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Got inspired by @R2ED to paint some monochome zombies. Quite happy with the result. Coal black, Maggot White, and added some Ebony Skin for the shadows. So - not really monochome, but let's not be too picky 😇

I've finished another project that was on my to-do list for years. First the pics, then some more words: This was a special resin figure from ReaperCon 2014 (April 24-27 that year) -- sculpted by Bobby Jackson, given to attendees who paid extra for the Artist Banquet on Saturday night. I was supposed to paint him for Reaper's studio collection after the con, but I got distracted with other stuff and he fell off my list. He had the SKU 01529 for a while, and although he is out of production now, his clone will be back soon in Bones 5 as part of the "Dreadmere Personas" Core Set extra. I'll try to remember to revise the tags of this post when he has a new 77xxx or 78xxx number. Ian Markon (Kuro Cleanbrush) painted a spectacular rendition in 2015 as "Knight of the Blood Moon", with red armor and wings. You can find it here on the Forum by searching for "01529". So far in 2021, I've been finishing some figures left over from years past ... and getting points in the Reaper Challenge League for it. This guy earned 3 points for the April theme of "No More Sunrises" (vampires and other nocturnal or subterranean monsters). I couldn't decide on a color scheme so I started painting a cool grey monochrome as if he were in moonlight. I was going to add a warm light from behind, too, but I just kept going with the cool monochrome all around. I concentrated on the differences in contrast and texture among the materials: armor plates and trim, cloak exterior and interior, sword (blade, crossguard, pommel, hilt), gems, skin, hair, teeth, stone steps, skull, etc. I spent extra time on the face, as always, such as getting the blends very smooth. The eyes are sculpted very large, which gave me freedom to manipulate the expression. I painted the upper lids a fraction of a millimeter lower, to get just the right half-lidded look. And in order to make him seem more feral, I painted his scleras darker and irises lighter. I did this a few years ago on a half-orc Pathfinder figure I painted (Skreed Gorewillow). The specific colors were Blue Liner ("black"), the cold grey triad (9172 Stormcover Grey, 9173 Coldstone Grey, and 9174 Icy Grey, now out of production), Misty Grey, and Pure White. The blending was somewhat challenging, because the greys changed value from wet to dry! Stormcover Grey dries a little lighter, and Icy Grey and Misty Grey dry a little darker. On the back of the cloak, for example, I would see a spot where I wanted to deepen the shadow, and Stormcover Grey looked perfect while wet, but then it would dry lighter and the "shadow" disappeared! So I had to add Blue Liner to the Stormcover Grey, and trusted that what looked too dark at first would look right when dry. This phenomenon made it fun to paint little streaks of Stormcover Grey on the interior of the cloak or the sword blade, because the streak would go on invisible over the black, but then appear grey as it dried a few seconds later. Enjoy! Derek

This was my entry for the Quarterly Bones Reaper Fan Facebook Painting Contest. The Angel of Shadow. She was good enough for an Honorable Mention (Thanks Reaper Matt)! For the prior contest, I liked how people were getting interesting light effects by using a black backdrop, so I tried that. Another reason I wanted to do it was to see if I could put her on a standard gaming base, supported by a rod painted black to fade into the backdrop, to give her a good illusion of flying. Also, this was my first attempt at Monochrome. My final idea was to do a weapon swap to a wand (A cross-looking weapon from the BONES 3 Weapon Sprue), and sculpted my take on Acid Arrow, painting it green as the only color on the model, like those stunning black and white photos with colored flowers, etc. I would say I'm a much better painter than sculptor Her paints used As time wore down, I had to abandon thoughts of OSL, so I made it seem like her lantern had died out and the spell didn't cast much light. Here are some other photos against an out-of-focus rug to show some tighter details. I tried to put some texture into the fabric of her dress, which was another first. C&C Welcome!

