Red Box: Dagny, Priestess of somethingorother.

[Jubilee]

I painted this sometime last spring because it inspired me. I took it with me to ReaperCon, and with advice from Rhonda and Michael Proctor, adjusted some bits and then entered it in the contest. It took a gold medal.

 

There are more angles at my website, which has been updated at long last.

 

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Ali

[Mercius]

Holy wow!!! some of the best painting I have seen in a while, such smooth blends! Did this take gold at Reapercon?

[Jubilee]

Holy wow!!! some of the best painting I have seen in a while, such smooth blends! Did this take gold at Reapercon?

 

Yeah, I earned a gold medal with it =)

[Darkstar]

Love those dark reds.

[TaleSpinner]

Very beautiful! I've been tempted by this mini for a while now, but resisted because I could never quite see what she was holding. Your rendition makes it more clear now, it's a stick/staff partly wrapped in her cloak, yes?

 

You did a beautiful job and have earned your Gold!

 

Andy

[Jubilee]

Very beautiful! I've been tempted by this mini for a while now, but resisted because I could never quite see what she was holding. Your rendition makes it more clear now, it's a stick/staff partly wrapped in her cloak, yes?

 

You did a beautiful job and have earned your Gold!

 

Andy

 

Andy -

 

There's two ends to the staff she's holding. By her face it is branch-like and there is a little critter crouching in there. I've painted him green and you might be able to see him better in the close-up shots on my wepbage (follow the link in my signature).

 

The other end is jutting out above the brooch & pouch, and her hand is supposed to be cupped beneath it, or resting beneath it, I'm not sure. I THINK what i've painted as a brooch is supposed to be a ring, and the "blue critter" I've painted there is supposed to be a combination of bits of the trim on her robe, the staff head, and what's supposed to be her hand. But either I have a bad casting or I'm just not able to pick out the details right, because I couldn't figure out how to paint the bit underneath the "brooch" as a hand without the "ring" looking freekishly large or the hand looking mangled. So I made it into a third blue critter when I painted it.

 

If you would like close ups of the critters I can try to get them later tonight.

 

I was thinking about ordering another of her just to see if it would work out better as a hand the 2nd time around, but I wasn't able to find it on Tre's website. Someone posted another version of her sometime in the last year and it had the hand/staff end correctly painted, but I've forgotten who that was.

 

Ali

 

PS. I'm looking at these pics on my work monitor (instead of the laptop at home) and I'm pleasantly surprised at how much better the pictures look. The background looks a bit grainy on my laptop in the blue/white transition areas!

[Mercius]

Maybe Tre will pop up in here and tell us what he intended it to be when he sculpted it. As for it not being on his page anymore, I think this is one of the discontinued ones.

[Jubilee]

The explanation of the staff-end and her hand came to me from Tre, when I showed it to him back when I painted it.

 

I'm really bummed she's gone! She's a lovely figure.

 

Ali

[twjolson]

What did you use for the grass?

 

Would you mind sharing your recipe for the skin?

[Anne]

Beautiful job! Are the shadow areas of her robe black? Very cool skin effects too!

[Jubilee]

The flesh recipe.. I think it is aged and polished bone with ashen brown (or dusky skin) for shadowing, and I used some pure white for the highlighting.

 

The dress is painted with sanguine shadow, and I think I mixed in some green shadow to shade it, but possibly some black as well, then I highlighted it up with the red-violet rms paint, and mixed in a pinkish flesh color from P3 for highlights, and glazed over with clear red or clear magenta (I can't remember, I'm sorry).

 

The grass is a mix of static grass (green and tan) and flock (a burnt-earth/autumn themed one(that's where the bits of red and orange come in) and greenish). There's also some expired dried herbs (probably italian blend) and some dried tea leaves for good measure, too. I find that adding the extra filler to the flock makes the ground beneath it look less "bare," at least, that's been my experience with just static grass.

[Nanite]

Fantastic!

[Kang]

The grass is a mix of static grass (green and tan) and flock (a burnt-earth/autumn themed one(that's where the bits of red and orange come in) and greenish). There's also some expired dried herbs (probably italian blend) and some dried tea leaves for good measure, too. I find that adding the extra filler to the flock makes the ground beneath it look less "bare," at least, that's been my experience with just static grass.

The flocking-fillering/staticgrassing looks great; I have a question about that:

 

I'm guessing you mix flock and filler, glue down the mix, then apply the static grass... Have I got it right, or do you really mix them all together, or perhaps do it in some other order and/or combination?

 

I should also mention - the mini looks awesome! There's some other really nice minis in your site update too, which was nice to see since I hadn't visited there in quite a while.

 

Thanks,

 

Kang

[Jubilee]

The flocking-fillering/staticgrassing looks great; I have a question about that:

 

I'm guessing you mix flock and filler, glue down the mix, then apply the static grass... Have I got it right, or do you really mix them all together, or perhaps do it in some other order and/or combination?

 

I should also mention - the mini looks awesome! There's some other really nice minis in your site update too, which was nice to see since I hadn't visited there in quite a while.

 

Thanks,

 

Kang

 

I throw it all togther in one tub! I use elmer's glue (white glue) on the spots where I want the grass to go, then I give the container a good shake, dunk the base in, give everything a shake (carefully) to make sure everything is covering everwhere, then I turn the mini upside down and tap the base until stuff stops falling off. After that, I close the container, and hold the mini upsidedown over a garbage can while I blow gently on the flock mix to get the static grass to stand up. Then I usually use a toothpick to gently aid the process, sortof coaxing things in place. It's really important not to start blowing on the flock when it's over the container of mix, because that is a disaster waiting to happen.. (I've forgotten once or twice..).

 

Then I usually use linen white or the ghoul flesh highlight or a bone highlight, depending on the look I am going for, to paint the tips of the grass. I wouldn't exactly call it dry brushing, because it's more delicate and precise than that, but I use very small amounts of paint that isn't thinned much on a dryish brush to apply it.. (of course, waiting to let the glue dry is usually a good idea before you start painting - I've forgotten that, too).

 

I read a tutorial about applying static grass that had some of these tips in it (with pictures, I think). I'll see if Ihave it linked on my computer when I get home and post it here if I do.

 

Ali

 

PS No Link. :(

[Duliniel]

Gorgeous! I love how your colors are so deep & rich!