Miniature of the Moment..."Ennis Bairre"...

Remember when I talked about the 1 in 50 miniature that comes along, that everything just seemed to turn out right with it?  Well, here is number 2 of 50.  This may actually be my favorite miniature.  Everything seemed to turn out just right on this one when it all was finished.  Now, if they all turned out like this one...

The Eyes Have It...

Have I ever talked about painting the eyes? (other than I used to not do it at first!)  I don't think I have.

For those who can just sit back and paint eyes on a small miniature, more power to you.  I have to admit, there are some very detailed eyes out there, and it does make the miniature.  However, for those of use who are not able to paint the perfect Picasso eye, have to find another way to do it, and this seems to work well for me, that is, I am pleased with the eyes that I do.

First, paint both of the eye sockets white, literally over paint.  Pick your eye color, and put that as a dot in the center of the white you just painted.  Now, come back and clean up the white over paint by using a flesh color until you get it to look the way you want.  If you make a mistake, paint all white again and start over.  The key is, if you don't get a good eye the first time, do it again.  I've done some 3-4 times before I like it.  Now, if you are really good and have steady hands, you can put a fine black dot in the center of your color, but if not possible, they will still look nice.

Here is a hint - I tend to paint the eyes just slightly bigger than is right for the miniature - when they are dipped, they come out about right.  However, because the miniature is so small, and the eyes can make the difference, larger than life eyes tend to actually make for a really nice miniature.

Fall is here? or is it still Winter...

After taking the series of pictures below, it really put me in a fall mood!  This is "Hunter Smith", another one of my Pilgrim collection.  He is holding a deer over his shoulders.  As I will be using this in a fall diorama I am working on, I painted just a few spots on the shanks to dipict a fall deer.  I used to think that deer lost their spots by October, but found out different when I shot a buck fawn on October 5 (by bow), and it still had a few spots on the hams.  It should be noted, that I never knew it had spots until after I had shot, but it was unusual enough for me that I had to share with someone...my wife..mistake...never tell your wife you just shot a deer with spots.  Would I have still taken the shot had I known the deer had spots...I don't know...probably not.

Anyway, after taking the Winter photos, I brought out "A boy and his pigs" and added them all together to make a nice fall scene that leaves me longing for fall...and it is still only early February!!

Miniature of the Moment..."Marcus Grahame"...

After watching the movie "Centurion" (great movie by the way), I was inspired to paint a Pict.  The Picts were a race of people that the generations of the Scottish come from.  They were called Picts because they painted themselves all over with blue tattoos, mainly before battle.  Of all the races that Rome defeated and indentured, they could never do so to the Picts.  All their attempts to conquer what they probably saw as a stupid, simple people, failed.

Here is the trailer for Centurion:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiQCofKrYAI

Around AD 117, Rome sent it's best Legion, "The Ninth Legion" into Northern UK (what is now Scotland), to once and for all destroy every living Pict and conquer them.  The Ninth Legion consisted of 4000 Spanish Roman Soldiers - they were said to be the best, and had fought valiantly in several previously battles to prove it - of all the Roman Legions, the Ninth had saw most, if not a majority, of battles when compared to other Roman armies.  They were ruthless...they also never returned, and no traces of them were ever found.  The movie "Centurion" seeks to explain a plausible explanation of what happened (basically, the Picts wiped them out).

So here is "Marcus Grahame", my fist Pict warrior...

Miniature of the Moment..."Wintharr Direstone"...

"Wintharr Direstone" is a strange fellow.  About a year ago now, maybe more (maybe less?), I wanted to practice all different types of shading techniques and experiment with using washes.  I didn't want to ruin a miniature I had in the works, and I never really buy a miniature "just because", so it was hard to pick one to experiment on, but I chose this one.  I think I did a coat of grey primer, then a base of Bleached Bone.  From there I tried different types of shading, all kinds of washes, and other techniques....he was a stinky, dark, black, mess.

Once finished experimenting though, I went ahead and finished and based him, surprisingly, to have about 10 coats of paint over him, he didn't turn out too bad...

Miniature of the Moment..."Marcus Quinn"...

Every once in a while...1 out of maybe 10...(or 1 our of maybe 50!) a miniature comes along and you when finished you say, "Yeah, that one did turn out pretty good."  Well, here is one of those "yeah, that one did turn out pretty good" - "Marcus Quinn".

If my mind serves me right, this was the first miniature I did in what I'll call "battle weary" detail.  The shading turned out as about as perfect as it could have gotten.  And yes, there are eyes, it seems the photo doesn't show them well but they are there.  As for the painted face, I took a lesson from William Wallace and added that.  I almost did the whole upper torso, but didn't...maybe next time.  The photo may not show it, but it is half green and half blue.

I suppose the Scots painted there faces when they went to battle, if not, Braveheart was wrong...

A Tale of Two Davids...

What is a David without a Goliath!  Here are two I have finished, ready, and waiting to go into a "David and Goliath" diorama.  David...meet...David.