CMPA is doing a "Bust a Move" challenge. I've been meaning to paint this lion for a while. The only non blue part are his eyes. The rest will be 50 Shades of Blue. I am basing with Dragon Blue, but intend to subdue it with less saturated blues as I go. First bust and first monochrome! Okay, almost monochrome

On the Monday evening after ReaperCon, Joseph Wolf (ReaperWolf, author of the Dreadmere setting and the faction adventures at the convention) ran a role-playing adventure for the painters and sculptors still present at Reaper HQ -- 10 of us.* Before we could play, each of us had to choose a figure for our character and paint it in about 2 hours. I chose this figure, Bobby Jackson's "slug hunter". (Imagine his bottle to be a salt shaker, and he's sprinkling salt with his left hand.) My character was a rogue with a magical bottle. I did most of the painting in a monochrome brown gradient (Brown Liner, Woodstain Brown, Driftwood Brown, Creamy Ivory), but added Aged Bone on the boots and base and dagger, and then Light Blue and Mint Green and some other blues and greens on various areas. I also glazed some pink (Rosy Skin, maybe?) on his face and hands. Back at home last weekend, I spent a couple of hours smoothing and glazing and doing touchups. I also trimmed off and touched up a few mold-lines that I hadn't noticed. (The game was a lot of fun. We had a group mission but chose individually whether we were going to help or hinder it, and the eventual infighting and scheming led to amusing hijinks.) Enjoy, Derek * Around the table: me, Chris Lewis, Julie Guthrie, Bob Ridolfi, Angela Imrie, Michael Proctor, Bobby Jackson, Tim Hill, Gene Van Horne, and Jason Wiebe.

I taught my 2-hour class on Monochrome Painting again at ReaperCon this year. In my class, I discuss how to compose a figure using differences in value instead of differences in color, and how to simulate materials (such as cloth, leather, metal, and skin) through the contrast of values (highlights and shadows), and then I paint a figure (or at least part of one) to demonstrate the principles. I painted the lower-front and right sleeve of the robe, the mace, bottle, and right hand during the class. I finished painting her back at home last weekend. The painting time was about an hour in class and another hour or 2 at home. Colors were black, white, and Reaper Master Series paints Imperial Purple and Amethyst Purple. And here's the shot from my camera, with my color-swatch card in the frame: You can also check out my other threads that have the "monochrome" tag. Enjoy! Derek

Whew. I finished him. I have to say, this was a fun project. The idea came to me sometime last year, but it took awhile for me to get around to working on him. I've decided that monochrome relaxes me. It's just easier somehow to take color out of the picture and just work on shadows and highlights. I think I need to vary my levels a bit, but overall, I wanted it to read as a night scene, so I'm happy. I like the idea of an accent color. I've been wanting to try that for awhile now. Though looking at him, I could probably pop the osl on his face. the pumpkin in the back worked out better- most likely because it has larger opening for the eyes. I tried to find his sku number in the catalog and failed, but this was The Headless Mousling from 2014, sculpted by Gene Van Horne.I used a bones rat, a pillar from the graveyard set, and 2 pumpkins. Anyway, enjoy and Happy Halloween! I'm using my new Iphone and seem to have issues editing, so pics may be a bit funky...

This is a figure from the Goth set from the game "Wild in the Streets" by Slow Death Games. Thanks to FishNJeeps for directing me to them when I needed miniatures of modern people in goth-punk wear for a World of Darkness game. I painted up the figure as a vampire. It didn't originally have any facial hair; that's all painted on. There isn't a WIP thread. So as a quick note, although I have seen people able to do wonderfully subtle and menacing vampires who still look like vampires, I find that unless I paint mine in stark black and white they look like regular people.

