Skya

Oooo, there's a painters perch? I want one! I want one!

Well, my time in the last month has mostly been being eaten by moving, an out of state "weekend" reunion (more like Wednesday to the next Monday), and an last minute impromptu trip to Origins. However, somewhere in there I managed to get a few things done. Theres the massive Dragon for Magnificent Egos that Sue Wachowski and I split so that neither of us would have to go insane trying to do one by our self. Unfortunately I dont really have the space to take good pictures of so if you want to see it you'll just have to show up at their booth at GenCon. Then theres a couple small pieces that managed to sneak their way into the cracks in my time. While I was at Origins I managed to finish their Nude Male Wild Elf. He's a pretty sweet little Gael sculpt. I love his expression: http://www.coolminiornot.com/129854 Then theres their new Iron Maiden. Went for a kinda creepy metal into skin feel. Another Gael sculpt. Still a little 2D for my general tastes, but definately showing signs of improvement: http://www.coolminiornot.com/129855 And the Crunch Waffle piece that drove me batty. The Giant Archer Fish. I offered to do this one not realizing that the seperate piece that came with was supposed to be a water spout. No, not a piece of driftwood and definately not a bizarely melted gun... a water spout. *grumble grr* The scales were fun to experiment with though, and honestly the water wasnt too bad once I got over teh fact that it wasnt driftwood: http://www.coolminiornot.com/129853 I'd give you actual pictures, but coolminiornot doesnt seem to want to play nice with the forum linking software and I'm afraid that I havent had a chance to upload them to my webserver yet.

And here my first reaction was, "my god, that has to be the dumbest looking armor I've ever seen on a horse."

As one of Mag Egos primary painters I gotta agree. I've watched Gael's stuff go from stylisticlly neat but very two dimensional and a bit soft to much cleaner crisper and more dynamic, but still maintaingn that organic stylistic sense.

Tad Williams is one of those authors whose works I pick up as soon as I get my grubby little hands on them. He creates realistic and intreaging characters set in vast sweeping worlds that always make you feel like there is something over the next hill, in the next vally. They feel real. War of Flowers was an awesome stand alone, Otherland is a four book series although given the legth of the books reads more like a 6 book series. Really neat stuff though. Memory Sorrow and Thorn is a sweeping epic fantasy that takes a young boy from a comfortable childhood growing into a being a hero without him really noticing. It's also a gorgeous fantasy world with elves that make you really feel wonder and wars that feel like they have meaning. If I really want to feel inspired though I read Elizabeth Moon's The Deed of Paksinarion. It follows the life of a sheepfarmers daughter from mercenary to paladinhood. I recommend it as reading for anyone who wants to play a paladin as the best portral of one in fiction I have ever read. I also really loved I will Fear No Evil by Robert Heinlein. I consider it one of his best books, right up there with Stranger in a Strange Land. Mind you you have to be willing to relate to his old fashionedness clashing with liberal sexuality, so it's not for everyone, but it's one of teh few books I have ever read multiple times. If I'm going for something where I know I'll enjoy the writing even when the plot isnt inspiring I tend to go for Mercedes Lackey or Tanya Huff. They are light, tend towards a good sense of humor and Tanya Huffs vampires are always engaging. Mercedes Lackey's new 500 Kingdoms books have been highly enjoyable light reading twists on fairy tale themes that always leave me wanting more. Neither qualifies as inspiring works but they always leave me wanting more.

That is a disturbed little death. I like.

I was just going to make a commentary in the Iron Painters gallery, but I think I must have spent too long typing it because I went to post it and my post it disapeared. Oh well, we'll put it here instead. I want to thank the judges for their imput. The effect I was going for on the dress was chromey/shimmery metalic and it sounds like I succedded in that even though it wasnt what was expected. As for the commentary on the lack of basing, I agree entirely, I was being lazy. This is another piece for the witches coven diorama and I really didnt want to do up yet another base that I was just going to pull the mini off and totaly redo of in two months. As I was in a hurry when I put the final pics up for the Iron Painter gallery I didnt actually get a chance to properly tweak the color and brightness adjustments. I have since gone back and done that. I hope you guys all enjoyed the competition. I know I found it great fun and quite inspiring.

She looks way too nonchalant to have undead things screaming up out from under her skirt.

