Nancy (Neko Galaxy) Part 3

This project has been on hold for the past few months while I was getting ready for KublaCon. I wanted to make sure I finished the class figure before the show, so even though this piece was close I needed to focus on that other one as well as the bust for my faces class. Now that all of that is behind me, I can get back to the final touches on my Neko Galaxy project.

Although I didn't show it earlier, after my last post I continued on with the figure and painted her gun, socks, and shoes. I then began to work on the base. I pictured her in an urban setting. The scene in my mind is there was an attach by giant robots and she quickly grabbed what was handy to fight back. The outfit doesn't quite seem right for a dense jungle or some planned battle field. I mean, I at least assume she'd put on some more armor if she knew she was going to have to fight and had time to prepare. So on the street of a city made sense to me. I didn't want an overly large scene, so I picked a pretty tight base and ended up even cutting some of the sculpted ground that came with the kit so she would fit. I built a bent and damaged street sign, I figure damaged in the fight, to help convey the setting. She ended up having one foot that was slightly hanging over the base, so I put her standing on another bent and damaged road sign to help extend the scene a bit over the edge of the plinth. I just attached the standing sign and need to paint the post. I also plan to add some more streaks and weathering to the sign itself. Now that the sign is attached to the base, I'll sculpt a bit of curb around it to finish off that corner to the base. I also want to dress up the base a bit more with trash and debris that you might find on a city street normally or perhaps items that came from the battle. I've got some rough ideas but still need to refine them a bit before I start gluing anything else down.

Class Figure (Gurkhan) Part 4

 I got back from KublaCon the other day and had a blast at the show. I had a workshop on painting large scale figures using Gurkhan which I think went really well. It's such a fun figure that can be used to discuss a lot of topics (lighting, skin, leather, cloth, metals, etc). I'll be teaching with it again at NOVA Open in DC this Aug/Sept. That class will be a bit longer (6 hours instead of 4), so we'll be able to go even more in-depth in some areas.

I also entered this piece into the KublaBrush awards and got the Big Child manufacturers award for the best Big Child piece at the show. There were quite a few Big Child pieces entered and I thought David Diamondstone's painting on their Idril bust was particularly nice. So I felt very fortunate to end up with the win. I also took my Vesha bust which ended up winning Best of Show.

Getting back to Gurkhan, I wanted to share the version I brought to the show. I could say finished version, but since I was trying to get all my class figures prepped, I ended up being pretty rushed to finish the base. Since I plan to bring the piece along with me to NOVA too, I'd like to send a little more time refining the work on the base and maybe adding a bit more detail in spots. But I think these images still give you a pretty good idea how the finished piece will look.

One of the topics I discussed in the class (and plan to spend time on at NOVA too) is creating focal points on your pieces. There's a lot of detail on the sculpt, a lot going on, so how do you help the viewer focus? One way is by using brightness. If we strip away the colors and just look at the light, you can see there are some brighter spots in the piece that draw your eye and create some focal points in the scene. I tried to also use color to reinforce this, so you've got multiple things helping direct the viewer around the scene.

I might take a little break and try to finish up my Neko Galaxy project (Nancy) from a few months back. But I don't want to leave this sitting too long, as I'd like to get the quality of the base in line with the quality of the figures before NOVA.

Class Figure (Gurkhan) Part 3

Work has kept me pretty busy this past month, so I haven't made quite as much progress on my painting projects as I'd like. So, with about a week and a half left until KublaCon, I'm working hard to get my pieces finished. The Gurkhan figure itself has been pretty much finished for a few weeks, but I wanted to create a little more of a scene around him. I thought I'd pair him with another figure from Big Child Creatives that I've had hanging around my collection since their first kickstarter. I liked their size difference and felt the poses worked well together. I picked a similar color scheme for the new figure, though leaning more heavily on the purple than the orange to help balance out the colors overall. I also went for a slightly different skin tone, introducing some Command Green and Grey Green into the shadows and midtone respectively. Just as skin tone can differ from person to person, I wanted to introduce a little variation between these two.

The base is certainly still a work in progress with just a simple first coat applied to get a sense for the colors. The scene is 3D printed. I mainly used the ship model from Loot Studios and clipped it down to a small section that would fit the 70 mm by 70 mm base. Then I added a few elements to go alongside the chest, representing some supplies they picked up (stole perhaps) and have now brought on board. Some of these are also from Loot and some are from Keta Minies.

I have some other work to do in order to prep for all my classes at the show, so I'm getting low on time. But I'm sure I'll find a way to get the base painted along with all the other stuff I have on my list.

