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Happy Birthday o Most Magnificent Instructresses of Hot Chick Painting! The Drow

I'm painting this up for the BBEG this weekend. Last night I tried the layering technique for black by using multiple thin layers of complementary colors. Someone posted the artist and demo on the Reaper fan page a couple of weeks back when someone asked about painting black. If anyone knows the artist or link, please let me know since I can't find it. I highly recommend it. While these pics don't show the various tones of colors, it looks like rich black with some depth vs going flat like some black paints do. I love the effect. However, I will say it doesn't work as well on something more curvy. I was also trying it on another mini for her top and she'd very curvaceous. It looked a little weird so I just repainted it. So that being said, I'd love some thoughts on what to do about the collar piece and gloves he has. Should I do the same black treatment or go with a different color? I think I'm going to do his pants in a gray so the focus is more on his armor. Thanks!

I had used a bunch of leftover paint for the Reaper bones version of Aviriel Tellerion (77070), and those colors where more in the "evil spectrum" so I switched her over to being a dark elf. Very happy with how her face turned out, sadly she is looking down so you cannot really see it on the table. It has been a while since I posted, I have had a slump in my desire to paint this spring and I tend to wait until I have a bunch to show off to get the light box out. Avirion here was painted in March.

I've had plans to paint this for a long time, wanted to get it done before the bones 4 dark elf throne piece overshadows it.

So one of my friends who plays dnd with me painted this one yesterday to be used as his pc in our campaign. He actually hasn't painted any minis for a few years so this one was a comeback for him . I really like how it turned out!

Meet Pollux! And his pseudo-dragon Nestor! Privateer turned Merc, and part of the Red Cloaks. Also: plays with fire. 89014: Seltyiel, Iconic Magus - BONES. Can you say 'fiddly bits'? This guy is packed to the gills with fiddly bits to paint. Yup, that much detail on a BONES miniature. Painted in Autumn palette with NMM, OSL, and Texture. Really dig this miniature and how much character that was packed into 28mm. Another Klocke sculpt! That guys is brililant. Or insane. Or insanely brilliant. Either way, I like it.

Here is the Drider from the Monsters set. I stuck to the suggested color scheme as well as I could. I got a little lazy toward the end. You can see I forgot to do any shading on the bowstring. The original hand and small crossbow were lost, but my friend had a nice replacement that I managed to cluge in there, though the wrist is at a fairly extreme, but not totally unbelievable, angle. I hope you enjoy.

How slowly has this WIP gone? I started these elves in late spring 2016. Because of events and shake-ups I set aside all my work from that time, but now I have picked them up again. For this WIP I am making a warband of three female and one male Drow with support from a female sorceress Drider. The three women are the wonderful set 03516: DHL Classics: Dark Elves sculpted by the inimitable Sandra Garrity. I'm going to identify each separately because they also have individual SKUs and names and it's easier to keep track of them that way. The man is 14046: Ardynn, Elf Hero sculpted by Werner Klocke; he is not intended as a Drow, but he looks so cranky I think he will do well as one. The Drider is a Bones mash-up of 77182: Arachnid Archer plus the torso of 77057: Juliette, Sorceress, as detailed in this thread. 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. 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. It also gives a nice warm undertone to later paint layers. To begin with I painted the three women's weaponry straight Carbon Black, with the thought that I would paint over it later with metallics or iridescents, which always look better against a dark underpainting. I mixed a transparent dark blue-black from Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue and washed it over the three women's skin, and a bit lightly over their hair to begin to work where shadows will be, The first dark elf in the Garrity set is also sold as 02574: Female Dark Elf. The second is also Reaper's 02524: Female Dark Elf Cleric And the third is 02460: Vernicia I then mixed some Titanium White with the blue-black to make a cold blue grey and added rough lights to the skin, and white to the hair. Ardynn I started a little differently, with blue-grey mixes from Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, and Titanium White and a bit of straight white in his hair from the start. This is my custom-made Drider, primed with Reaper's Brown Liner diluted somewhat: I painted her skin and hair the same way I did Ardynn's. This is the crude beginnings: Next time: Faces! And arghy bits I missed, like Ardynn's hands.

Here is the Drow Captain from the Grenadier Action Art: Monsters set. See my previous thread for the Thief Assassin to see the Painting Guide color recommendations.

So I'm going to be repainting some D&D Minis for the DDM Guild's Prize support at GenCon 2018. Just really got started last night, but progress is progress. Sorry about the crappy phone picture. So, I'm gonna be keeping track of my progress here. My deadline is the first full weekend of July, the 8th or so. As I'll need to mail them to someone who is actually attending:( GF

Just a quick and simple paint, nothing fancy. Couldn’t resist picking it up though, because every tabletop needs a werewolf (even if that tabletop has nobody to play with): He’s very shiny. I couldn’t find my brush-on sealer and had to use PVA sealer, which is always glossier than the label says. His fur is supposed to be mottled grey/white and brown/black, but I never know how to paint the not-obviously furry parts, and usually default to bare skin. In this case, Dark Elf Skin. So I guess he’s a drow werewolf. Also, this: Look at at that eye! It’s a halfway decent eye (even if it isn’t quite human)! Calling the whole thing a win on that basis. C&C welcome.

