100.000

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."

- Mark Twain -

Chris

Musical time travel

"Often the best way to overcome desire is to satisfy it."

- W. Somerset Maugham -

 

Today, I won't embed a video here. Instead, I will post the links to youtube. All these songs were part of my time as a teenager and remind me of great moments. I like to listen to these during Christmas-time. Don't even think about clicking if you don't like R'n'B and Hip Hop, your ears might start bleeding. :)

Erykah Badu

Boyz 2 Men

R Kelly

Puff Daddy

Mariah Carey

Destiny's Child

Wyclef Jean

Boyz 2 Men again

Dru Hill

Aaliyah

Usher

Chris



Expectations

"A master cann tell you what he thinks of you. A teacher, though awakens your own expectations."

- Patricia Neal -

Chris

A small measure of peace

"Fate chooses your relations, you choose your friends."

- Jacques Delille -

Chris

Farewell

"No growth without assistance. No action without reaction. No desire without restraint. Now give yourself up and find yourself again."

Li Mu Bai

Chris

The eternal vow

"I would rather be a ghost drifting by your side as a condemned soul than enter heaven without you.... because of your love, I will never be a lonely spirit."
Li Mu Bai - Tiger and Dragon

Chris

Ode an die Freude

"A man's silence is wonderful to listen to."

Thomas Hardy

Chris

1st of December

Usually, time in December seems to slow down. People become thoughtful, more polite and grateful. Although my environmet does exactly that, I can't step back at the moment. There are still plenty of things that have to be done, some of them with major influence on my job and future. However, I try not to run around like a headless chicken and take some time to relax. This is what I listen to at the moment:

Chris

WIP Malus Darkblade

Years ago, I started the so called "box of shame". Inside lay all those miniatures that I never managed to finished. This one, the Ithandir bust from Andrea Miniatures lay there for maybe 3 years, could be even more. My first try on this bust was a major fail and I was really frustrated. About two weeks ago, it just felt right to give it another try. The current result can be seen on the pictures.

Some information on the my personal background to this miniature: I always liked the character of Malus Darkblade, mainly due to his background story. His soul was stolen by a Chaos demon and he spent his entire life to get it back. As the story is open ended, it is unclear wether he was successful or not. The Freeman sculpt always looked more like a Dark Elf, so I tried to catch his mood with fitting colours.

The face is painted with a brush, the general lights on the armour are done with airbrush (as still can be seen on the shoulders). The rest, lights, shadows and details are also done with a brush. It is the first mini where the airbrush did what I want instead of messing everything up. The chest is almost finished, up next is the part on his throat and the shoulders.

This miniature means a lot to me, as it represents a lot of developments that currently take place in my private life. Of course, there is no demon and my soul is still where it belongs. Its his serious expression that fits my mood.

Hope you like it. Feel free to leave comments. Sorry for those strange shadows on the mini, I used flash....

Chris

Quote of the day

"Acquire inner peace and a multitude will find their salvation near you."

Catherine de Hueck Doherty

Chris

Strength

Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look there.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121 AD - 180 AD)

105 epic minutes

Quote of the day and some music

"Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you're not really losing it. You're just passing it on to someone else."

                                                              Mitch Albom, The five people you meet in heaven

Chris

Real life Fus Ro Dah

Hi guys,

I am very sorry to let you know, that life hit my with a heavy Fus Ro Dah. I am drowning in work, in a very positive way. However, there is no painting time on the horizon. Sorry for that, and sorry for not updating the blog more often at the moment.

Chris

"Oficial de los Tercios Espanoles" finished....

....well, almost. There are still minor things to do. A little bit of blacklining here and there, some more details on the base, dust on the cloack and some matt varnish with the airbrush for the entire mini. However, I would like to share this guy with you. I hope you like this mini, sorry for the terrible pictures. Let me know what you think.

Chris

WIP Finubars Pride: update #1

Painting is so much fun at the moment, I can't remember to have enjoyed it that much during the last two years. Sorry for the blurry pic, it is the best I could take. I hope you like it, let me know what you think.

Chris

WIP: Finubars Pride

I started this project right after the first pictures and information about the last GD Germany came in. The increase of quality in that competition has really motivated me and I am eager to enter as many miniatures as possible next year. I have already finished one entry and I aim to go there with at least six or seven entries. As I do not only want to enter in Single Miniature (40k, Fantasy, LotR), I felt it is time to go for another regiment of Warhammer Fantasy. I have always been a great fan of Bretonnia, The Empire, Wood Elves and High Elves. With the Island of Blood box, GW released tons of great figures at a really fair price. After my Bonecrusher from this box, I will now paint a unit of 5 Lothern Sea Guards. I struggled finding a good colour concept because in my opinion, these minis have been painted perfectly by Volomir. The only thing I knew was the fact that my version should show no similarities with his regiment. As he used mostly cold colours, I decided to go for the opposite. I also did not convert the minis, I will paint them right out of the box.

