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Right. So since I'm set to teach of skin this year as well as "hard colors" I'm taking every opportunity to push my skills and try new things so that at least I have some good examples to share. I was just going to paint this one and be done with it, but I ran into a snag, did take a few in progress shots, so I thought I'd share my "failure" in order to use it as a learning experience. I say this because I think it's important. Everyone makes mistakes. They are all fixable. The mini does not have to be dunked in simple green and stripped. Even something that makes me cringe, I know I can salvage. It just takes patience and a bit of work. Gotta be positive! At any rate, that said, here's some learnin'! I picked this bust up because the euro took a dive over the summer and I'd been eyeing some of these minis, so I laid in a small stock. She's purty! So, progress: I fiddled for awhile trying to decide what color to use for the leather. So, color theory: Red + Green = WIN. Since I wanted a redhead, I decided some bright green was in order. I'm mixing it into the armor and the corset. These are good for contrast because they're complementary. When using complements I have to be careful not to make both of them too intense. So the reds here are desaturated to some degree- they live in the iron oxide instead of cadmium family, so hey're softer. I can get away with a brighter green in exchange. I'm trying to keep the colors value different as well. That's one of the things that trips minis up. I usually use this example: Same value = no contrast So when picking colors I'm careful to try to vary them as much as possible. If that makes sense. Next, I want a freckled redhead. Cause' reasons. Plus, need to work on my layering and how better to do that than to work on skin markings! So, I start by setting down some freckles. Notice how they look tacked on? Skin marking live in the dermal layer of the skin. Skin is bunches of slowly dying flat transparent layers over top of a bunch of other living material. The pigments live deep. The same goes for tattoos. So, it stands to reason that if I don't put some layers of my skintone over this, it won't look right. Ok- gotta actually go do my real job. I promise to get to the great mistake of doom soon!

A few years ago I did a quick tutorial of painting red hair with Reaper's red hair triad. Since then I have painted quite a few more red heads and hopefully am better at it. The first tutorial http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/46120-tutorial-for-the-red-head-triad/ used mainly just the red hair triad with a few other colors to give it some depth. I wanted to expand upon the first and still focus on the red hair triad. So here are the colors I selected to use for my victims. Here are the three victims freshly primed and waiting to cure a bit before painting. From left to right the miniatures are Dark Sword's Female Mage DSM1192, Reaper's Dain Deepaxe 77074 and Reaper's Valloa Female Elf Thief 03566. I don't usually prime my bones minis but I did put a quick layer of Tamiya primer on him so I can paint with thinner paint. I plan to paint one of them a deeper auburn and one a bright orangish red. The third will be hopefully somewhere in between. Any and all input is welcome. This will be how I paint red hair and hopefully give some of the newer painters ideas of how to approach red.

So in the midst of the hooplah surrounding Bones 3, I decided to post up the mini I finished last night, the lovely Isabeau Laroche. I've actually painted this sculpt of her before, but it was horrendous (or I think so now) so I ordered another copy of her and did her up. I'm much happier with this take on her. She has eyebrows! It's a weird thing to be proud of, but I like how they turned out. I also attempted some freehand on her shield, tossing on the holy symbol of Sol, a deity in my homebrew D&D setting. Anyway, I hope you like her!

This is one of my favorite halfling sculpts. Melantha is smaller than some other recent halflings (like the statuesque Elia Shadowfeet Mark II), but I like her attitude. There's so much life and movement in this sculpt!

I did quick paints of the five Bones pirates. This is the second, Barnabus Frost. I pictured him as one of those red-faced redheads, a little WC Fields.

Lathula, Female Barbarian, Reaper 03019, sculpted by Ben Siens, painted by me. I like half-orcs. They always seem to be painted with black hair, but I figured since orcs don't have hair it would be the human parent who provides the hair color. So why not a redhead? I didn't paint her hair shiny, though, because it kind of looks greased up and pulled back. I used this figure in my tutorial on how to paint illusionistic grass.