Wren

The really nice wooden display bases I've seen are from small one-man companies. Sometimes online, sometimes at shows. Those use very fine woods, and the prices reflect that. I've got ones from cheaper wood that my stepfather made me, but aside from that you can buy raw wood plaque style bases and cubes at Michael's, Joann's or other hobby stores like that. You'll need to sand them. You can also stain them. I am too lazy to go get stain, so I either just paint them with mini paints or make homemade stain with Future and a bit of paint. If you want to experiment with water bases or cutting down into the base to build in some terrain and such, you probably want to start out experimenting with the cheap ones!

What kind of dry palette do you use? The flower petal type, and some others, have pretty large wells. The larger the surface area of the paint, the quicker it dries out. Something with small wells keeps longer. Also if you fill the well more, and have thinned your paint. You can get drying retarder to add to paint, but smaller wells that you fill at least half way should help a lot. I ended up getting three of these. They're handy because I can do lots of mixes before having to clean my palette, and the tiny wells work better for the amounts of paint I use. http://www.cheapjoes.com/art-supply/CJ15350_10497_cheap-joes-rectangular-well-porcelain-palette.asp Also I use a damp sponge instead of a paper towel to wick and clean my brush. When I need to pause for a phone call or whatever, I put the sponge over my welled palette, and it keeps the paint at a good consistency a lot longer. Sort of the reverse of a wet palette.

Hey, you said a wet palette can help immensely with blending. I disagreed as I find it does not help me with blending (though does help with lots of other things, and helps some other people). No betrayal here! :->

My IP entry doesn't reflect this, because I was going for a bit of a different style, but in general I'm known for pretty smooth blending. It is all done with layering wet paint over dry (including feathering and glazing techniques). I have never, not once, used wet blending. You do not need to wet blend to get smooth results! It's a valid technique if you want to try to learn it, it's just not the only way to get things smooth. In contradiction to LavronYor's advice, I find it easier to get smooth blends using a welled palette as it allows me to much more easily control the dilution of the paint and to touch up the mixes of colours if they aren't quite perfect. More steps between colours (how many mixes you step between dark to light) and thinner paint (though you can certainly go too thin, but novice painters with blending problems tend to be erring on too thick) are the first two things I would experiment with. I like to premix and predilute my paint. People who do well with the wet palette often seem to mix and dilute as they paint. I do use a wet palette, and I can see the appeal, but I don't think it works for all styles of painting. Secondly, some paints are just more annoying. That's not any particular brand, just some colours tend to be harder to work with. White and colours with a lot of white in them often go grainy or are more challenging, but I have darker colours that give me fits, too. Paint brands can work better or worse with certain techniques. People who like wet blending or two brush blending seem to prefer vinyl based paints (GW, PP). People who prefer layering and glazing often prefer other brands. (Reaper Master Series, Vallejo Model Color.) I'm a layering/glazing person, and use Reaper Master Series. That is not to say that you can't layer with GW or PP paint, just a preference I've noticed in some painters. The only time I use inks is for glazes to intensify colours, and that rarely, so my opinion is not too useful there. I agree about how helpful it is to see other painters working in person. If you can't get to an event, technology can help a little. There are an increasing number of DVDs with painting instruction. There are also free videos or samples from the for purchase ones on YouTube so you can get an idea of whether that type of instruction helps you. The book PaintMinion mentioned for dioramas is excellent. For a quick tip on setting up a scene, even just a single miniature with scenery or accessories - go with as small a base as you can fit the action onto, and don't be too symmetrical. Worry less about whether something looks realistic and try to condense the action as much as you can and still tell the story. (You'll often see duel or fight dioramas with big bases with lots of space, and that probably is more realistic, but much less interesting for the viewer. It's like the movies, you want it to feel like it could be real, not necessarily be absolutely real.) Think about what's going on vertically as well as horizontally, and try to get things happening at different heights and angles and not just everything on a flat plane. (I'm still working on all of this too!) Colour is tricky, and is definitely an area that still vexes me on occasion! I think one of the big novice mistakes here is trying to be 'real' again, which often means a rainbow of paints. Try using a smaller number of paint colours on a single figure/scene and you'll probably find that it comes together better. You can change these up subtly by making them darker or lighter or mixing them together. Study some figures you like, or look at illustrations, and you'll start to see how many artists do that. If trying to translate art colours to mini paint colours or working with a colour wheel is annoying you, you can try the ColorIndex or similar books. Just a big bunch of colour schemes ready to go.

I like this a lot, it has a great mood to it. While she's very feminine, it's not super cheesecakey.

Oooo, I like that!

