"That Guy"

Who says I have no Christmas cheer? Just finished this for myself. Comments, concerns, questions, and even flaming pitchforks all welcome. Thanks for looking. Martin Jones

You can find me on FB or email me at [email protected]

The item was not commissioned but bought; I had started it before it was part of the project (and it was not designed under license). The purchase agreement for the froghemoth has not been satisfied and because of the delay/stall cannot be satisfied per the terms (and no attempt to do so has been made). So I'm sitting on 11 sculpts myself (6 of which never left my studio as I had a feeling they should stay with me until I get paid). Should we band together and recover our sculpts? Would that also work for painted minis? I'm sitting on three paint jobs still not paid for, but CSM has been using their photos. Please don't take this incorrectly. Matt and I talk on a rather regular basis and I consider him as a friend, but business is business. I'm currently out upwards of $3,000.00 and that has put me into a rather rough spot financially this year.

I am still owed a great deal of money for my painting and sculpting efforts too. I've talked with Matt several times about these things and he assures me that he wants to do the right thing for the sculptors (and painters) as well as the backers. That said, I'm on a wait and see status. I still have faith in Matt and what he wants to do, even if that means he has to sell everything off.

I'm rather insulted that they have a character named Martin in the show and do you think they would call a real Martin? Noooo! Of course not! Heck, I'm way prettier than that talentless hack that has my namesake. I'd be a way better casting choice anyway. I wouldn't even have to act, I'd just be myself. Well, I would have to tone down my AWESOME to about ten percent so as to not completely upstage the other actors. Heck, I'd have painted their minis for them way better than that. Geez. No respect anywhere! Where's my Evian?!?!

Yeah, we totally need to run around and cause trouble some more! Do we really need a reason?

Hey, I loved them both!! Indeed it does. My wife says that I'm trying to create a whole chain of "Mini-Marts" (as this is our second child). Thank you all very much! After going out on a night on the town with The Inner Geek and Patrick Keith on friday, gaming all day on Saturday with the bestest wife ever, Xanderhook and his lovely wife, and going to a huge house of bounce houses, throwing a pretty princess party and having Birthday pho, I could honestly say that this has been a most excellent birthday all around! Happy birthday, Martin! May it involve the most enjoyable aspects of painting and miniatures. I hope the grammar police doesn't arrest me for that heinous run-on sentence...

Thanks guys! My birthdays mean more (and a bit less) nowadays as my beautiful daughter turns two today as well. The last two years have been all about pretty princesses and I wouldn't change anything about it!

There is a bit of progress. I used Procreate to gap fill the three problem areas. for photography reasons, I should have used something a bit further off the color of resin, but I much prefer the feel and overall quality of Procreate. I'll start painting it either tomorrow or Monday, depending on where the artistic muses take me.

Hello people! Like the title says, I have a big frog. It just happens to be the limited edition Tsathogga from Center Stage Miniatures. It has been masterfully sculpted by the very talented Drew Williams! Like I've said, the guy is huge! He(?) stands(?) about 5-6 inches tall from the base to the top of the left wrist and is about 8 inches long. Anyway, it just happens that this is a charity commission that I raffled away last year at the NTRPGCon (http://ntrpgcon.com/ for those of you who might be interested) As I porogress on it, I'll show my updates here and on my site as well (http://www.drstrangebrush.com/ for those of you who might be interested) Enough jabber, on to some photos! As you can see he comes in three pieces: body, left arm, and lower jaw. All assembled There are some moderate gap filling spots around the joint for the left arm and where the lower jaw meets the upper jaw (especially on the right side). There also seems to be a crack on the right side of the neck. Nothing is too terrible and hopefully won't take too long. Enough of my jabbering, I have work to do.

There's the spirit! Just kidding... Honestly, I would rather you get scared away then go down this rabbit hole. The sign outside says "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here" for a reason.

Does this mean they're only fielding freelancers for new releases? Perhaps, but when was the last new release? I think it's now back to showing unpainted whites.

I was their on-site studio painter until about four months ago when a bit of corporate reorganization left no room for a working art department (ironic, huh?).

I'm totally not trying to be negative. I'm giving you an honest introspective view into my own life. It sucks. Life is very hard. The only way out for me is deeper in. This is my only life skill that I have (aside from what I learned in the Marine Corps, but I can't legally use that skill set outside of a war zone). The last thing I would want to happen is for you to totally hate yourself and regret even trying to walk down this path without at least a heartfelt warning. The constant uncertainty of where next months bill money is coming from, or what you are going to feed your kids if person A or B doesn't pay by tomorrow wears on you. I have no safety net at all. If I let up, I lose everything. If this is the kind of life you want, then by all means jump in and welcome!

