GuyWithCoolBackpack

Hey, I have pictures. I can add to this. Here are some things: Here are some pictures from Doug Cohen's 2 DAY long sculpting class. Considering It's my first scratch-built mini ever the results are pretty great. We all got our minis together for a dance party at the end. Cool class. A few others: Me with a cat, me with another cat. And the mini I made at David Diamondstone's Lighting Effects class. (Which is a really good class.) I took a few pictures of the entries, but you can see better pictures of those elsewhere.

I've always had in my head that it would be fun to enter something in all 4 categories. Even if you don't do well in all of them it would be a total hoot. The Diorama would be a challenge, of course, not to mention that some of your painting might suffer if you stretch yourself too thin. But if you can pull it off you'd end up with a neck full of ReaperCon Metals, and that would be cool.

Hello Again, all, long time, I was wondering if anyone here who has taken Douglas Cohen's sculpting Class (the Long 2-day one) could give me any advice on whether or not it would be good for me. I've managed to take most of the classes I really wanted to take over the course of several previous ReaperCons and so If I want to, I could sign up for that class. Some specific questions I have: 1) I have a little bit of modeling experience in Greenstuff, mostly conversions, patching, and the occasional tiny extra. I would be taking this class specifically to get better at modeling more complicated things. Good idea, or are the concepts here too hard to pick up unless you're already making your own models? 2) How does the schedule work for people? I mostly attend ReaperCon *to* take classes, so spending all my time in classes doesn't bother me a bit. 3) Any other notes on the class that you think I might want to know? Thanks for any feedback anyone can give. Cheers! -N

Hello, I've been hearing more and more about European style as compared to US style but other than some general opinions about liking smooth blends more over on this side of the pond I haven't been able to find any examples of the differences Between the two styles or suggestions about how to employ either style. Can anyone point me at good examples, tutorials, or video examples of European styles or examples of the different styles?

That is 100% levels of adorable.

Nice! I like how you used some lighter greens to bring highlights up to the face, but the whole thing ends up looking a little muddy since there is so little contrast between the colors anywhere on the bust. The eyes especially you might want to conside adding a strange color to. It would bring your focus to the right place and you could give it a really alien look with some odd colors.

Nice rocky look! It looks very heavy. And yeah, a nicely different-colored base would bring out the mini a little more.

Nice! You should try adding a wash to the whole thing to bring out the details in the wood. Also, you will need to bring a good base if you bring it in as a diorama, so consider also shipping down a significant chunk of your backyard and the edge of your house.

Is that NMM on the bottom guy? It looks so natural! Well done.

Nice colors! Good stuff.

The main downside of this mini is that most of us save our first mini to remind ourselves how much we have improved over time. Since you've already started with freehand, the improvement in your technique will be a little less noticeable. You've got a great start here. I see you are using dark washes to give it some shadows. If you want to take it to the next level, use some lighter paint to add highlights. The easy way to hit your highlights is with dry brushing, but with such good brush control as you have you could probably just find the parts of the mini that would be struck by light and put lighter paints there. Great first effort!

The whites are *spectacular*. The shadowing on her legs is just perfect and really sells the effect. Try for some small highlights on the black, though. They need to be small, but in this picture the blacks on her shirt really just disappear.

I spent, no lie, like 5 minutes just staring at this mini and taking pictures from every angle when I was at the Con. Then i ran over just to find Ian and ask if he could talk with me about the painting technique. He ended up teaching an impromptu mini-class for a few of us during his spare moments in between teaching other classes. Not only a wonderful mini, but a great teacher, as well. I'm a fan now. I'm definitely going to have to attempt something like this in the near future, the style is definitely something I want to try and emulate.

Looking good! Nice eyes, simple and effective color scheme. The dry-brushing on the wings is a very appropriate effect, too.

Wait, you need drill heads for pinning? And this is bones? I haven't tried this myself, but I heard people talking about taking your pin metal, heating it over a candle, and then jamming it into the bones so it melts a hole. I haven't tried it at all, so I don't know if it a) works or b) gives off toxic gasses, but it might be something to consider.