The current state shows the musician after maybe 5 hours of painting. I will try to finish each miniature in about 15 hours, maybe 20 for the Champion and the banner bearer. Including the bases, this project should be finished in about 100 hours of painting, what is quite effective in my oppinion.

I hope you like the mini so far, let me know what you think.

Chris

Games Day Germany 2012 link collection

 

link with a couple of blurry pics

Short coverage video by Zaphod

Part 2 of Zaphods event coverage

Video of the Award Ceremonie by Zaphod (HQ)

http://leskouzes.blogspot.fr/

Schiragas Gallery #1

Schiragas Gallery #2

Sleipnirs Gallery

Ocarinas Gallery

As usual, each country has its own discussion. Follow France, Spain, Italy, Australia, Germany, Poland.

Chris

Games Day Germany 2012 preview



Next weekend (August 12th) another German Games Day will take place in Cologne. As i said before, I will not take part this year, the reasons for that are numerous yet unimportant. If you are still thinking about a trip there, or if you are painting the final brushstrokes on one of your entries, you might find the following links helpful.

• You can review the rules for the German GD here and here (in German only, sorry).
• Here you can check out who will do the painting demonstrations during the day.
• Go to the Bemalforum to check out a full list of international painters and their entries (go to the last page).
• If you like to visit the painters dinner on Saturday, check this out.
• A 360-version of the GD-miniature can be seen here.

Chris

Updating the blog

You might have already noticed that I added a few top-tabs that I will update as often as possible. To avoid long searches, I have put all my tutorials on the front page. In addition, I have put up a gallery of some of my miniatures.

Chris

WIP update #2: "Oficial de los Tercios Espanoles"

Here is a current update on my progress with the Spanish guy. I struggled painting the pants, mainly because I missunderstood the sculpt und painted it totally wrong. For the second try, I chose another colour and avoided hard lines. That part is not finished yet, I will add a few brown areas to make the shadow parts stand out a bit more. At the moment, the pants seem too flat. The pictures don't show it but I also painted some sort of  texture effect. I hope his comes out better in the next update.

The rest are minor things, I painted the red feather using a colour recipe I got from Picster, it makes painting red really easy. In addition, I painted the shirt collar. The pictures take away some of the contrast, looks too flat here.

Chris

Rise

Tutorial: how to pin a miniature on a base

You usually don't think that much about  the best way to pin a miniature on a base. Gamers don't do at all because of those fancy cases where each miniature is protected on its own. I started thinking about this after my first serious accident on my way to a painting workshop. I opened my miniature box and found a terrible battle ground. About 4 miniatures were heavily damaged because ONE miniature wasn't pinned correctly to the base. The collateral damage was breathtaking. ^_^

I spoke about this problem with Stephan Rath (derwish) and he smiled my problem away. He shared his way to pin a mini, and I would like to share this way with you today. It is very simple, not even worth the name "tutorial". 

The first step is to file the area that will be pinned. In most cases, this will be the foot. If the miniature is standing on both feet, take the time to pin both of them. Pinning one foot will be sufficient for your showcase at home but not for longer trips by car, train or plane. I usually drill a hole into the heel, as this point can't be seen from the front. Make sure that the hole is a little bit wider than the wire. Very simple so far.....

The wire you choose must be very hard, you should not be able to bend it with your fingers. Now comes the simple, yet very effective idea that Stephan came up with. In order to get a more stable pin, you need a huge, uneven surface that can be covered with glue. Your wire is neither huge, nor is it uneven. Therefore you need a small amount of tissue. If it sonsists of several layer, take only one. More layers will be too thick in the end.

Cover half of the wire with superglue and let it dry about 1 to 2 minutes. After that, surround the wire with one layer of tissue. The paper will make the glue dry instantly. Now you have am absorbent, very rough surface. Repeat this step with all pins you need for the miniature.

The rest should be clear. Put the wire with the prepared ending into your pinholes and let it dry. When you are pinning your miniature on some kind of armature for painting, like I always do, don't put tissue on the other ending of the wire. Instead, just glue it to your armature. When you have finished the mini, remove it and glue tissue to all pins, then glue it to the finished base.

From my experience, this way of pinning makes it almost impossible to remove a mini from the base without really wanting it.

Have fun and please let me know if this works for you.