Okay questions for you. 1. Did you have to trademark your logo/name? 2. Do you have a business license for doing this? I don't really want to paint armies but I feel like that's the only way to do this full time, what I have in mind when painting an army is that I would paint the army in grades, so the large units and squads that are all the same sculpts over and over, those are the ones you airbrush or speed paint by just doing base coats, some detail and then a wash or two and then the generals or special units are the ones that you charge a premium for and spend the most time working on. I don't know if this is common practice throughout the commission "community" but it's what I see at least one of the larger painting companies does and it seems to work wonders for them. I would rather paint single minis for RPG's or displays but that just doesn't seem like a very big market so I don't know if that's viable. 1. No, you don't have to, but it is highly recommended. 2. Depending on where you are working is my guess. I report my income to the IRS and thus have had no trouble as of yet. Unless you work for a stable of companies as I do, your single figure work will be very sparse. In my experience, most RPG players want a nice looking figures, but would rather just do it themselves. Tabletop armies though, is another animal. They can get quite expensive. I've had people tell me that they already spent a thousand on their models, so what's another thousand to make them look really good? Those people like boasting about their armies to their friends. More people see a painted army than a D&D figure. You have tournaments and game nights with a wide variety of people. RPGs for the most part just look plain boring and never really ends up as a spectator sport. I'm going to say this again because I really think it needs to be said again: Full-time painting is a hard, miserable life with no light at the end of the tunnel. There is no reward (aside from maybe, MAYBE a referral to someone else). When you are not painting, you are hustling for more work. When you aren't hustling, you might get a couple of hours of sleep. You get no time off, no benefits, no sick time and no family time. You sacrifice everything for nothing. I have semi-permanent nerve damage in my shoulder and wrists from years of walking this life. I have lost friends, turned down opportunities, and have strained my relationships with my wife and children. If this is the life you want, then by all means go for it! There is no fame or glory in working five times harder than everyone else for a tenth of the pay. Your ego will be constantly crushed, your patience will be constantly tried, and your faith in humanity will be lost. This is not just my experience, but also that of the few other people that are at my level.

OK, here is some advice can give to you: Cast a wide net. Advertise everywhere (Facebook, Twitter, forums, local game stores) . Don't expect a ton of clients to jump on immediately when you do, you might only get a couple of inquiries. Show your work. Don't just say you can do something, back your words up! I know a few people that say they are commission painters and only have a couple of tired pieces they have shown everyone for years as their portfolio. If you are going to paint armies (I'm going to assume primarily 40K), then get yourself an army and get into the community with your awesome paint jobs and put it on the table. Your showcase is in front of you, you are engaging your market and people will always stop by and check out what is happening. Playing the game is an event that people watch. Perhaps the opponent is playing a grey horde against you. You could always bring it up to him that you paint for a living. Slip him a couple of cards at the beginning of the game and let the magic happen. I could care less about the game currently, but I've been showing up to various stores lately with my army that I've won several awards with and it brings me business. Oh, make cards. I agree with all of this. I try to charge so that I make at least 10.00 an hour. It also takes a special kind of person to not hate themselves after jumping in the deep end with commission painting. Most people burn out rather quickly. To survive, you must learn to compartmentalize yourself from work and hobby. I paint upwards of 80+ hours a week for various people and companies. While I enjoy my job, it is not my hobby. Every once in a while I will get a small chance to paint something for myself which is like a small vacation. That is when I actually enjoy what I do. That only happened twice last year though, and out of the thousands of minis I painted, that really isn't much of a vacation. What I'm trying to say here is this: Be careful what you wish for. This lifestyle is stressful, full of sacrifice, cutthroat and at times miserable. There is no glory whatsoever in it.

I honestly think you're safe on this issue. They should be required/decent enough to give you a ring if that was going to shut down. I'm dubious, as I've already had a few things I've painted of mine "disappear" while on loan at various GW locations.

All this talk of store closures really makes me want to go pick up my display that is on semi-permanent loan at the GW closest my house just in case I never see it anymore...

I am most likely going to be there in some sort of capacity, official or not. Here is their website: http://ntrpgcon.com/ Their dates are Thursday June 5, 2014 @ 1100 until Sunday June 8, 2014 @ 1800.

And yes, Gizmo.

And I painted them up as the kids from South Park...

Thanks for the wonderful words everyone. It truly means a lot to me.

I just used a Winsor & Newton series 7 size 1. It was the same brush I used for the whole thing in fact.

Here are some completed photos of a piece I wanted to do just for myself. I posted a really quick WIP thread on this forum as well. There are some more photos on my blog (link in signature). As always, thank you and I hope you enjoy!

On to mating the base with the mini! If you noticed in earlier photos, there was an indentation in the base. That is where I pushed the mini into the almost cured Aves so I would know exactly where to glue her down (and to create more of a footprint for the glue to hold). Well, I glued her down in place with superglue and waited for the glue to cure. Afterwards, I spread a decent coating of white PVA glue to the base and applied a liberal amount of woodland scenics soft flake snow. When that was set up and the excess shaken off a bit, I began to add the glue and snow in small sections up the length of the tree. After that was set up a bit, I painted the edge of the base and used some water effects to sculpt a couple of icicles on the branches just for fun. There you have it, the quickest WIp thread ever. Here are some completed shots: