paintminion

Ooops, i missed ths post! Eyesight is now a severe problem for me. I cannot paint with help, and yes, I do wear glasses, bifocals. I use those nice clip on lenses ( bought a 3x and a 4x pair from some catalog for older folk and cost me about 12 dollars. Then i also have a cheap optivisor-like head gear I got at the game shop for about 15 dollars. I switch off.

Happy Birthday Nameless!

I went and got a couple of small sliding glass door display cases from Ikea that hold WIP minis when I leave the table. Does the cat go on the paint/game table, of course, the thing is huge and she loves the heat from the lamps. And yes, cat hair gets all over - grab a dust buster, duster, hair dryer, fan, and clear it before you sit down. It's just something cat owners learn to deal with. Or in this case, my paint group must deal with. My biggest worry these days is if Comet Cat is going to crawl into Skya's paintbag and go home with her.

Everyone who goes should raise a glass or two of the beverage of choice and drink to our 24th Wedding Anniversary. :-)

Reaper Pro Paint pots with poster tac and sometimes glue when all my tac is in use, I have a limited edition signed Michael Proctor Spool, with poster tack again. My dragons have been glued to tuna cans, old wood display bases, and wood blocks from the lumber bits around the house. It sorta depends on whether I am pinning something to a base or not. If not, then poster tack or glue (easy to crack and pry up with a hobby knife), but if pinning, I drill and pin into a wood block. No matter what, you want something comfortable in your hand and big enough to hold the model.

Feathering: Instead of painting on solid layers and showing lines of gradual shading from dark to light (think GW style), feathering uses the tip of your brush to make short even strokes for each layer. Like feathers on a wing, the brush always points to the shadow line and you follow the curve of the section. They are close together, smooth strokes, no pooling. You pull back a little and do the next layer of feather a little lighter and a little lighter, and glazing helps smooth out the transitions. That help? Otherwise it's hard to give an entire class in one post ;-)

Layering is defined as simply one layer of paint over another. Feathering and glazing are types of layering - anything that builds one paint on top of another. Glazing is controlled thin paint, used as a veil. You can layer glazes as well as feathering or just layering straight paint like GW does. Most techniques in mini painting combine different types of layering. Just do not like when folks get confused about terms.

Hawker, it is not a white background at all, it s a mid tone blue gray.

Quit researching and do it. If you err on the side of too thin, you will just need more layers but you will not have to be afraid of going too heavy a mix. You will get the hang of it if you just do it. I think Wren meant that if you get pools (acting like a wash), quick dab your brush on the towel so it bleeds off and is drier, then touch the brush to the pool to wick up the error. Long full strokes over an entire section, no matter what sized brush ( I prefer a 0), and you'll be good. Jump in! It will be fun!

I have no idea how long it took to complete - he's been around a couple months now in various stages of completion - been working on multiple commissions at once. He's a Design Your Own Mini I think? http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/11481-kanaag-the-half-orc-ranger/

Just finished this Kanaag for a comission - one of the strangest minis I have ever painted. With the new camera and software I am struggling to color correct a bit. This is darker IRL than it shows, more bluey, and eventually I will master this grrrrr new software...someday. Enjoy!

Just never stop learning if you want to get better at whatever you do. There's metallics, demo metallics (metallics shaded with normal paint colors), nmm, polished pewter metallics (polishing the pewter and using oils to quickly shade it), and there are all sorts of styles that borrow from each other and everything. If you paint a variety of objects, the more you know, the better you can handle whatever comes your way. Whether you paint gaming minis, toy soldiers, historical pieces, manufacturer pieces, museum pieces, model cars, competition pieces, dolls, wedding toppers, etc - be creative, have fun. In the end, it's all color and light. So get out there and create and appreciate what others create.

Absolutely, as said go cooler in the shadows - Add Nightshade, or some Blue Liner, or Midnight, to the Dark Skin paint, and then work towards the highlights with Tanned Shadow or Tanned Skin. Just play with it and don't sweat it too much. You just need to practice letting your eye see the color not the skin. If that doesn't look right, you can always glaze and tweak it a shade or two until you like it. And yes, the Power Pallette is a fun tool to try. What does it say, I am curious. Hope that helps!

Buy what is most useful to you, but on the flip side, know that the folks who took the time to write those articles receive nothing of the money you paid for the printed book.. This is why I don't do articles and post them on CMON - they would own them, nothing given to the authors and CMON can use them any way they want to. But they do have some good articles on the site that can be really useful - and in this hobby we all do want to help each other be better! So check Reaper, check CMON, go out and buy some painting books and magazines.

