Right, enough procrastination, operation Fix The Bad Shadow begins.
I added an attempt at a cast shadow on the base, trying to emphasise that I want the scene to read as though lit from a shaft of light above, but I hated it so much that I set it aside for a full week 😅 I think it’s just far too extreme, I’ll try to soften it and lighten it to recover.
His little boots have a strap around them that I wasn’t expecting. Sudden colour paralysis.
I have, definitely intentionally, decided that he should have Very Shiny arms. Didn’t come up much in the show, but a big part of the books.
(Awkward Look Monkey Puppet dot gif)
Starting into his jerkin and only realising while taking this photo that the filigree is approximately the same width as the ridges of my fingerprints 😬
I mean I can’t leave him without hair…
When I say ‘finish the Farseer’ first, I obviously don’t mean not putting any paint on that tiny little face.
Well… I know what I’ll be working on when I get the Farseer finished up. Can’t believe it’s even smaller. Look at that likeness though, even just primed!
Blend, blend, blend—checks to confirm that almost nothing has changed—blend, blend, blend. What even is white?
This stretch could be a long one: the Actual White bits.
Adding blue-gray over the vibrant white primer and a lesser white to the brightest white to try to make blue-gray and lesser white look like a more vibrant white (at scale). As you do.
Deep in the ugly, patchy phase of it at the moment.
Starting on gloves and bangles. Critical aspects of any wargaming mini.
Filling in the remaining white space on the torso. It’s only when you take the photo that you realise there’s a fair bit more imprecision than you saw with your Human Eyeball. Fair play to the YouTubers out there getting crispy lines while filming what they’re up to.
Expanding the red, waiting for the storm.
Slowly now pushing the painted contrast to better match the boosted version, trying to make the chest ornamentation seem like a distinct material from the fabric.
I can’t remember who originally shared the tip, but if you struggle (like me) to get your non-metallics to actually look ‘shiny’, you can take a photo of your initial light placement on the mini and just boost the contrast to max and brightness to min. Try to match what you see with paint.
Of course, gentle reader, he would start into some non-metallic nonsense before he even has the base colours down. The boy’s a fool.
The order in which I choose to apply paint is both baffling and entirely self-inflicted.
Never painted an elf before, space or otherwise, despite falling in love with Jes Goodwin’s art back in the day. But this little sculpt is gorgeous.
I’m determined that 2025 is the year I actually finish painting a thing. Anything. Just one will do. I’m nominating this lil guy. Still a long way to go, but I’ve stopped myself giving up in disgust and re-priming him three separate times now, so that’s progress!
Definitely time to start some regular creative stuff again and hope to carry hobby-momentum through into the new year.
Not the greatest start to day one though, I’m going to have to learn how to putty re-sculpt a resin-related-injury on the fuzzy fella.