Week 18 (10 Nov - 16 Nov 2002)
Forest altar
Grum and Grommet stood, hands in the air, waiting for their unseen assailants to show themselves. Slowly, four shapes slipped out of the woods, shapes that resolved themselves into masked elves with shortbows, arrows nocked and strings drawn. The last shadow, shorter than the rest, turned out to be a halfling with a long dagger, his face uncovered but showing a few still-healing scabs.
"What were you doing here?" the closest elf asked in East Forest Orish, voice hard and suspicious. "What. . ." The elf's eyes widened and his voice trailed off, then switched to Old Dragonish: "Grum? Grum Stealthpeddlar? Is that you?"
Grum's face brightened. "Erodon Lightwind! Good to see you! It's been a while. How's the freelance adventuring treating you?"
Erodon lowered his bow. "Oh, not bad. We've signed up with the local guard for a short stint while my halfling buddy here heals up. I haven't seen you since the Guild Mage Academy. . . how's life treating you?"
"Oh, not bad. Still doing my orc advocacy thing, but to little avail, I'm afraid. Had a nice stay with the Guild for a few years, but the current group frowns on anyone but the local shaman getting involved in the spell slinging."
The pair rambled on. Slowly and with disbelief, the other elves lowered their bows. Grommet pointed hopefully to the small deer slung over one elf's back.
"Eat now?" he asked, his eyes plaintive.
This week's mini is the painted version of the week 16 mini. I decided I'd done enough unpainted sculpting for the time being and had a go at this one.
I used a new method of priming (to be written up fairly soon, with any luck) for this, which is part of the reason it's got a slightly lighter look than many of my other pieces. I started with a mix of dark green, gray, and black for the base color on the stone, and worked up to a gray/green/dark yellow. The rune cylinder started out with a blue/green mix, and I moved up to light blue/white for the highlights. The lining looks abysmal, which is the heavy hand and shallow sculpting rather than the Vallejo Smoke. The antler started with a sort of a light chestnut, then moved up through a variety of yellows and beiges. The moss was a couple greens, and the base was the usual mix of brownish colors. (Mostly fairly unscientific mixes this week, so no color detail -- all Vallejo, Reaper, and Apple Barrel colors.)
I very much enjoyed painting this, not just because I'd sculpted it to begin with, but because I'd sculpted it with painting in mind. The textures worked well for me, particularly on the rock and the antler. I was and am unduly proud of myself. . . .
As usual, the scan is pretty fuzzy representation, but so it goes until I can get my hands on a digital camera.
Back to week 17 (3 Nov - 9 Nov 2002)