Just for fun, here's a little comparison of the two figures from when the 2nd guy was mostly a base coat (plus some early shadow work on the face) and where they are now. I remember in my early stages as a painter I struggled with online images trying to understand what was just the lighting of the photos and what was actually painted. So I find these side by sides helpful as you can see the piece under the same lighting conditions (as you can see from the other figure) before and after the painting of highlights and shadows.

Class Figure (Gurkhan) Part 2

 I'm trying to make quick progress on this class figure that I'll be using at KublaCon and NOVA Open. I'd like to have the painting on the figure itself done by the end of the month, so I have plenty of time to work on a base for him before KublaCon.

I've done a lot of the leather work recently, focusing on texture as well as light. While I intend to keep the class schedule flexible, so we can touch on the topics based on the interests of the students, I except leather and textures will be something we'll discuss. I spent some time on the chest yesterday and still need to finish the metal portions on the sides and back. After that I want to tackle the basket on his back. Then I'll finally feel comfortable attaching his other hand and not feeling concerned I'll accidentally knock it off while painting the other sections of the figure.

Class Figure (Gurkhan) Part 1

 I'm going to be teaching classes a KublaCon and NOVA Open this year. I'm covering topics on painting faces and skin, introduction to freehand work, and a longer class on painting 75mm display figures. For that final class I picked Gurkhan, an orc from Big Child Creatives, as the subject. I love the Big Child Creatives figures in general, so I'm excited to use one for a class. That all have so much character and are a lot of fun to work on. I picked this one in particular since it gives us the flexibility to cover a number of topics such as skin, cloth, leather, weathered metals, etc depending on the interests of the class and how much time we have. It's also a figure I haven't seen many versions of online, so we can explore something somewhat new.

While I'll obviously be painting one live at the class, I also wanted to paint a version beforehand. I think it's nice to have a finished one there for reference and what can be done when you have longer than a single class to work on him. And I can also work out some of the kinks before teaching the class. It's rare that I'm every happy with all parts of a figure on the first attempt. There's often areas that I will paint and, when I step back to evaluate, realize aren't working quite like I hoped. So I'll go back in and make adjustments. Better to learn those lessons at home so I can make the most of the time I have in the actual class!

Here's a quick look at the class figure about halfway done. I'm having a lot of fun painting him and am very excited for the classes!

You can find and sign up for my classes at the links below. The NOVA classes are about half full and the KublaCon ones just went live, so spaces are still available at each.

https://tabletop.events/conventions/nova-open-2023/schedule#?query=powell

https://tabletop.events/conventions/kublacon-211/schedule#?query=powell

Zoraida

Here's a look at this nearly finished project I'm doing as part of a miniature exchange. Back at the beginning of the year I started on Zoraida, a 75mm figure from Ares Mythologic's Draconia line. A bit of a older kit, though I guess that's relative, but one I've been wanting to paint since I first saw it. I stuck with a green theme for her clothing and equipment and then put in a pop of contrasting reddish orange to create a focus around her face.

She's got some cast shadows and NMM, as I'm continuing to practice both of those techniques. I'm pleased I've been able to get her nearly completed in just a month and half, since I feel like I normally work rather slowly. I plan to do a little more sculpting on the groundwork. With any luck, I'll have her finished in another week or so. 

Nancy (Neko Galaxy) Part 2

 October was a busy month, so not much painting happened. Things have started to calm down a bit, so I got back to painting over the past few days. I thought I'd share an update on Nancy from Neko Galaxy. She's different from my usual subjects, but that's made for a refreshing change. Plus she's just a fun figure, so how could I not enjoying working on her?

After painting the skin and body suit, I moved on to the hair. I tried to play up the shine effect with light reflecting off her hair. I then moved on to her armor. I'm taking more of a NMM approach on this one instead of my usual TMM. I feel like I've been slowly moving in the direction of NMM anyway. I still have some of Scale75's Heavy Metal in my mix, so the metal portions have a slight reaction to the light as you move the figure. But there's a lot of matte color mixed in, so the shadows and shine are pretty much frozen in place.

I started with a 1:1:2 mix of Strong Dark Blue (AK), Amethyst Blue (AK), and Heavy Metal. This formed my core shadow (steel mixed with a dark violet blue). Then I worked up to ~3:1:1 mix of Heavy Metal, French Uniform Base (AK), and Violet Light (RMS). This worked as my metal reacting to the ambient light. Then I shift to a 2:1 mix of Heavy Metal and Lemon Yellow (RMS), for my basic highlight. Then I introduced pure white to that for the top reflections. And, to some of the mid range mixes, I added carnage red so I could pick up some reflected light from the painted portions of her equipment.