Do those have actual cloth texturing to them? If so that really sweet!

Its definately resin and given the size comparison on the teaser quite a bit larger then the keeper of time one.

Huh, I suppose that makes sense. Although given the way the moderation in th e Iron Painters Galleries worked not how I would have expected it to work so I assumed it was a problem. I'll hush now.

I did notice that while it appears that there have been responses to some of the pieces in the TT2 galleries I cant actually see any text. I can tell that it was that posted it as it shows their name and avatar but theres no post to actually read.

Still cant post. It keeps giving me the following (yes both IE and Firefox and I'm checking to make sure I'm logged in): Please complete both the subject and message fields. The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 0 characters. As a side not the Gallery tab in the gallery areas gives a broken link.

Still not working on either browser.

Nope, same issue on IE. The first time I tried it told me that the message was too short, it had to have more then 0 characters. The second time I tried it just reloaded teh page with no change.

I'm getting the same issues on Firefox and for once it's actually saying I'm logged in. I'll check ie in a bit.

Guys just because you dont like something doesnt mean it's crap. Honestly, I like the female ones a lot. I dislike that they are three minis with the same stance given arm and head conversions, but taken individually I do in fact like them a lot. As for the filligree thing. There are people who really like it and people who really dont, either way it's still popular and it sells which is what's important to the game companies. Same with the Sandra Garrity complaints I just dont see it. She does good work. Often her faces are too similar to each other, but then so are Werener Klocke's. She gets as much work as she does because she's consistent, she works well from concept art, and she's popular.

I'm liking the green man from the front, but the back really needs something. NO idea what mind you, and I propably wouldnt bother with the effort of doing it myself. The top pirate looks bizzare, but the bottom one definately has potential with a bit of repositioning of the arms.

Honest critiques are what build your ability to see as a painter and are always appreciated. Feedback from the judges came down to them comparing technical ability. They loved the artisticness of the piece but felt it needed more deliniation of the details and to really seperate each area. Having gone back to look at it with a fresh eye afterwards I had to agree with them. So, upon returning home a decided it was time to replace my 2 year old set of Winsor Newton series 7s with a new set and passed my old set down to a friend of mine who's just getting started in mini painting. Before Hyrekia gets added to the witches coven diorama I'll be going through and sharpening up the shadows on the panels of the corset, the gold (so hopefully it wont as you sayu, run together so much) and where the flesh tones hit the dress. Should really help her pop out a lot. You have a good point on the highlighting of the skull as well. I hadnt really noticed that, but you're right the pictures make it fairly obvious. Thanks for the imput.

Yup. You get it. It's like some twisted miniatures version of a halmark card. Thanks you. The ferret is out of Reaper's Darkheaven Familiar Pack I, the Entling is out of the Warlord Familiar Pack II and the robin was clipped off of the staff of 02905: Arthur Wanderhat, Wizard. Huzzah for bits scrounging!

Gah, I finally figured out what it was about that gal's pants that was bothering me. She looks like she has a guy's package down there. Hermaphrodite wolf pack leader anyone?

You know, I wish I knew. They were out of a bouquet that a friend gave me that I had let dry on my counter. I looked at them and went "Ooo, those'll be perfect!" and of course I'll never be able to find them again.

Another piece I did for ReaperCon. This one placed 2nd in the Open category. I still havent quite managed to reconcile the fact that this managed to spew from my brain, but I suppose everyone has to have a dark side.

It's definately a Klocke, one I'm personally rather fond of, but we each have our own tastes. I guarantee it wasnt a drawback at ReaperCon as she's one of their more popular sculpts. Amusingly it was one of those times when the whole looking down thing actually worked for me. I'm glad the spell effect appears to have gone over well, because teh diorama I have planned is going to be a witches coven of three, with this gal drawing out the circle they're working in the center the Reaper "water" sorceress will be sprinkling something into a brazier of colored fire and looking at her across from the brazier the Reaper scribe Jolie will be looking up from her spell book. Should be cool if I can pull off a good backdrop for it.

Did this piece up for ReaperCon. She only took and honorable mention (I hate honorable mention, it's like getting a pat on the head. :rocketwho ) but that's ok, I was really pleased with her and she's eventually going to end up in a much larger diorama on a different base.