Well, I may still add some more sculpted leaves to the base and fiddle with the reflection in terms of making it look "shiney" but for now, I present my crazy mad scheme of a project. I started working on this back last summer and it has languished on my desk through fits of irritation with the reflection, me bemoaning the use of monochrome and how it prevents me from doing the sneaky glazing trick, etc, etc. I could consider her done and probably sleep better at night! This is Reaper's 54 mm Master Series Finari, sculpted by the awesome but infamous Werner Klocke. I love this sculpt because it gave me a chance to really work hard on my NMM skills, and let's face it, Klockenbooty is deeply satisfying to paint! This sculpt did not contain a scary amount of buckles! Hooray! The idea started with me seeing EricJ's Ramos and thinking a reflection would be a nifty project. Then I thought about the Wizard of Oz, magic mirrors and Alice in Wonderland and morphed them all into this: For this project I wanted to practice monochrome, so the colors for most of the piece are pure black (just a bit), nightshade purple, dark elf skin, aircraft gray, leather white, pure white and a teeny tiny amount of titanium white. The mirror effect I devised using a photo of the mini that I reversed as well as a photo of the mini in a mirror to get the angles worked out. FYI if anyone decides to try this again, make sure to appropriately shrink the miniature's head in the reflection as it will be sculpted larger than reality. I played with the colors of the reflection, but I think I ended up using the ocher gold triad plus white and mahogany brown for the armor, sapphire blue and marine teal for the sky, the clouds are probably leather white, snow shadow and twilight blue, the purple is carnival with white and nightshade purple. greens are olive and IMEF olive with a bit of forest green. The base is mostly sculpey with a bit of greenstuff and the tree milliput and greenstuff. The leaves of the tree are etched brass. I am happy to answer any questions! C&C always welcome! Oh, and I entered it over on CMON in their All the Shades of Gray Contest if anyone feels like voting! I will bring her to Reapercon and am happy to let people see her up close! Just don't drop her... edited for larger pics!

I created this monster from a mix of bones (eyebeast, mockingbeast, harpy, nightspectre, ape demon, bed,) hands from the kingdom death phoenix, sculpey, green stuff and plasticard. I have a WIP here. This was a great deal of fun to sculpt and involved a lot of scary background music to get me in the mood. As a kid, I had an overactive imagination, so I can completely empathize with the kid under the blankets. I even tried to fool the monster under my bed once by dropping a pillow off the back of the bed while I made a flying leap for the lightswitch by the door! Enjoy!! C&C always welcome, and I'm happy to answer any questions. I'll be bringing this fellow with me to Reapercon, so feel free to come pick him up and look closer! Also, if there's anything that doesn't look right, let me know- I still have time to fiddle with it.

So, a modern urban fantasy figure. Hasslefree describes HFA021 Dionne(b) as a vampire werewolf hunter, so I figured I'd paint her skin pretty bloodless. The trench coat and cat suit are my first attempt at monochrome painting, and the base is my first attempt to paint something like asphalt. I like Hasslefree's minis, although the eyes on the whole are awfully small. I painted hers way bigger than the eye sockets, although I can see how painting them as sculpted would make the face look more realistic and rather menacing. Edited to add tags

My exchange recipient this spring was Evilhalfling and he was looking for an example of monochrome. Now I'm certainly no expert on it, but my first attempt worked out ok so I figured I'd give it a shot, and I'd just recently ordered a Rowena for myself (which I still need to remember to order again) and I figured all the layers and textures would make for an interesting exercise in monochrome. (Note to anyone starting out in monochrome, do not start with a figure with a whole much of different layers and textures.... ). She was a challenge for me but in the end I think she came out pretty decent. Part way through I realized I didn't really know how to paint ribbon at all (ribbon isn't really big in goblin or ogre fashion this year...) so that took a few days of research. And while researching monochrome painting a found an interesting video of someone doing a warjack and he used a black/silver metallic with it that I really liked, so the metal parts ended up going that way. Then while asking some advice from the Monochrome Master, Corporea, introducing some brassy colours came up. So overall, quite happy. And if I don't use Pure Black or Pure White again for the rest of the year, well, I''d be ok with that.....

So, my new project is mostly in my head at present, but I'll try to describe what I'm envisioning. I am making a terrain piece that is going to represent the Great Breach portal in Malifaux. For those who dunno, it's essentially a portal from our world into the other side, which is a very odd sci fi, gothic, horror, steampunky kind of dangerous world. At first to represent this, I thought I'd make an actual picture as if you'd see it through the portal. But, one that's not very terrain-y so to speak, plus I really think it's beyond my skills. So what I'd like to do is, on one side of the portal (Earth) I'm going to have everything look normal and bright. On the other side, I'd like it to look otherworldly, with mainly a dark colour over everything, and a lot of decay etc. This is going to be a 12"x12" board I will split, probably on a diagonal, so the Breach sits in the rough center, on the dividing line of the board/terrain piece. I have a car model I'm working on, that will be half way between the Earth side and the other side. So one half will look shiny and newish while the other... very much not. What I'm trying to figure out, of course, is how to do the dark side, otherworld side. I was thinking monochrome - not necessarily black, but maybe a very dark blue. Since I've never done anything like this before I was hoping I could pick the brains of all you more experienced painters How would you start to paint a dark world, how would you highlight or shadow it? Obviously I want it to actually be something you can see... but look like it's in darkess. Any help is appreciated!