Opened this one up and got it primed when I noticed a very significant case of mold-slippage. The details on her right side and left arm just didn’t line up, and I don’t have the skill to file/green stuff it away. So, rather than weep and save the mini for a melt table, she became practice! This ended up being a combination of speedpaint, demimetallic experimentation, and basing attempt, 3-4 hours total work including lots of futzing with paint mixes on my palette. The results: Oh, and I made her a Dark Elf to try more white hair. The purple metal is Royal Purple and Filigree Silver, mixed in varying degrees. Other metallics tended to un-purple the mix too much (except New Gold, but that’s a different look). I think she’s supposed to have gauntlets, but due to the casting issues these became cloth sleeves. In the end she turned out far better than expected, so I’m glad I didn’t give up. One less potential resident of the shelf of shame. Comments and critiques welcome, as always.

This is an index thread for figures painted as Drow or dark elves which did not start out as official Drow figures. I thought people might like links to find figures which work well converted to dark elves, thus this index thread. It's not comprehensive, just some I've found. Feel free to add links if you find other figures which have been painted up as Drow. (I included pictures so it would be easier to see them and see if there are duplicates, but don't feel obliged.)

I spotted this table of goodies at a science fiction convention last weekend. The proprietor makes, among other things, a wide variety of soft LARP weapons -- and shrunken head trophies. He gave me permission to take pictures and post them online. I note the goblin heads are the proper orange color. Ruler included for scale:

Decided to paint him as a Drow to add to House Depsana's arsenal of nastiness.

The elf ranger from my Dragons Don't Share 2 group of adventurers. I wanted my adventuring party to be diverse in skin tones so I tried my hand at a Drow. I like how his skin came out although maybe a bit dark. He wasn't my favorite adventurer and you can tell with my painting as I rushed him to get him finished. In hindsight, I didn't like the colors I chose but I didn't feel like starting over on him so he is what he is. He has a cloth tied around his scabbard. I envisioned this as a memento from his lover as he left on his journey, perhaps her scarf. That is why it is a completely different color than anything himself or the rest of the party is wearing. The little bit of white at the bottom of his base is where he was stuck down with sticky tack. I have touched that up. C&C welcome!

Finally got around to taking photos of my ReaperCon entries for 2017 and this was one of my entries in the Painter's category. This is Dark Sword's Female Wood Elf Warrior and I wanted to paint this one up for a long time but could not decided on what color scheme to use. All I knew was that I wanted to do something different than what you would expect for a wood elf but I did not know what. It finally came to me, use mainly purples and greys and make her a drow. After determining that, the base plan came to me pretty quickly, place her in a cave with natural crystals and spiderwebs. The webs were created using UHU glue. She ended up being my entry that was judged for that category and I was very pleased to receive a gold medal. Any feedback would be appreciated.

I've been off the radar for a while. Haven't done much logging in lately because a friend of mine convinced me to start my own website. It has been fun, but time consuming. Eyedamageart.com if you are interested. Hopefully some of these posts are going to make up for being away and I can't wait for a chance to sit down, relax and look through the many weeks of pics I have missed out on.

I was stuck on another project, so I took a break and painted some other minis. This one looks better in real life... Color correction seems to be destroying the image :-/ Yendrensovith is an NPC in my currently-paused campaign; a drow of spectacular violence and a complicated past. For the curious, more information is available here.

This is was my entry for the 4th quarterly Reaper Facebook contest. It was good enough for 3rd place! There were so many well painted models, and awesome interpretations. As I was planning it, my starting idea was copper nmm. I didn't want the typical verdigris. Then I thought a bluish or purple to counter the orange, so that got me thinking Drow with purple glazed into her shadows. Then I took that farther to try to get OSL in her eyes, shield, and base as if she was casting 'protection from good' or something. Sadly, the OSL was saved to the end when I ran out of time. So I tried a bright rim around those areas, then a purple glaze. It wasn't striking enough for my tastes, but ... deadlines! So, I hope you like her. Sorry if the photo is blurry, it's a cell phone screen grab. C&C welcome.

Happy Birthday @knarthex Have a great day!!!

I finished Dhaelia for my D&D friend, this is for my current campaign about Broken Gods. Dhaelia is the group's rogue/arcane trickster. Took about 4 hours total on this piece as I'm trying to get it ready for next week's game and I have a lot of other projects going that need to get done before ReaperCon gets here! WIP thread located here: As always, C&C are welcomed and appreciated, thanks for looking!

Another WIP for me to do this week. I've got Isla Darkstep, Reaper SKU #02698 which I'm painting up for my final D&D player. This one is going to be painted up to look like a drow. Anyhow, getting started, I have a couple pics as I got it cleaned and prepped now. Again going with black primer first and then I'll wait until it dries and do some white primer dry-brushed over it to pick out details. I just placed her integral base on a 1 inch circle of wood that I like to use for my bases and then put some procreate around the edges and sculpted the stones to match what was on her base to the best of my limited sculpting ability.

Working on her here and there over several months. If you are familiar with the model then you may have noticed I changed her weapon. My shipment of Bones 3 could not have come at a better time. That sword came right off the sprue of one of the weapon sets. The spear she came with was broken and the horrible ribbons were a nightmare to deal with. I attempted to just use the broken spear and it looked like it was missing something....which it was. The sword appeared to be a perfect fit and hardly noticeable unless you really know the model. I was planning on painting a bunch of Drow, so more should be coming.

Nice to paint something small again. Probably one of many Drow to come.