dwarf barbarian
(7 Nov 06)
Stipple and Erodon stood before the rope bride. Their apprehension was plain on their faces.
"I'm not fond of heights,"said Stipple.
"Forget the height," said Erodon. "I'm more worried about that guy."
He gestured towards an short, impassive figure who stood at the end of the bridge, apparently guarding it against trespassers.
"What should we do?" asked Stipple.
Erodon thought for a moment. "Let's walk up to him. In, um, a peaceful sort of way."
The two approached trepidatiously. The stolid figure stayed still, his eyes staring intently forwards.
"Um," said Stipple.
The figure did not move.
"Right then," said Stipple. He cautiously set foot on the bridge, looking back at the dwarf.
The dwarf didn't move.
The halfling looked at the elf, shrugged, and set out across the bridge. After a moment, the elf followed.
As the silhouettes of the halfling and the elf diminished slowly on the horizon, the dwarf sighed a deep sigh.
"I'm so lonely," he thought.
I think I'm seeing improvement in each of these figures. It'd be easier to tell if I'd wait a few weeks before posting them, but I'm not going to do that. :)
Up this week is another Reaper piece. It's billed as a gnome barbarian, but I'm calling him a dwarf. I really like the intense, vaguely unpleasant expression this guy has, and I was looking forward to doing a human-type figure -- I haven't painted a non-zombie skin tone in a while.
I started out with a base of Reaper chestnut paint mixed with a bit of an old GW caucasian color. I built that up to a lighter caucasian, then washed the lowlying areas with a medium tone to smooth the transitions.
I used a blue/purple/gray base on the wood to give it a slightly mystical quality, and set it off from all the earthtones I knew I'd end up with on the little guy. I really liked the look -- it reminded me of some of the Rackham house paint jobs. (Just the color, mind you.)
I started out with a metal base on the sword, then gave NMM my first serious shot. It looked terrible, so I went back over it with metallic paints, using similar effects. I like the look of that much better, and that's what I've been espousing anyway. . . I'd planned to get really comfy with that before moving on to NMM.
The loincloth looks a lot better on the model than it does in the picture, so that's unfortunate. The fur is pretty straightforward, as is the base. I'm kind of proud of the look of the leather, though. I started out with a brown base, then worried about the mass of earth tones. I moved it to a gray-green, but left the brown underneath. It looked magic to me. Maybe it's some sort of barbarian innovation in magical leather, used to reduce the total amount of metal carried by a warrior. . . .
I think I've pushed myself further again, and it's gratifying to see (or imagine) some sort of progress. I'm learning something, or I think that I am -- that's my goal with this project, so I'm pretty happy so far.
He's currently up on CMON.
He goes up for eBay auction soon, as well.