 and a Citadel Flesh Wash, GW ink is the only thing I use from them these days.. Next: Leather!

Stage 5

I've done teh black areas with mixes of Black and London Grey. I hate doing black, I should do a squad of Black Templars just to get over it. The Beige was done with Ivory, Dark Sand, Orange Ochre and Chocolate brown. The sleeve gave me the most problems because I was basically painting the mini upside down. From the pics it looks like I need more ivory in the front one, but the back is okay to me.Sun's starting to go down here, gotta break out the Red Bull! (Being banned in some countried just makes me want to drink it more!!

Tooshy wants to know if I always start with bigger areas first. Usually I do because I paint from teh middle out, sort of. So usually the chest is the first area I do, and most of the time it's NMM or leather. Take a look at the Warriors of Blood on Cmon, I did the cloaks first, then NMM then the skin and hair. I gues some people like to see what their mini's face looks like first. Personally, I like to take a look at the mini and see what I can do with the face. Since I'm in theatre, you'd be surprised to see what I can do with just paint on a surface, I can enhance the eyes, nose, make a furrowed brow, etc on the face to give it more character. Next: the rasa)$&$(*@#!frasin' red bolter!!

Stage 4 and three quarters

I just finished dinner and come back to a couple of emails, so let's answer some people:

Bjoern Grundey wants to know about my wey palette. Well, basically it works kinda like a sponge. The insert paper's fibers act like capillaries and draw water to places. Whenn you put paint on it, it should already be wet (I forgot to clean it beforehand and that cut about 3 minutes off my morning start time). I also put ponge peices around it to help keep it wet. Sometimes when I see the paint is too dry, I add water. Usually the outer edges of th paint are dry and act as a natural well, but I mostly like to shut the box with extra water and let evaporation work for me.
As for tweening, I'll let Thierry (that is his name!) explain it how he did with this graphic:

Pretty much says it all:paint two colors and blend together, almost like Mrika did in her Undefeated Article..

Pandora Green wants to know if I planned this or if I'm making it up as I go....
Yes.
Okay, really, I planned ahead this time in the major area, knowing I wanted to do the armor dark, the robes black, the bolter more Mars red instead of a bright red (which remains to be seen), and the inside of the robes beige. Other things kinda came to me like I decided to do the Fleur de Lis Copper NMM. Sometimes I have a paint scheme already given to me, like when I do a GW figure.. I mean, I gotta have blue on Ultrasmurf if I want to sell them, right?

Okay, robes won't paint themselves! ( I only wish...)

Stage 4 and a half

Okay, finally someone speaks. Necron wants to the the backpack and has a couple questions, well here we go:

It's pretty much the same as the rest, edges highlighted and all, you can also see the work I'm doing on the robe.. the paint on the sleeves is my small attempt at tweening, which I decided not do do with black since it's so tricky, but on to the questions...
I started with the armor first because it was the biggest thing. I also thought of painting the robes first, but that meant I'd have to do the beige and black at the same time and then I'd have to be careful when painting the armor.
I'm not sure what classifies armor as NMM black. Maybe if I did it darker with more stark highlights, but we're all agreed the black armor looks like black armor, right?
And I get my brushes from two sources:
Dixie
Art for those of us in the South.
andJerry's Artarama, when they have them on sale. I find I use bigger brushes since the tips are so thin, except when I know I need a 000, like on edges.

Stage 4

Okay, lighten the armor in strategic places as well as shading it a little here and there, and I glued the pack on to finish the NMM on that. I'd usually get the robe done first, but I just took more Dark grey and painted the areas close to the back I thought I wouldn't be able to get at. I also did the smaller NMM areas in Intermediate Blue Mixed with neutral Grey and a little Aluminium Grey. I hate the bolter nose, I may scrape the paint off if It bugs me more, I also have had problems with small ribbed pipes since I began painting. Next up: the Robes.I plan to have the outside black and the inside beige. I also wnat to freehand these if I have time. But after robes I have the leather gloves, Other NMM bits to do (like gold and copper), the red bolter, and just about everything else, so I'll get there when I get there.

I'm also amazed at the unresponse I've gotten. I've gotten one email, and that was Tammey congradulating me on stealing her idea.. The whole point of me staying up is for YOU to ask questions, otherwise I could just paint this all week and no one would care.. That is if anyone's listening, HELLLLLLOOO??? Anybody out there!?