Chris

WIP "Oficial de los Tercios Espanoles"

I spent way too much time on Diablo 3, so I decided to move my painting area to the living room. That was a very clever idea, because all of a sudden I paint again. As a Latorre-groupie, I once again have to point out, that his sculpts are a great pleasure to paint. I tried a lot of new things here, most of all blacklining. I always thought that this tecnique looks very artificial but I am satisfied with the result. Blacklining seems to add the impression of more and finer details, although thats not true at all. Another new thing I tried is the X21 flat base thingy from Tamiya. This also works fine for me, it makes your colours look dry and almost dusty. I am still stuggling with the right mixture of colour, water and X21 but it gets better and better.

The last thing I tried was to avoid using colours from the pot. That turned out to be a good decision on the finished cloth, as I can regulate the colour temperature of the lights and shadows way better. Usually, I use warm colours for the lights and cold colours for the shadows, this time I did the opposite and I like the outcome of it.

The finished parts took me 3 evenings so far.

Today, summer holidays started here in Bavaria. Expect updates on the blog an a more regular base the next 6 weeks.

Chris

Miniature review: Art Gironas "Oficial de los Tercios Espanoles"

Original boxart, painted by Fernando Ruiz Ceano

I told you about my love of Latorre sculpts. In my opinion, he perfectly understands what a painter wants. His work leaves enough space for creativity concerning light, focus and overall impression. This mini is a very good example for his work.

The figure comes in the typical Art Girona box, I didn't take a picture of that. On top is a picture showing the mini from the front and back, on the backside of that picture card are some notes about the uniform colour in Spanish. Inside the box, you will find a very well packed miniature. Here is a picture of all components.

Typical for Latorre sculpts, the main body comes in one part with the head already attached. Seperate parts are the left and right arm, a short sword and the hat.

The sculpt itself shows a rather tall man, Latorres latest sculpts seem to have become a little bit bigger. The casting quality is on a very high level, the minor mold lines can easily be removed.

Something I have not seen on Art Girona sculpts before is the already attached pin and the pinhole. Saves a few minutes of extra work.

The only big problem is a huge gap between the cloack und the body. I tried to attach the cloack in different angles to the mini but this is the best result I got. Some putty will hopefully do it.

Dry-fitting the mini shows the great job Latorre has done. A very unique pose with many details.

Chris





Just another base wip

Yesterday in the evening I felt it was time to do something productive concerning my hobby. After weeks, maybe months, I started to build a base that I was thinking about for quite some time. About two years ago, I bought a laser cut fence from fredericus-rex.de. Yesterday was the right time to build it up and see what it looks like. It is made of real wood and looks fantastic in my opinion. I hope you like the progress so far, the sclae is 54mm. I have already chosen a miniature for the scene that I will show you soon. This will be a fun project, nothing I will work on for decades.

Chris

Day-to-day life

The last couple of weeks have been very intense for me. The graduation of my pupils really kept me busy but the final results have been a great success and a real satisfaction for me. Therefore, and because of my ongoing unwillingness to paint miniatures, I took a break from my beloved hobby. I spent an enormous amount of time looking for error 37, just to notice that it was patched away. Holidays will start soon in Bavaria and I am considering to take up the brush once again. There will be at least one painters meeting with my friend Erik, maybe that will get me motivated.

As a result of my current aversion to painting minis, I decided not to take part in this years Games Day Germany. I made that decision about 6 weeks ago and it really helped me. At the moment I don't even think about any projects, plans and contests for the remaining year.

However, I finally had the courage to try something out, I always wanted to do. I bought a canvas, thought about a motive and started painting. The result can be seen here:

As a teenager I loved to read mangas. Today, only one is left, "Vagabond" by T. Inoue. This picture shows the main character Myamoto Musashi, a ronin and maybe the most famous samurai ever. The picture can be found in one of the mangas, I decided to paint it on canvas. This was so much fun (started yesterday, finished in about 5 hours) that I am thinking about doing much more paintings like this one.

Chris

Sin

I have long feared that my sins would return to visit me, and the cost is more than I can bear.

                                                                     Benjamin Martin



Chris

Robin Hood on cmon

Some months ago, Raffa (Picster) took pics of some of my finished projects for me. For some reason, I forgot to put a few of them online. If you like, you can click here and rate or even leave a comment on my version of Latorres Robin Hood. Thanks a lot in advance.

Chris

Nork Deddog, update #9

"One, two, three, four."

                                                                                    Nork Deddog

(Highest mental effort ever performed by Homo Sapiens Gigantus)

Painting is fun at the moment, blendings work for me and Nork developes into a reasonable direction. You can see the result of two days of painting below. I think I will add some more shadows to that brown belt-thingy and do some blacklining.

Chris

Live painting, update 8 (finished armour)

Here is the last update of the current live painting. I have finished the armour by painting scratches onto it. Note that the flash makes the colours look more vibrant than they are irl. I am quite happy with the outcome, it is kind of an eyecatcher near the face, just in the right position.

