bjorkgnu

So now that the contest is over, I thought I'd post up my entries. I managed an entry in all of the categories except Harrowing Harvest. Had one planned, but ran out of time. I had the Halloween Witch, the Boneswarm, the black and white Nightmare Teddy, and "When a boy demon and a girl demon..." I was a little disappointed that my witch didn't place, but after seeing the other entries, not at all surprised. I was pleasantly surprised that Teddy placed second, though. There were lots of great entries all around. Halloween Witch Boneswarm Nightmare Edition Teddy When a boy demon and a girl demon love each other very much... I saw a few comments on the voting threads asking how I did the Teddy. It actually wasn't too difficult. I removed the peg from the head, sculpted on some fluff falling out of it, and repositioned his left arm slightly to better hold on to the head instead of the little boy. Painting-wise, the whole thing is done with a "triad" of cool gray craft paints, plus black and white. Well, and red. The eyes were painted pure white, then dotted with Tamiya translucent red, which is the same stuff I used for the blood on the base. The glow around the eyes was done with Reaper Master Series Blood Red. For the base, I used one of Privateer Press' textured bases, and found a good puzzle pattern online. Printed it off, cut it down to fit the base, and scribbled pencil along the back of the paper. I then taped it down to the base and went over the lines of the pieces with a ballpoint pen, which transferred the lead from the back onto the base. From there I just painted them in. The dolls on the base are from Wyrd's orphanage accessories set. I'm happy to answer any questions anyone may have about Teddy or any of my other entries, and of course, comments and critiques are welcome. Thanks for looking, and to everyone who voted for any of my entries!

This thread has spiraled a bit off from the original question, but I didn't see anything specifically addressing the background color, and that's one of the things that "hurt" your entry, in my eyes. The bright white background causes the figure to appear to have less contrast than it actually does, simply by virtue of sitting against a pure white background. I think the figure would have been better served against a black or gray background. When the figure is brighter than the background, the viewer's eye is naturally pulled toward it, rather than away from it. Painting-wise, I think folks have pretty much covered everything I would have said. Best of luck in future contests!

This is great. Thanks!!

I'm digging the clear one. Maybe a light drybrush of white on the edges just to make it stand out a little more?

Reaper has some great options for the Nothing Beast. http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/50142/sku-down/50142 http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/14559/sku-down/14559 And of course, there's Cthulu himself: http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/2868/sku-down/02868 For the Void Wretches, I second morpsele's suggestion of Shredders from Privateer Press. http://privateerpress.com/hordes/gallery/legion-of-everblight/warbeasts/shredder

That's really surprising to hear. I've been using Dullcote for near a decade, if not more, and I can't say that I've ever had that problem. Do you have any before and after shots or comparison shots to illustrate what you're talking about?

Actually, I think the issue, color-scheme-wise, is the red, not the green. The green and the blue play pretty well together, but the red feels significantly less saturated than the green or blue, so it doesn't mesh as well. But because the green is brighter, the eye is drawn toward it, which may be why people are commenting that the green looks "off." I think a brighter red would help balance out the green and blue here. It's good clean painting, though. I especially like how Yin's hair turned out. And I like the bases - I think the yin yang symbol is a clever idea.

I agree, they look great! The only suggestion I would make is to dab some black paint on the inside of Som'er's gun barrel. It'll look much better than just doing silver/steel there.

No instructions came in mine, either, but the only thing that was trouble at all were the Nothing Beast's arms, and looking at the 3D render on the box helped substantially with that.

When I've had painter's block, there's a few things that I've done to help. - Clean up my painting area. It starts off looking great, but as projects get pulled out and worked on, the clutter builds until what started as a 4-6 square foot space to work has turned into about 8 square inches. The less space I have, the less inclined I am do get anything done. Spending some time cleaning it up and organizing to give myself more room to work often gives me more motivation to get something painted (probably so I can fill it back up again). - Paint something small. I'll grab a Reaper familiar and slap some paint on it, and that can be enough to reignite my interest in painting. - Take a break. Go outside. Do something fun that's not miniatures-related and come back to it in a week. Granted, this one is harder to do if you're painting on a deadline... Buying new paints can help too. In your case, go ogle a display of Reaper MSP's or Vallejo greens and yellows and see if inspiration strikes. Then buy a handful of each to round out your collection and your options. I hope this helped a little. Good luck!

The muted greens and purples look great! I think I may have to steal this color scheme.

Very impressive stuff. I'd like to add my voice to the chorus asking for close ups.

Your models look great! It would be good if the pictures were a little bigger, though, so we could see the details better.

Thanks!!

Thanks for the kind words, y'all!