Painting Raven

Awesome! Wonderful idea and execution. I love it!

Thanks for the praise everyone, I'm glad you like it. I base my miniatures just prior to priming, so everything except the water was done before painting. After the miniature is complete I then do the ground cover, painting the stream bed to a bluish grey then covering it with Woodland Scenics water effects. I smooth out the water with a toothpick and add small details, like water going around the big rock. After the piece is sealed, I then give the water a very, very transparent wash of sky blue, highlight with pure white where the water would be "rushing" by and then seal it with high gloss finger nail polish! So that's that on the water. Funny you should say that, since I actually painted this one to look like a druid. The pose, the feathers, etc. just don't say "mage" to me.

Hey there Everyone, I thought I'd drop by (which I never seem to get time to do much anymore) and post this one for your enjoyment. Being snowed-in here in Denver, I've had time to paint. The butterfly, the small blue guy at here feet, was done with paper and wire, following an article on CMON I read. I hope you like this one and you're welcome to head on over to my website to see some others. I'd post 'em all here by that would be quite a few. Cheers, Painting Raven

Hey there everyone, Just thought I would share pics of my winning Masterclass entry for this year's Tacticon, here in Denver. Surprisingly, it took 1st Place! So, here it is. Thanks in advance for any comments!

Greetings All, Just thought I'd pop in and post a new one I did recently for a customer. As always comments are welcome!

Nicely done. I like the combo of red and white. My only other observation would be that the gold seems a little flat, but otherwise its a splendid mini. Good job.

Very Cool. It reminds me of a comic book character, I believe it might have been called "Little Devil" that was in comic book series along side Casper and Richy Rich (but I might be dating myself a little there, so I'll shut up now).

Thanks everyone for your kind comments. Mostly what I did was first paint the flame, going from white near the hands and head to a darker blue at the tips at the top. I then painted the figure as I would normally without the reflected light. The tough part came with the reflection. Light travels in straight lines with the closest items getting the brightest reflection (which is this case would be the midtone for the flame), so I painted on the brightest points (on top of his head, the arms, face, etc.) first then blended the flames color with whatever the base color was of the item (i.e. flesh tones and blue for the face, brown and blue for the hair, etc.). I know this is probably still rather vague but I hope it helps a little. The other tough part is making sure the regular highlights blend into the reflected highlights in a smooth way that looks good. This is definately not a technique for the timid.

Hey there Everybody, Its been awhile (of course I always say that) but I've been busy with commissions and school. But, I thought I'd stop by and show off one of my latest... Aaron the Conjuror. I've tried OSL before, but never on this scale. He was a real challenge but the customer I painted him for was happily amazed. I hope you like him.

Wow, I love the pose and the base. The blue is very nice and overall the presentation is solid. The only thing I could critique is that the blue, although nice, seems flat somehow. Its difficult to put a finger on it but perhaps it could be a lack of depth in the shading, perhaps a real dark blue in the deepest recesses? I'm not quite sure and I could be missing something too. Otherwise, I'm sorry it didn't place, its a nice figure.

Hi Everybody, Just thought I'd drop by and show you the latest from my painting desk. Thora here was a fun one to do and I hope you like her. Comments are welcome and if you'd like to do the whole voting thing you can head over to CMON. I've also got three other new ones on my website so please feel free to check them out. Thanks in advance!

Hey Everybody, Just thought you all might get a kick out of this one. I used a new technique (at least new for me) on it. I directed the light source so that its not directly above the piece. To get it right (which I hope I did), I took photos of the primed figure with the lighting I wanted on it (and mirror underneath, thanks for that pointer Anne) and then printed the photos out to use as a reference. So, tell me what you think! Thanks! Painting Raven

Very nice! The entire piece conveys motion and peril to our hero! Very clean work! Congratulations on well deserved win!

Thanks for the comments everybody! And IXMinis, thanks for adding the links to the other views! I asked Heisler about this the morning I found out. According to him Best In Show was open to all takers, Masters or not, and it came down to a decision between this piece and Marike's Basti (which won 1st in Masters and took the People's Choice Awards). Therefore, at least this is what I was told by Heisler, that my piece won, over the Master's division, because of its complexity and overall composition. Honestly, I was just as stunned as anyone else when I was told and now I'm in the Master's Division for all the future Cons here in Denver.

It has been a while since I've posted anything here in the forums. I suppose I've just been busy and I haven't gotten around to it. But, in light of what went down at GenghisCon XXVII a couple of weeks ago here in Denver, Co. I thought I would post some links to the pics. First Up, my winner for First Place in Dioramas, 1st Place in Reaper Units, and Best In Show. I'm particularly proud of this one (and surprised also) because, as Anne can atest to, the competition was fierce. This piece beat works by Marike, Lily, Doug, Derek, and even Jen Haley. So, naturally I'm proud of it. I'll add more pics of other winners and some new stuff soon. In the meantime, you can see then on my website if you don't want to wait. Naturally, comments are welcome and encouraged.