Question for Anne: Last Paint Nite, Eastman and I were comparing our Indigo paint bottles (Pale Indigo, Indigo Sky) and they are two very different sets - His is much bluer, and mine much redder pale purple. Was there a formula change on that? Which is current? Neither one of us knows how old these bottles are, but they are clearly two very different sets of Indigoey purpleses. Meep..

First, don;t confuse your mini's terrain "base" with the display base - you can have a bigger piece of wood under there, no one said you had to cover the whole thing with terrain. For dragons on a wood base, i prefer a wood base that completely shadows the figures - I mean no tails or wings sticking out. So when you display the piece, all is within the border of the display stand. It is much safer that way. Second, a bit cheaper and fun to play with when creating terrain is celluclay - it's a bit like paper mache and play dough crossed. I learned about that from the historical painters. You can even add color to the mix, but it takes paint just fine when dry Third, determine which direction you want it viewed from and turn the figures a bit to emphasize that view. It will look better on the shelf that way. And last - have a great time!

IMMPS Paint Party, Friday July 12, PaintMinion's house in Huntley, IL. Dinner will be Thai Take Out, music is eclectic, table is big with lots of lights. I already have one out of state painter joining us...any more?

Our small writer's group is called The Hill Hunters of Meep. I remember hearing and saying meep in high school in the early 80's. Anne taught it to my daughter when she was little and we've used it ever since. There are article about the word being banned from certain schools - people use it instead of swear words. "What the meep?" is acceptable in our house. It is not to be confused with Gleep.

Just waltzing in to emphasize that everyone's resistance to the chemicals and toxins in our hobby is different. This hobby gave me cancer, (total remission now), and thus Reaper learned from very reliable lab results that their paints were pretty meeping safe. It brought attention to Vallejo paints and an old jerk of a pigment supplier that they no longer use who lied about what elements were in their pigments. Vallejo then did their own tests and changed up some stuff to make sure their paints were much much safer. So having been on the inside of all the toxic hobby paint hullabaloo, I will insist you not lick your chemically treated weasel butt fur and lacquered brushes, or any brushes for that matter, don't eat the paint, don't use body parts as paint palettes, don't eat your old lead minis, use a professional mask when spraying chemicals, and myself and many others who have dealt with health problems because of bad hobby habits will be happier. Again, I verify that Reaper makes some pretty awesomely safe paint products, as do most of the companies making our paints these days. Any paint you've been keeping alive since 2005, please just give it up, and get something new! Back to your regular paint meeper, Anne...

To level up, my two cents of advice is to remember this: 1. There is no one right way to do anything. It is the end result that counts in mini painting. 2. Thin your paints. 3. It is not always you that is holding you back - it can be your tools. Good files, sharp knife, smooth primer, pointy and flexible brush, good light. 4. Higher Highlights, Deeper Shadows (HHDS) 5. Glazing is your friend. 6. Jump in and have fun with the paint. You can always change it.

Taken art classes forever, but once out of college I stopped - and found minis. So I have some small training in drawing and painting with acrylics and oils. I have painted a model car (wife wanted it to look like hubby's race car), really large dragons, a couple of gundam model robots, fixed and painted to match a set of ceramic reindeer, lots of furniture and walls. What translates well between them is line, shadow and highlight, and color. After that, really i just learned to jump in and do it. :-)

IMMPS, Illinois Models and Miniatures Painting Society, is really just a bunch of friends that paint in my basement. It started at our game store, but now it's just my place, or Noel's (Skya) place, or her brother's place. We have a good time in that we sometimes plan a dinner ( grill or sushi or thai), sometimes there is alcohol involved, but the only rule is that you should be moving forward on your project - prepping or painting or basework. If you are missing something, someone usually has it. Stuck or unsure of a decision on technique or color, ask and you can get help, but we're not there to teach each other except by prior consent. I find I tend to be more focused on these nights than just sitting there alone. Plus you occasionally can pass the mmini around and see what others think - instant feedback! So it's fun to get together and paint, but we keep things loose and change it up sometimes. Anyone coming to the Chicagoland area is welcome to join us - as some already have.

Today got my email that my dragons are shipping! I picked up my Vampire Box at the con.

Ah, Flight Rising is a free online game, not FaceBook, that opened recently. My daughter was a kickstarter supporter. You breed, raise and fight dragons, among other things. Can be found here, http://flightrising.com/ We're having a blast, and the colors of the dragons give me great ideas for models. It can be slow, is not intended for constant play, and multis have ruined the Boon of Fertility bonus for start up that jumpstarted your first eggs. But it has great promise and I am eager to see the new games and such they have yet to unveil. Anyway, I am open to trades and such, and helping out Reaper people if needed. Just ask.