Monday, February 3, 2014

Heroes, Cthulhu and my son's painting

So I managed to get my entry in to Curt on time, but the more I look at it the more disappointed I am. You of course can read all about it here. Voting is by comment only now, so it is possible I will get fewer than the one or two votes I usually get. Thanks, by the way, to whom ever has voted for me. I am under no illusions that I am any where near the caliber of the other participants, but it is nice that someone appreciates my take on the subjects. Any how, here is what I wrote to Curt.

"A dude and his mutt. In the wasteland some times your only friend is mans best friend. The Stranger and Max the dog are again from Aberrant's Warlands range here. These were both white metal and the only trouble I had was with cutting them off their slotta base tabs. The dog's rear right leg almost broke off and was not level with the rest. So I went through my bag of rocks and found one that would work on the base.




Again an embarrassingly simple paint job, once I decided on my palette. For the dog I wanted to try and capture the look of the dog from the movies. I had always thought it was a dingo, what did I know, but apparently the breed is a blue heeler. Primed black, camel belly, gray dry brush. Some washes and a little more dry brushing and we're done. I did a little with the eyes and mouth, but nothing to write home about.

For the Stranger the hardest part was to not do him in the iconic all black. The jacket and boots I would leave black but I decided to go with Navy blue pants and brown leather holsters. I also tried the rust technique on the various pads and plates spread around on his body. My main aim is to try and get some visual interest and not just paint it black and drybrush that and call it a day. I'm not real happy with my work on his flesh. I tried to mix up my own wash, but it's too subtle.

Well anyway that's an awful lot of text for very little work. I hope you enjoy the nostalgia of these figures as I do."

You'll note that, like a bonehead, I forgot to mention that the figure were 1/72 (20mm) scale. I also made the faux pas of sending my photos in at 300dpi, although they were the legal 1000px across the top. I'll be paying more attention to this in the future. Also for some reason my entry is listed as by ScottS. I'll let him know shortly.

What I really don't like about the stranger figure is the fact that I couldn't do a good wash to get the shading I wanted. I'm sick of GW Flesh wash,  and I mixed up some new ink washes a la Les Bursley, but didn't like the flesh color I achieved. Too light so it was more of a highlight in the recesses. I then made what I thought was my grunge wash, a mixture of the Raw Umber, Burnt Umber and Black washes I had made previously. It ended up too subtle so we are left with what you see.

I'm still beavering away at the figures for the Talomir game. Another report is up on Talomir Tales here in which Ed himself plays out a battle between Treyine and Tropilium. I feel like I'm making good progress on these and should have them table top ready soon.

Before I forget I also want to welcome new follower Mattias Darrow of Amateur Hour a blog where he displays his talents. Not so amateur in my humble opinion. He seems to have only 12 followers right now, which is criminal given his talent. Check him out, you won't be disappointed.

Imagine my delight when I saw this drawn by my very own little cultist.


He is also becoming a little painter. He asked me if he could paint some skeletons so I gave him some figures, paints and ink wash and taught him how to dry brush. The result is this.


Cheers!

10 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Hi Phil, thanks. I'm hoping to train him up to be just like James Brewerton. At least in the sense that he paints scads of awesome stuff for his dad.

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  2. I just can't wait for my newborn son to draw me a Cthulu... lucky you !

    Being a Fallout maniac, I couldn't help but see the vault dweller and dogmeat... ang god know it's good to see them. Thanks Sean.

    (Oh and I second you on Mattias, he's a very nice and talented chap)

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    1. Hi JB, nice to hear from you. Thanks. I haven't played all that much Fallout so I did not make that connection, but now that you mention it I see it. Sorry I haven't been over to your blog in awhile. I'm on damage control reading blogs right now. Only the biggest back logs get read at the moment. Perhaps I should change my strategy.

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    2. No damage done to anyone I think, bloggery is not slavery ! Keep the models coming and the kid drawing netherworldly demon lords, blogging will just fill the empty space ;)

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  3. "My first Cthulu"?! I think you'll be OK as long as your son's head doesn't spin round and he doesn't vomit like the Niagara Falls...

    Did you intend the man and dog to be glossy? I find it a little strange, though they look fine otherwise.

    I do like the skeletons, so please pass on my congratulations to the artist.

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    1. Hi Hugh, thanks. I've been brushing on Liquitex Matte Varnish on all the figures and they all look pretty glossy afterwards. I stay away from sprays as I like to do all my work indoors and have never felt like I had proper control of the spray can. Perhaps I need to search more for a truly matte brush on varnish. And I'll tell Aidan you liked the skellies.

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  4. Aidan's done really well there!

    I think the Stranger and Max are fine - I recognised them as being from the film, so that's half the battle.

    Are they as glossy in real life, or is it your photo? One of the things I'm seeing in the challenge is how those who know about lighting and staging are able to raise their figures up.

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    1. Thanks Edwin, Aidan will be chuffed. As for my figures, they are a touch glossy looking, but I think it is exacerbated by me using flash. I understand lighting and composition, I think, but am always rushing to send in my stuff so end up just pointing and clicking with a fancy camera. I'll endeavor to put some art into my forth coming pictures.

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