I will stop the live painting at this stage, because up next are large parts of skin, something you  have already seen yesterday. Nevertheless, I will post regular updates during the next couple of days. Maybe I will build the base before the mini is finished, it will be a wild jungle with some hidden nids.

Thanks a lot for following all the time, I am very happy about the positive feedback.


Chris

Live painting, update 7 (armour)

"Da Sergeant Major asked me what my job was an' I said it was to, uh, do what I was told. He said I was a genius and gave me another medal. I likes da Imperial Guard!"

                                                                                                         Nork Deddog

As I said yesterday, todays progress will be much faster. I started about 90 minutes ago and have already finished the general lights of the armour. Up next is the detail work, scratches etc.

A huge mistake one can make on an area like the plate on his shoulder considers the length of blendings. We tend to paint them equally all the time, that means same lights, same shadows and same lenght of blending. That creates a very artificial look, as this seldom appears in nature. Therefore I used a trick to force myself not to do this mistake. You can see what I did in the picture, the main thing is not to paint all areas at once and to use different tones of the same colour. For more contrast, I painted a warm-cold contrast with those green colours, adding fleshtones for the warmer areas and blue for the cold areas.

Each area still looks a bit strange and isolated but that will change with the next step.

Pics of this mornings work:



Chris

Live painting, update 6 (almost finished face)

This is the last update for today, but don't forget to come back tomorrow, when I go on painting from 08:00 in the morning to about 12:00 o'clock.

I had dinner with my wife, so I got a little bit of distance between me and my brush-victim. I am still not overly satisfied with the result, but I will go on with the next part of the miniature. I might rework some parts this evening, but there won't be any updates today.

Tomorrow, I will paint the armour on his shoulder. That should be something worth watching and progress will be much faster. Hope to see you!!!

Here are pics of the current state:

Thanks for following my painting process today, I hopy you liked it!!!



Chris

Live painting, update 5 (more details)

Sometimes it helps to lay away a miniature for some time and just think about how you can improve your work. After lunch I started to add more details, scars, black eye and different, stronger shadows. The pictures are still crap but thats the best I can get at the moment.

Looking at the pictures, I just noticed that the black eye hardly can be seen. These pics really are a shame, I am so sorry.I have to think of something better next time. A few more single lights and the face is finished.


Chris

Live painting, update 4 (detail work on the face)

It looks like I won't be able to paint any other parts than the face today. I have painted different shades onto the face to make it look more interesting. For some reason, I am not yet satisfied with the result. This might still be a wip but I don't really like the direction this moves towards. On the other hand, I can't really tell what the problem is. I have the feeling that the forehead is lacking some details. Maybe some scars solve this problem.

The hair is just a basecoat, nothing really happened here. I just painted it to get a better feeling for the contrast I want to achieve. I am not sure about a beard, we will see.

The cam takes away a lot of contrast, the paper in the background is meant to be white. :)

I will have a break for at least 30 minutes now, please don't expect the next update during the next hour or so.

Any ideas what I have to change?

Chris

Live painting, update 3 (exaggerating the face)

The next steps might seem quite drastic but this is the fastest way to get a decent result. I have painted the face way to light with extreme highlights and pretty bad blendings. No need to worry though, as now begins the fun part.

Here are some wips, the last picture shows the current state:

Chris

Live painting, update 2 (starting the face)

Painting shadows is very easy and you see progress quickly. Therefore, you should never start by painting the shadows, before you have painted the lights. The reason for that is very simple, the overall look of the painted area will be too dark. I always start with the middle tone and work towards the lightest colour. After that, I use different tones for the shadows. This way, the light areas will dominate and make the painted area look more interesting to the viewer.

I tried a new mix of colours for the face, what is risky when you want to show something. The colours I used for the base tone are Bronzed Flesh, Flat Tan (Vallejo Air Colour), dark flesh and US Grey Light (Vallejo Air Colour). This mix is totally different to the tones I usually use. I want to reduce the red tones in the flesh because I aim for some kind of pale flesh. Not ill looking, but definitely not healthy as well.

After a few layers with the base colour, I had this result:

A few mixtures later (I added Bronzed Flesh and Elf Flesh to the mix):

More Elf Flesh has been added:

Current state:

All I have done so far, is giving the face a very general direction. Painting up to now has been a pain in the ass, because you can hardly see any progress, yet this stage is very important for the final result. You don't have to care that much about blendings up to here because most of it wont be visible in the end. From this point on, I begin to work out the strong, characteristic lines and areas of the face, still only with lights.

Feel free to let me know what you think so far. If you have any questions, please post a comment.

Chris