So, here's the mini I just received in the mail from plasticplan. The colors I asked for were (specifically) "monochrome," and the inspiration I gave was "Play it once, Sam, for old times' sake." And this is what popped out of his head (and brush): That little splash of red gives her just the right touch, I think. (I may not have gotten all the little paper towel fuzzies off of her. ) Thank you, plasticplan, and if I didn't make it clear in the PM, I her!

Here's my exchange mini, sent to Jasper the 2nd. He seems to like it okay, so woot! Now I've got some experience for a few new things and hopefully the next exchange mini will be even better. This was my first attempt at doing anything with a base, so I had a lot of hits and misses. You can probably get a sense of how bad my mistakes were if the base on the proof-of-concept mini is one of the good ones! Here's the final result:

Here are two Bones figures that I painted last October, at the Reaper ArtistCon. They were my demonstration figures in the class on Monochrome Painting that I taught there. The only paints were black and white. After doing most of the painting in the 2-hour class, I spent another hour or two painting each one, touching up the painting with smoother blends and crisper lining. Monochrome often goes fast! I didn't try to paint detailed eyes on either one -- just a black outline and a white dot, to stand out from the rest of the face. This archer is 70049 Arthrand Nightblade, Elf Ranger, sculpted by Bobby Jackson: And this fellow is 80007 The Black Mist, sculpted by Bob Ridolfi: Enjoy, Derek

Another contest entry...finished. Kinda almost gave up on this one...but finally finished it. The contest's theme of trying a unique lighting concept, in this case Split Lighting was perfect for the Dracula figure - ala the old black and white movie "Boris Karloff" concept. Never have tried using a monochrome, only used Reaper MSP - Pure Black and Pure White. Think I may have tried one too many "new" techniques, all at the same time! For the photo, I just used a fully lighted light box. Probably would look good with an all black background, but I didn't have one and wasn't too sure what settings I'd have to do to the camera... I've chalked it up to a learning experience. C& C please and thank-you! Thanks for looking.

Hi ! Just a little dioarama for the "All of shades" contest in Cmon ;) : http://www.coolminiornot.com/376047

77107- Svetlana, Frost Giant Princess I painted her entirely with two colors, plus white. I found a long time ago that one could get a broad range of colors, from brilliant blues and firey oranges to soft greys and a deep violet near-black simply by mixing different proportions of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna with white. So she's not quite a monochrome, more of a duochrome. It was a fun exercise. The pictures are mostly taken from a low point of view to give a human's-eye look up at the giant. There is a companion to this figure, 77106- Boerogg Blackrime, Frost Giant Jarl

77106- Boerogg Blackrime, Frost Giant Jarl I painted him entirely with two colors, plus white. I found a long time ago that one could get a broad range of colors, from brilliant blues and firey oranges to soft greys and a deep violet near-black simply by mixing different proportions of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna with white. So he's not quite a monochrome, more of a duochrome. It was a fun exercise. The pictures are mostly taken from a low point of view to give a human's-eye look up at the giant. I painted the frost giant princess similarly. I'll be posting her soon. Edit: She's here.

