60184 Meyanda, android priestess

[dks]

I've been on a painting tear since ReaperCon.  Here's one from last week. 

Pathfinder's "Iron Gods" Adventure Path crosses over into science fiction, including robots and androids, such as the android priestess Meyanda.
Wayne Reynolds painted the cover of the Adventure Path where Meyanda appears: click for link.

Bobby Jackson sculpted the character.  I like what he did with this delicate sculpt.

 

 

 

 

I decided to give her a sci-fi-styled base, not my usual rock/grass/leaf palette. 

I started with a piece of plasticard shaped like square floor-tiles, gouged out some scratches, and added some debris (a robotic "piston" of two brass rods, a "cable" of brass wire, and a few chunks of rubble that I carved from the plasticard).

 

 

Enjoy,

Derek

 

 

[VolksFest]

A true masterpiece! The freehand is especially stuninng! I applaud loudly!

[Glitterwolf]

Super!

 

A question..that freehand, do you paint that completely out of hand or do you use a stencil of some kind?

[Sanael]

phoo...those colors are spectacular. And the ivory-purple fade on the skirts is just cool.

 

I had the same question as Glitterwolf, although I assume you freehanded it. I have seen a similar effect achieved with flexible mosquito netting as a stencil.

[MKCS]

Wow!  Absolutely stunning.

Very nicely done.  

[Darcstaar]

The whole mini is fabulous, but those hexagons...wow!

It’s going to take a while for my jaw to recover from hitting the floor so hard.

[NecroMancer]

Absolutely beautiful!  Fantastic work!

[dks]

Thanks, everyone!

 

@Sanael: I achieved the fade on the skirts by glazing purple on the lower parts, and restricting the ivory highlights to the tops.

 

Yes, the hexes are freehand.  (You don't have to look too hard to find irregularities and errors!) 

As with most freehand, it's a matter of breaking it down into steps. 

Step 1: horizontal borders at the bottom. 

Step 2: short vertical lines from the border, evenly spaced, shorter in length than the spacing apart.  (For a perfect hexagon, it would be a ratio of 1 : square-root-of-3.  These aren't perfect.)

Step 3: angled lines from the top of each vertical line -- 60 degrees left and 60 degrees right.  Try to make them symmetrical and meet in about the middle.

Step 4: a new vertical line from each vertex.  (Actually I made them taper them slightly, and made each row shorter/smaller than the previous one, to accommodate the tapering shape of the skirt overall.)

Step 5: repeat.  Then touch up the worst of the mistakes.

 

I practiced once in pencil on paper, but I didn't realize I would have to make the hexes smaller at the top until I was a few rows in on the actual painting, and they started getting smaller on their own....

 

Derek

 

 

[JGroeling]

That is a beautiful paint job, may try my hand at this one as well.

While freehanding the hexagons, is that all brushwork, or did you use a pen?
 

Edited November 13, 2017 by JGroeling

[Guindyloo]

She's absolutely stunning!

The freehand is fantastic, thank you for sharing your method for it. I would have thought to approach it differently (aka the stupid way ) so it's really helpful to see your approach.

The bodice is my favourite part though - that texture is really, really beautiful.

[Chaoswolf]

That's fantastic!

[korimar]

Wow!

[dks]

Thanks again.

@JGroeling: It's all with a brush and paint.  (Well, the steps 1-to-5 is with the touchpad on my laptop, and electrons....) I know that some people use pens on miniatures, but I learned to do everything with a brush.  I imagine that the color options with pens would be limited, and I could not control the consistency of ink (from a pen) as well as I can control my painting.

@Guindyloo: Glad to help demystify the freehand.  And thanks about the texture of the bodice.  It was supposed to be fine chainmail, and I think Bobby Jackson sculpted the links for it, but my succession of priming and blending and stippling and glazing obliterated the original surface and turned it into this vaguely metallic textured garment.  Bobby also sculpted some tiny detailing/runes on the upper bands of the left gauntlet, but I think they disappeared under layers of paint.  You can compare those areas of the figure to Wayne Reynolds's art for the character.  When the details on a miniature would be that small, I prefer to have a smooth surface where I can freehand the details/textures.

 

Derek

 

[londwch]

Amazing !!!