Stage 3

Okay, so I waited a little while longer and after I figured out the bulb was Warm WHite instead of Cool White, I went back once more the store and exchanged it (luckily I got different chashiers so they didn't know that I absolutely had no idea what the heck I was doing). I blame my egarness to get this done, and the fact all the blubs were stocked wrong, thus getting a warm white from the cool white bin and not checking to make sure it was the one I wanted..

But enough of that...

I continued using wet blending with different mixes of Intermediate Blue/ Dark Grey and blacklined here and there. I also tried Ark's (his real name slips me.. Theirry? Something like that) method of "tweening" and I really can't tell the difference. I think I may need another lighter highlight, but not too much.. I'm thinking of adding some Aluminum White for the other metal parts, as they look a little too much like her black armor. And of course, I did the base because I thought before I did her feet it'd be easy to do it and repaint it than to do my nice armored booties again. I may end up doing freehand on it to make it look like etched stone, but that remains to be seen how much time I'll have. Hopefully with no more light setbacks, I'll be done a bit before time so I can embelish.

Stage 2

Well, disater has stuck: my old faithful flourescent lamp fell and the bulb was broke, after the first trip to the hardware stor I forgot to check the wattage and the second bulb broke. Now the third bulb is the only one in the store they had and though it says "cool white" it photographs like I'm on Mars!! I've tried to get my camera to adjust the white balance, but I hate the camera because I misplaced the manual, so I had to use my photoshop mastery to try and match the colors to that of the last picture.

All that aside, I gave some washes of Black Grey and a tiny bit of Intermediate blue. I usually do NMM first, only because it's the majority of the mini (next will be the robe). I know there's debate on metallics vs/ non metallics, but since the armor is mostly a dark black, I'm going with NMM like I usually do. Contrary to popluar belief I can and have done Metallics, just not on anything you've seen yet!! :P

Stage 1

Priming. This is important for teh mini as it is the basis for all that follows after. I usually prime white, but I find myself going towards black more and more because it saves time. Black would also have been good for this because of all the black areas, but as you know I like to use a dark grey for my blacks, using black for the shadows. But with white, I figured I could paint over it black but it'd be harder the other way around. I usually prime with Rustoleum, even thosugh pewter doesn't have the dreaded lead rot, it still adheres better. Only problem is it needs 24 hours, but then I primed last week, so that's not a problem. After intial priming, I went back with some watered down Vallejo White to get all the spots. I also based with cork and flocking gels by Renaissance inks (don't worry, I have no sponsers, I just like the fact I can take stuf out of a pot and let it dry).

My Painting Area...

I know people are going toask this, so I'm going to answer it before it comes up:

This is my painting table, in case you're wondering I just cleaned it. I finally took everything off it that didn't need to be there so this allows me to just take off the basics and I can put more paper down when I need to. Image is a little blurry because I had to stand on the sofa behind it to take a picture. You also can't see it very goodbu on the left side is where I keep all my choppy instruments, glue, and such near a self healing cutting mat. You'll also notice what I use for painting rigs: medicine bottles. I get them from my parents, but you coffin dodgers may have extra anyways.. :P I put sand in them so there is a little weight and it's not completly top heavy. I put double sided tape on the mini's base and paint it, then take it off with a knife. Otherwise, I cut off the tab (or keep it in the case of very small spindly legged minis) and drill into the feet and pin it so I can put it between two round peices of molding and wrap a rubber band around them. However, that method doesn't allow for good WIP pictures, and it takes time, so I've instead pinned the good sister to the base ahead of time (managing to drill through her foot in the process). Just one more week!

A sad day for the world wide stupidity...

I've found out blogger.com cannot connect to my FTP, so I'll do it on their site, because I know it works.. Ah, to escape banners on the main page only to be foiled again! I have scheduled the event for July 30-31st, at around 8:00 AM though. I have 2:40 at -8 hrs Greenwhich mean time.. everyone synchronize your watches!

Chrispy's Live Painting Announced!

Well, this is the first time I've used one of these things, so bare with me here. First off, this is to announce the fig I'll be painting:



The sister of battle with grenade, which some of you may remember from my paranoid post on CMON. However, I'm not 100% when I'll be doing this, and what I'll be calling it. Best estimate: anytime after the 23rd, cause that's when I get out of school. Hopefully this won't interrupt Tammy and her all day paintathon...

Watch this space!