Search the Community

Hello fellow Forumites! I always enjoy coming back from ReaperCon, as my creative battery has been recharged and I'm ready to paint again! I'm currently working on a special project for someone who plays fierce female barbarian brawlers in her Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. I'm even painting it in her image, complete with upper leg tattoos. Reaper's "Viking Girl" sculpted by Bobby Jackson was the perfect choice for this! I'm still not convinced I can pull off this freehand tattoos, but I try something new in every project and I can always paint over it in skin tone if it becomes too overwhelming. I'm using Reaper's Highland Moss & Pale Lichen for the cloak. After taking Rhonda Bender's "Level Up" class at ReaperCon, I've decided to experiment with more interesting shadow colors in my minis. In the past, I would have chosen a dark olive green for the shadows of the cloak, however, this time I've mixed the mid tone Highland Moss with a touch of Nightshade Purple for the darkest folds and recesses of her cloak. After that, I started to layer in more of the midtone color mixed with Pale Lichen (~50//50 mix). I blend as I go and make my way up to Pale Lichen on the highlights of the folds. While I may go up an additional level of highlight, mixing in some Pure White with Pale Lichen, I'll see how much contrast I have on other sections of the mini once she's almost done. Either way, the back of the cloak could use some additional smooth blending, so I'll be sure to revisit that at a later time. Here's what I've painted so far, each step follows each set of images starting from top to bottom. Step 1: Basecoats & shadows for cloak, hair and gems Step 2: Cloak highlights. Repeat steps 1 & 2 on front loincloth-cloak thingy. Blend, blend, blend... Step 3: Hair highlights (more to come), fur, gems, jewelry & starting on the sword Next up is finishing her sword, then boots, gloves and shield. And then maybe I'll consider giving her some dirt on the bottom of her cloak as a final touch (if I can bring myself to smear pigment over something I've painstakingly blended lol) However, I'm having a hard time deciding where to place her eyes since her hair covers a portion of each eyeball, which makes it especially tricky. I'll need to make sure to leave enough white sclera in each eye to make the direction clear. I'm leaning toward painting her looking left, toward her sword, like she's threatening someone or pointing at something on the ground. What do you think?