Hello Fellow Fans of Blue! I love Bones, because they're cheap enough for me to use to demonstrate some fun stuff. I know a lot of newer (than me) painters have lots of questions about color, light and paint mixing, etc, so I was hoping to put a bunch of that stuff here. My goal is to walk through a monochrome blue miniature, using a Kickstarter Mini, Kickstarter paint, and some simple/intermediate techniques while doing some "teaching" on color and light. Er, not ambitious at all! I get to practice while doing it, so we're all having fun! First, the players of our little game: For this tutorial I'll be using Sapphire Blue, Pure White (take my word for it, ignore the label) and Walnut Brown, and of course, 77063 Duke Gerard. Sapphire Blue is a nice bright (saturated) blue. It's a good standard blue as well. When you look at a color wheel, I tend to think of a cobalt or ultramarine blue as "blue" but sapphire is pretty good, and it's a kickstarter color and learn to paint kit color, so most of us have it. Next, what are their painting stats? How do they behave? What can we do to them? Here they are! Simply painted as a flat swatch of color on paper. The picture is a bit dark, sorry! I'm using walnut brown as my black- see how nice a dark it is! Now, for our volunteer Male Paladin I'm going to essentially be using 3 base shades: blue, blue with some white (1:3) and blue with some brown (4:1) Here they are on the palette: walnut, walnut/blue, and blue on top and white, white/blue on the bottom. Here's an example of the Sapphire blue with a wash in the first swatch. The second is by brown/blue mix with a wash, and the third white/blue with wash. Here's where we learn a bit about saturation. The first picture is bright. Nice pretty blue. Like an autumn sky. The second is dark, moody, stormy and intense. The third a bit lighter, fluffier and softer. Each of these shades reflects light to us differently. The more pure pigment in a color, the greater the intensity. The more we dull the color, either by adding it's complement if we're mixing pure pigments or by adding white or black, the more we alter it's ability to reflect it's color back to us. I think of this like hummingbird feathers. The hummingbird's got a specialized air bubble structural pattern in it's throat feathers that literally reflect a single wavelength of light. But- only at the right angle, which is why they often look dull or black unless you catch them just right. Paint obeys the same physics. The more stuff we put it in that can potentially reflect less light, the duller the color. A possible exception/complication is white, which is nice and reflective. White is great at drawing the eye on a miniature, and great for highlighting when you want bright highlights. More on this later. One fun thing you can see when painting is how translucency can affect the way color looks. See below: Hmmn. Those look similar, don't they? The top is a thin wash of sapphire blue. The left my white/blue mix (normal paint layer) and the right my sapphire blue with a white glaze. What I take from this is that you can paint however you want, using whatever technique you want, and get the results you want! There's not one right way to do it. So things like wet blending can mimic layering/glazing or washes! Remember with washes- here I'm painting on white paper, so the surface is very uniform and the wash smooth and flat. Your miniature may have many different surfaces, primers, curves, etc. When painting on the miniature, paint will obey the laws of gravity. It will pool in crevices and drip down surfaces if allowed. Also, washes are by nature translucent, so you'll need a smooth, well-prepared surface to get the maximum effect. Ok- let play with our miniature and actually paint! I've basecoated our Paladin using just our 3 colors. Again, Sapphire blue, Blue/White mix and brown/blue mix. I tried to think about where I wanted my most intense blues, where I wanted my lighter areas, and I decided ahead of time I was going to go for a darker look to the armor. This is a nice, messy, quick "speed-painted" basecoat. No fancy stuff. I thought I had trimmed his mold lines, but I missed a few. Oh well. He's an experiment, so I'll leave it! I did wash him with dish soap and water first. The cloak and hair I'm doing in sapphire, the skin and leather/pouches/etc in white/blue and the armor in blue/brown.

I spent some time painting over the past holiday weekend. Here is my take on the Chronoscope bandito, Lobo Sanchez (plus unnamed iguana hanger-on), sculpted by Jason Wiebe. I used a monochrome scheme meant to replicate a sepia-toned photograph, as I did for Buffalo Bill Cody and Doc Holliday. You may also have seen figures that I painted in black-and-white or dark-green-to-yellow-ocher "monochrome" schemes. I did most of the painting on this figure in two sessions of about 2-3 hours each, plus a few shorter sessions for adjusting the values and smoothing the gradations. I have taught classes on monochrome painting at ReaperCon and other conventions. As I explain in the class, painting in a monochrome scheme forces you to focus on value and contrast, because [edit: "...you can't choose different colors to distinguish one area from another"]. How do you make something look like cloth, metal, skin, hair, scales, leather, or stone?; smooth or rough?; shiny or dull? Where do you want to draw the viewer's eye? These are issues that you have to consider in full-color painting, too, but the colors are an extra level of complexity. Enjoy, Derek

Here he is! The grayscale troll, aka "I'm still in Kansas!" The colors are pure white, reaper pro blue black and vallejo dark gray. I'll probably still fiddle with some of the shadows and highlights-the skull still doesn't show up well in the photo. If anyone spots anything to fix please let me know. I sculpted the base (except for a few small rocks) and the bat is my favorite part!