My entry reveiled!

[Malebolgia]

Finally have some time to "reveal myself". Before the contest I knew I had to do a Kev White miniature...the master of females. I have always been a big fan of Nemain from the Celtos line and she was an obvious choice for the contest.

I first started with the base. I glued a piece of bark (the things you can find in gardens) to the base and added some grass to it. I recently bought a set of ferns and mushrooms from Busch Models and this was a good time to test them. I got some negative remarks to the red mushroom in that it attracts too much attention and spoils some of the realism but mostly I disagree. These mushrooms are quite common here in Holland in fall. In addition I like the fact that it adds some more color to the setting (otherwise it gets a bit too natural with all the greens and browns). It also is more prominent in the pictures than in real life because of the angle of the photo.

I painted the miniature "bottom up", starting with the boots and working my way up. As soon as I came to the metallics I knew that I wanted to try a new method of painting NMM for me. The last piece of NMM I did (click) was done with 'cold metallics' and although I was happy with the results, they were a bit too cold for 'good warriors'. I built up the metallics with the following recipe:

-Basecoat: VGC Cobra Leather

-Shading with VGC Beasty Brown and VGC Charred Brown

-Highlights with VGC Gold Yellow, VGC Bone White and VMC White

I am quite happy with the colors, but I think they can use some stronger contrasts...something for the next contest.

The drawing on the scabbard of the dagger was done with my trusty Windsor & Newton series 7, size 00 (the best there is for such jobs) and was based on the following design (minus the round thingie):

http://www.moonlightmysteries.com/pendants/details/JTP1358.jpg

Next came the skin on the legs (and the first skin on the model). I started with VGC Elf Flesh and shaded this with VGC Dwarf Flesh and VGC Beasty Brown. The highlights were done by adding VGC Bone White and VMC White. I chose for extremely soft highlights and shading to get that soft feminine look. They are hardly visible in real life (and you can guess it is even harder to see in the pictures). Some people said I should add some more highlights and although it will ruin the realism, I think it will improve the model.

The tattoo was also painted with the W&N series 7 brush and was actually quite easy to do. I made sure both of my wrists were leaning on my table and I was sitting very relaxed to make sure I wouldn't cramp or something. The drawing was based on the following celtic symbol:

http://www.seawear.com/images/irish/celtic-knots/eternal-life-1100~100.jpg

A friend of mine pointed out that it wasn't the best design I picked and I agree. A long and thin image would have been better than a round one for the leg. Now it makes Nemain looks fatter and her leg wider. But I will not change it anymore

The top and pants were done in red as I knew it would go very nicely with the black and gold. Some people said it lacks some contrast and highlights and I agree...something to work on!

The hair was something new and something I was looking forward to. I wanted black hair with strong and sharp reflections, a bit like this:

http://www.vicoo.biz/images/JF113-1.gif

So I went with the black hair and first highlighted this very simple and sloppy all over the hair...building up the blends and color. After this I applied black paint between the hairs to distinguish them and to get some depth and I used thinned black paint to blend the grey into the black to get very strong highlights. I am very happy with the results.

The final thing (and the one I got the most praises for ) was the sword. The golden pieces were quite easy and straight forward to do...but the silver blade was a bit of a pain in Nemain's butt as the runes were sculpted in the blade. So after basecoating I carefully painted the runes and carefully added some highlights and shading. After this I painted the upper side of the blade. I wanted to have a blueish steel color. I basecoated it with VGC Wolf Grey. This was shaded with thinned VGC Wolf Grey and VGC Sombre Grey...but very thinly and softly. I added sharp and strong highlights with VMC White along the edges, on the upper side of the runes and a reflection in the middle of the blade.

The lower sides were painted with VGC Cold Grey. I applied shading just under the middle line by adding black to this mix (the deepest color was almost black). The lower sides were highlighted with Stonewall Grey. Finally I painted small white lines along the lower sides of the runes to make them look better.

That's it! I had a lot of problems with the pictures as I found it terribly hard to keep them under 250K (at first they were over 1MB...)...so that's why I don't have good closeups or bigger shots. It is also something I will practice before the next event.

I will work on her some more and show you the pictures. I will do the following:

-Add some more highlights to the skin

-Add some more highlights to the red color

-Deepen the shade in the blue parts

I hope she will be finished by next Sunday...I will post the pictures here,

FInally, I would like to thank everybody who commented as this really helps. And of course special thanks to Nathan for organizing this event...it was a blast and I KNOW I will join next time (and hope to reach top 3 )

[Nathan Caroland]

I really enjoyed this one - one of my favorites actually and appreciate you dropping the receipe here in the forums, I'll likely be snatching it for some of my NMM here in the near future (if I ever get a damn chance to paint again here soon).

[supervike]

Yeah, this was a great entry, and thank you for the incredible write up! Well done!