sgtoku

Gotta love the colors on this mini of yours. Even with subdued colors they still pop and stand out, and the paint job is smooth and clean. The gore is a nice touch too. I have to say I agree with Goblyn on the base, perhaps if the transition was smoothed out between pre-molded base and the circular base, or if without the pre-molded base, but still, a brilliant looking mini!

I have windsor series 7 brushes and what I do is use this: http://cdn.dickblick.com/items/057/04/05704-3050-3ww-l.jpg All I do is have a small bottle of the pink soap and, once I'm done with a painting session, dip it inside the bottle, clean it off by gently cleaning it with my fingers in a backward motion (meaning motion with the bristles, not against) and swish it in water. After, I then dip only the tip, or at most half length, of the brush back in the bottle, and gently coat the brush in the pink soap. After I just put the brush away. It's quick and easy and my personal preference. I've yet to have problem with the brushes ever, and I've used them for close to two years now. I don't let the paint get over-full in the brush to the point where it's in the ferrule also. That always helps .

I'm with MonkeySloth, I did way better than I thought. 18! Woot woot! (Latest finished the end of December, pictures taken in January, so I counted that one.)

Firstly, Happy B-Day & New Years! When they drop the ball you can count that as part of your birthday too For the codpiece, I'd opt to make it a darker shade of whatever color you decide on for the pants, with a lighter color, or nmm (nmm silver perhaps) on the outlining rim. I'd not do a brighter color for the codpiece itself because it may look funny, and it paints a pretty big target for that area, which uh, wouldn't necessarily be a good thing for him. Cool thing about your idea to incorporate a bit of green is it goes great with both silver, bronze, gold, iron, and the like, so you can play around. The faded look of heather blue could go very well with the color scheme you're leaning to. I'd almost go with silver for the rim of the codpiece if you use the blue for the shirt, or you could do a very dark silver for the entire codpiece with a brighter silver rim also. Call it how you see it. I'd stick to what you think is best when your working on it, but those are some the ideas I can think of concerning color matching.

I could guess it depends on the type of green to start. I'd say you could go with a "Legend of Zelda" type green (specifically, the military green triad) and a lavender like purple (violet light, sunset purple, and amethyst purple are some exacts.) Afterwords you could mix some very small amounts of medium green (darker green for shadows) into all your colors for the basing to give it an older world feel. This could be slightly bright though (on the mini itself), and could be toned back with a darker purple combination. If you wanted to go darker, I'd say some pine greens and royal purples would look pretty awesome on the mini too. As you asked, if I were in your position I'd probably do that "Link" type green on the shirt, the "gloves" a dark lavender, the pants a darker purple, the detailing on the shirt a golden cloth and the flute either a bronze with bone detailing, or darker silver with bronze detailing. But, if I were in your position, I might change the whole idea mid-way too . When you get started I'd definitely follow your instinct and think about it though. Keep the options open, as my way of doing it is pretty much guaranteed to be different from your own creativity.

Wow, Wow, Wow! Fantastic work! The detailing is very nice and I REALLY like the color choice of the armor (puple-ish). What screams to me is that face. That nose, and the wrinkles at the sides of the eyes, so much character. Bang-up job!

A beautiful piece! It does indeed scream display me. Love it!

I gotta say this is fantastic based on the colors you chose alone! I love the use of neutrals yet how it still pops. The touches of red and the single use of a brighter blue (along with the eyes to match) looks really good IMO. It may not be as smooth as you usually do, but it looks excellent and it actually helps me. When I look closely I can more easily see how you applied the paint to get the effects that you want :). Sometimes I get confused on highlight placement on a lot of materials and this piece is a great reference when that happens ;). Love it.

That mini is just all kinds of good. The skin work is excellent, especially with the dark and cold harmony you have going on in the mini. Brilliant job man!

A wonderfully painted piece, Sean. I could tell it was painted by you. Your style is always so rich. Think that's why I like it so much. Of course, the plethora of tips in this thread are nice too!

Nice work station. I've been wanting to see more paint jobs posted up here by you. Always like the style of your dwarves!

Some excellent work here! I generally look at the pics when it comes to viewing before reading the post. When I clicked the old man I said "creepy", then I read that's what you wanted. Great job on him! A lot of nice tones going on in every piece, and that Minotaur's skin is really nice! Glad you posted these up here!

As has been said, great use of black (especially as it can be tougher than other colors ). Subtle and simple, and the base really goes well with it IMO.

Fantastic looking piece! Even before clicking on the image it almost pops off the screen with the smooth colors!

Love the display of cool colors at work here. Reminds me of a dwarf near a sea stronghold or a mountainous snowy forest just from the colors alone. As has been mentioned by Derek, the NMM is pretty solid, especially for a second attempt! Except for checkerboard, personally don't have much experience with freehand as of yet, though just like you, been seeing some nice freehand on the forum here lately. Anyhow, great piece!