I paint my space wolves to a high standard but I do take short cuts, such as using washes for the shading of the armour rather than line highlighting ect. I also concentrate more on the focal areas such as faces, wolf pelts ect that realy draw the eye. I find this necessary as I am quite a slow painter, but I also wanted to be able to field a fully painted army on the tabletop that followed a style and process throughout the army.
The problem with this approach to army painting is that it can sometimes stagnate and not really push the boundaries that are established when painting through an army. Of course one off projects can help to challenge this but I wanted to see how I could push myself on a consistent basis with an army, that used alot of skills amd colours I was not used to painting or even thinking about. This is where my current dark eldar carnival project came from. I really wanted something different to paint, that would help me with my progress, and the gorgeous DE modles really fitted the bill. Having a love for conversions I decided that not only would I push myself paint wise but also in the modelling dept. And thus my harlequin carnival - 'La Danse Macabre' was born.
For over a year now I have been working on this army. I have a project log over on the dark that I chronicled my progress (my first baby steps into blogging :) ) and the great community and feedback really helped me keep going. Anyway enough rambling from me, I just wanted to show my most recently painted unit, carnival mandrakes. They were done a couple of months ago, but I have not done any more on the dark kin since, and consider them the best minis I have painted to date. They show a nice contrast to the more gritty space wolves from my previous posts, and have really challenged the way I think about painting, from colour composition, wet blending, and line highlighting ect. I hope this all made some sense, and would love to hear how you all push yourselves in the hobby, and what projects helped/are helping you do that.
Nafnaf out!
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These are absolutely beautiful Nafnaf. The colors...wow. I love the synergy between them, and the little differing color pops. This is the type of unit you'd want to enter in a competition. The bases are interesting, the figures are interesting, the poses are great, the colors are just popping off the screen. I want more individual photos of them so I can check each out!
ReplyDeleteThanks Greg :) I have posted some individual pics above (not the best quality im afraid, still getting used to taking photos). They were tough to paint but finished are worth the effort.
DeleteI really love the white grid you panted on the blue pants leg...and the poka dots? Wow so inspired. Really works well.
DeleteThe secret to good mini photography (outside of diffuse lighting), is just tripods, timed or remote shutters, and high F-stops (F10-14). Helps cut out the depth of field effect. Your photos look pretty good though! Thanks for posting them.
I have built myself a light box (out of cardboard temporarily) to try and diffuse the light a little but I need to invest in a new bulb for one of my lamps as I am still getting a lot of shadows. I am having to take my photos with my phone/iPad as I do not have a decent camera (or any cash to buy one)so having to make baby steps at present :)
DeleteJust going back through your archive - absolutely love how these turned out, man! Beautifully done!
ReplyDeleteHey thanks very much :). They are probably my favourite unit I have painted so far, so am pleased by the positive feedback. I am doing more on this army so hope to post up something more soon.
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