Painting & Papers

Before I left on a family vacation to Vancouver, B.C. (Deep Cove was very nice) I actually made some time to sit down and paint. It was only the second time this year I've painted, and I hope to squeeze in another session and get something finished - it has been way too long!

I haven't added much to the lead pile recently, but I have picked up some some analog pieces in this digital age. When I get back from California, I'll snap some pics and share my latest acquisitions.

There's also a special project I'm in the middle of, but I can't talk about it now. Loose lips sink ships!

Priming With Gesso

So I was bopping around on Frothers and stumbled upon Under The Mountain, a blog that is new to me. Lots of resources and info, including a massive list of mini companies/manufacturers. I noticed a category at the top of the nav bar entitled "Gesso" - it sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place it, so of course I had to click on it and see what it was all about.

You may already know what I now know, but as it turns out, Gesso is a surface prep compound used by artists (the kind of artists who paint on canvas, that is to say). The article in question details Gesso as a brush-on primer for miniatures. There was quite a bit of info to digest, but it is a good read, complete with pictures. You can practically glop on the stuff straight out of the bottle and about two hours later, it has shrunk and dried, with nary a detail lost in the process! It sounds promising, so the only thing left to do is actually give it a try myself and see what happens.

Anyone out there use Gesso as your default primer? I'd be interested in what others have to say about it.

My Son Paints Better Than I Do

My older son (9 going on 15) is an aspiring miniature painter, whose work I have previously shown here. Mr. Frodo, as he prefers to be called, loves to paint both metal fantasy minis as well as a growing collection of plastic GW minis ranging from Space Marines, Lizardmen, and Undead. He seems hell-bent on becoming a better painter than his old man, and will often ask me "Am I a better painter than you yet?" after finishing his latest project.

How do I answer that? Very carefully, of course (I can hear you fellow parents laughing). I tell him that he is an excellent painter, and that he is a better painter at his age than I was when I was around 10 or 12, and if he keeps practicing and learning, of course he'll be a better painter than me one day. He needs to take better care of his brushes, but I digress.

When I started painting, I had no teacher, no guides, no information, and not much to compare my work to, except for perhaps ads and pictures from Dragon magazine and the like. Frodo is lucky in the sense that he has me hanging around to show him the painting ropes. So far we've been trying to stick with the basics such as thinning your paints, brush control, basic coverage, washes, and drybrushing. I'll leave concepts such as color theory and blending for when he's a bit older.

Frodo recently finished up painting Reaper's Agramon the Pit Fiend. He went with the traditional red color scheme, augmented by a liberal wash of Baal Red and some orange highlights. I took some pics of Agramon and one of my oldest minis, Ral Partha's 01-003 Balrog, for a good old side-by-side comparison:




The results are obvious. Agramon's simple paint scheme is brought to life by the combination of washing & highlighting. My balrog looks downright one-dimensional and crude in comparison.









The one thing I hope Frodo does not pick up from me is my tendency to leave projects unfinished, along with a nasty case of procrastination.

The Grateful (To Be Finished) Dead

It's been a long couple of months since I actually finished painting a mini. I'd start something, set it aside to work on something else, stop painting altogether for a couple of days or a week, and then resume the cycle. With a D&D session looming this weekend, I'll be damned if I'm going to show up empty-handed, so I resolved to finish my three Reaper Barrow Wardens. Anything else I finish beyond that will be gravy, so let's set the main course, shall we?

Now these guys are a cool-looking trio of skellies! Compared to my other Reaper skeletons, the new ones look like they kick ass and take names, while the older pair looks like they should be hanging in my junior-high science classroom.

The Barrow Warden Keeper (left, with the black sword of doom) could easily double as a Death Knight. I like the gray armor and blue highlights, but at first wasn't sure about the tabard. I think the faded maroon works pretty good, in hindsight. And he just had to have a black sword! I think I could have done better making the runes pop, but didn't want to spend too much time fiddling with them.

The Barrow Wardens (Mario, with axe and Luigi, with sword) are an imposing pair. I like Mario's big ass axe. Luigi's lunging pose doesn't quite do it for me - I think something more on the order of an overhead strike would work better. But that's just nitpicking at this point. I knew from the start they would both sport black armor, but I just had to give them a splash of color somehow. I think the shields alone would not have been enough, so the shoulder pads were a natural choice to highlight.

All said, it was a fun project to work on from the base on up (I used spackle on the Keeper's base and tried to make my flagstones blend with those on the OEM base). It feels good to finish a project, ya know? Knowing my DM, they'll see action on the tabletop in short order.

Resolutions in Miniature

I'm not one of those people who makes resolutions every year. But I think I need to make a few hobby-related goals for the coming year.

I need to keep posting on this here blog. The past eight or so months have been enjoyable for me, and I like how writing and thinking about writing keeps the gray matter working. I have a list of articles to finish, and others to start. Hopefully I can keep everyone interested, and maybe even attract a few more followers and/or lurkers.

My collection has grown over the last year, but my list of unfinished projects has grown at an even faster rate. I need to work more on finishing what I start, rather than shelving one project in favor of another. I need to take a good, long look at my unfinished projects and prioritize them for the coming year.

Hopefully I'll be able to share more finished projects in 2011. Blogging about it should help me keep myself accountable, and I know my DM will always leave comments for me when I'm slacking.

Happy New Year!

Tom

Pro Painted, The Sequel

A couple of months ago, I ranted about painters who describe their work as "Pro Painted" or "Master Painted" when in fact (in my opinion) they are not.

Since then, I have been paying more attention to the various individuals and organizations who sell their painted product, mostly on eBay. For the most part, there are quite a few sellers who produce some really nice minis, and most of those are accurately labeled (tabletop/pro painted/display quality, etc). And then there are a small number of artists who truly can describe their work as professional or master quality. More about that in a minute.

Finally, there are a fair number of sellers who don't live up to their own self-described hype. I see a LOT of paint jobs in and around the solid tabletop level that are touted as pro or master works. Come on, really? One prolific South American outfit has a large selection of minis for sale on a regular basis, but when I see mistakes like clearly visible brush marks, it makes me cringe. And don't get me started on weapons that don't have the ends of the barrels drilled out so they actually look like a lethal projectile weapon, and not a storm bolter that does not appear to have a functioning method for spitting out lead death upon their foes.

I mean, come on, you can't take a minute or two to carefully drill out the end of a firearm? Or file off the rather obvious mold lines? Tell me again why I should pay a premium for your models?

Having said that, I can't blame these guys for doing what they do. They churn out a LOT of painted models and plenty of people pay good money for them. The one seller I single out above has almost 9,000 transactions and a rating of over 99%, so they must be doing something right!

And then there are auctions like this one. Here is a painter who can truly and honestly claim to be a Pro Painter. If my work can keep improving and one day even be a fraction as good as Alexi-Z, I would be thrilled. Take a look at her CMON gallery because there are some totally sick pieces to look at.

Oh, and the icing on the cake? The proceeds are earmarked for charity, so it's not always about just gettin' paid. Another example of a member of the minis/painting community stepping up and being a good egg.

Well, enough of that. I need to take some pics so I can complete my upcoming post where I discuss the great 25mm vs 28mm debate.