I've been looking through various Gen Con photo galleries since I failed to take very many pictures, and found the io9 gallery. The Wyrd bear that was entered in the painting contest is their first picture, and very popular in the comments. I think I also spotted a picture from the terrain table. http://io9.com/5612287/gencon-in-photos-gamers-cosplayers-miniatures-dice-and-more-dice/gallery/?skyline=true&s=i

There's a tutorial on this page for making bamboo. The other pages of this site's tutorials are a terrific resource for other types of plants. http://www.necrotales.com/necroTutorials/tut_base_plants03.php

Ditto on the so happy to see you back!

We looked at this briefly at Gen Con last year. The computer part looked interesting, but I wasn't super jazzed by the figures.

Hey Bexley! Sorry I've been scarce. We should be able to bring you something provided we can find something you haven't already tried! Not sure yet what game we'd like, hubby isn't answering his phone so I can't consult with him just now. Sorry about disappearing!

Very cool!

Hey everyone. Thanks so much for the comments on my minis! @Peterdita re: highlighting red. I mixed a bit of a pale flesh tone into the orange colour I used for the bulk of the highlighting, then a touch of creamy yellow into the mix for the very top highlights. I did something similar with the red on an IP mini. I know some people use just skin colours to highlight red. For me the mix helps walk the line between the highlights going too orange or too pink. [url=http://wyrd-games.net/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=1925] @Prophaniti re: anything in the pipeline. I've still got to touch up my most recent Iron Painter entries from this past Winter and then get caught up on more CMON posting. Lately I've been painting more for fun and relaxation rather than pushing for contest level type stuff. I've never really spent much time doing that before, and I'm really enjoying it. I guess it remains to be seen how much other people will enjoy looking at it, though. :-> @Iron Man re: Dionne's colours I'm not 100% happy with her, and I think you're right that colour is a big part of that. I was trying for something that didn't work out. :-> That's one of the reasons I decided to donate her to Little Angels, actually. I put a lot of work into her, but I feel kind of ambivalent about her. I figured if she helps contribute to the charity I'll feel much better about her in the end! @Grim re: painting skin You would ask me about the two most futzed-with skins I've painted! ;-> I can't find my notecard of paints I used for Perdita, it's probably one of the ones I lost at Gen Con last year. :-< IIRC, I didn't write everything down on that one, anyway. I do have notes on the Barbarian, though. I wanted a very tanned look, so I mixed a darkish skin tone (in a Caucasian context) with a leathery orange brown for the base coat. For the shading, I used dark browns with the same green mixed in as used elsewhere on the mini, and I think that helps give it some nice depth. For the highlights I mixed a brighter, peachy skin into the base, and 2:1 white : pale yellow for the top highlights. Then I glazed with the leathery orange brown, and then glazed some more with a harvest orange. (I use Reaper Master Series, so exact colour mixes were 2:1 Tanned Shadow : Oiled Leather for the base. Shades with mixes of Military Green, Woodstain Brown and Brown Liner. Highlights with Rosy Highlight, then a bit of 2:1 White : Sunlight Yellow. First glaze with Oiled Leather, second glaze with Harvest Brown.) I know I glazed a lot on Perdita's skin, too. I like glazing a lot for skin. I think it simulates how skin really looks, as skin is a little translucent and you can see down through the layers. A lot of people like oil paint for skin (at least at the larger scales) for that reason, as the translucency and layering of the paint mirrors how skin works. The other way glazing is very useful for skin is to tweak the colour. The barbarian looked pretty good up to the point of the final glaze, but he still didn't look tanned enough for my taste. Glazing him up with the harvest orange tweaked the colour more to what I was looking for. Glazing is also good for smoothing rougher transitions, though you will sometimes need to go back and bring up the top highlights again. Whenever I'm not quite happy with skin I've painted, if I find it looking plasticky or dull, I glaze it using a paint that I didn't use in any of the main painting of the skin and see if that helps before I give up on it.

First up is Dionne, posed on a Wyrd sewer base. I really enjoyed using the base, great quick way to get an interesting base for a figure! Fun to paint, too. I added the mushrooms because after I got everything put together I realized the composition was weighted a little too heavily to one side. I'm auctioning off this figure to support the Tommy's charity cause of the Little Angels contest. So if you like her, consider making a bid! Next up - Perdita. I started her in 2008, then got stalled for a year on the base. Finally I finished the base, did some touch-ups and entered her in Gen Con 2009, where I was very honoured that she took best of Wyrd. I've got some other new stuff up at my gallery on CMON for anyone who feels like looking at a few more hot girls and a couple of real dogs.

Hello and welcome! I'm also in the Knoxville area, though as I just paint and don't really play, that's probably not too helpful to you.