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For a while I've been meaning to do a couple of character minis up, but I've been avoiding it since people are hard. Also, I don't have that many character minis, honestly - I turned most of them into melt last Reapercon to get more monsters! But I do need to fill out more general character minis, both to give me more options for one-shots, and to lend to my players. First off, I decided to do a fire sorceress, since that's a common enough thing to come up. Convinently, I have a faction of Phoenix-worshipers in my campaign world, so there's not a bad chance she'll see use as an NPC at some point, too... I used Bobby Jackson's great Courtesan mini, a nice simple figure with lots of great lines! I'm really pleased with how she turned out, especially her face! I'm trying a new technique for eyes, and while it needs a little fine-tuning, I think it came out really good. They look wonkier in the pictures than IRL, and I got them both looking in the right direction, which I'm very pleased with. I tried to use the same effects as for sheer cloth to give it the effect of this iridescent cloth I once had, that shifted from red-orange to a shimmering gold, and I think it came out well - certainly bright enough! I used a pale blue for her highlights, and her eyes, the same color for both - I wanted to give a little contrast to her cloths and warm skintone. Next up, Horace "Action" Jackson. I love this figure's afro - I wish there were more figures with that style of hair, especially in fantasy. I'm pretty pleased with how he came out! I based his cloths on a bard I painted ages ago. He's going to be a CoC character I play from time to time - a FBI undercover cop in the mid-1900s. The pictures make it obvious I need to go over his hair again, I can't see the irregular bits IRL. Very pleased with his eyes, though - he's got great focus down his sights! And to tease what I'll be finishing up tomorrow, the Pathfinder Venture Captain as a different, more specific fire mage: I decided to do her like a meteor, with strong black sections to break up a ombre from red to nova-white. The dress is just about finished - just the head and arms, and a few more details, to finish up tomorrow, and then she'll be all set. At some point, I'll get these all set up and based, and probably post them again at the end of the month or in February as part of a larger group-shot of everybody I do in the next few weeks - I'm planning to really clear out my PC minis as best I can, since I did so many minis in December that it basically hit my goal for three months in one.

This is Reaper's 60138: Sheila Heidmarch, Venture Captain, sculpted by Patrick Keith. It's a magnificent sculpt. My GM needed vampires for a game, and as I said in my WIP thread, "not all female vampires hang around graveyards in unlikely and suspicious states of undress." So Sheila Heidmarch has been adapted. Jokes about Ventrue Captains may have been made. I got an idea for how to paint velvet as well, so she is something of an experiment in that line. WIP thread here.

I'm playing in a World of Darkness campaign and we need a bunch of vampires. I'm adapting Patrick Keith's 60138: Sheila Heidmarch, Venture Captain to be a vampire, because not all female vampires hang around graveyards in unlikely and suspicious states of undress. All paints used are Golden Matte Fluid Acrylics. Color mixes are (usually) noted, but not exact ratios. Questions are welcomed and I will try to answer them. Critiques are appreciated. She's such a pretty and elegant figure! I left off her short sword and staff and filled in the slight dimples where they were meant to go with a little Golden Molding Paste applied with the point of a bamboo skewer. The stuff shrinks when drying, so I heaped it up a little. This is the way I usually start miniature figures: Lightly primed with Titanium White, then when that is dry, washing it over with Burnt Umber. Burnt Umber is a dark, transparent pigment that settles into crannies when thinned down and shows the details very well. (I seem to be having a little trouble with it crackling just a bit in some areas, though.) It also gives a nice warm undertone to later paint layers (even though, eh, with a vampire you don't necessarily want "warmth".) I like to paint skin first as something of the undermost layer. After I have the skin more or less smooth and correct I paint the features. I have been painting up vampires with stark white skin because I don't seem to have the knack to make them look undead if there is even a little flesh tone in their skin. Maybe I should paint them violet or something ... Anyhow, this is almost the only time I ever mix grey from pure black and white, rather than a complex mix of brighter colors. The flatness of tone conveys something wrong with the individual, and the simplicity of color mix is very easy to shade. I started with a thin wash of pure Titanium White on her face, neck, bust, and hands. Then (close ups for a while now) I laid in the first pale shadows. All greys are mixed from Titanium White and Carbon Black. Darker shadows and some lights. She's rather a mess now, but you can see how the skin shading is beginning to go.