Love the smoothness of the blends on the cloths. The color selection could've been almost Christmas if the red had been brighter but the darker... brown/orange prevents that from happening. The flesh is a little... make up like? It's good but looks kind of bright?

Good Job Yvonne,

for gaming table this one is really good. I especially like the gold NMMs.
But 30 hours is still a lot of time, if you paint for gaming, and get paid for gaming, I wouldn't invest so much time, because you dont get it paid normally.

Best regards
Oli

Hey Yvonne,

i would have set other priorities.
If time is short i would try to get a faster result working with atmosphere and light stronger and giving blendings a lower priority.

Blending smoothely is very time consuming as you know and in the end you have a very smooth mini but what is lacking on yours is definately atmosphere. It looks too clean and "old-school" (like 90's fantasy style) in my opinion.

I hope you don't hate me now hahaha ;)

Cheers,
Raffa

@All: Thanks for the comments :-)

@JoeGKushner: Yep it is not worked out all until the absolutly end, because I had this time limit and the mini is for gaming. But I`m glad you like it :-)

@Oli: You are soooooo right. It is just because I know this customer already since a couple of years and I have got a very good understanding with him. But you are right. I don`t do it this way everytime ;-)

@Raffa: No I don`t hate you. I`m just tierd of hear it all the time. I understand that you give me a good advice but:
1st: It is my painting style and
2nd: Can you imagine, the customer ordered the mini in exactly this clean, oldschool style and that is exactly the reason why he wanted ME to paint it.

I like both styles. I like the oldschool style, I like the new style, in fact I like each style. So don`t worry, I will develop but I don`t push myself with violence into a direction I don`t feel.

If that what you tell me will happen while painting then I will be glad and enjoy it but for the moment what you see happens when I paint now, it is my style. So please let me happy painting, I am what I am.

It is not that I`m bullish or don`t want to learn something. It is that I don`t want stress at painting and Roman and you are making me stress because you always complain about the lack of atmosphere. Okay you are right. But it seems that my strenghts are somewhere else. And this "somewhere else" is good too in my humble opinion although it seems to be not your taste.

That`s okay. I can live with the fact that my painting style is oldschool and not your taste but it`s fun, and so:
Happy Painting :-)

I have to admit thats a fact that there is lack of atmosphere buuuuuuuuuuut and thats a fact too , youre one of the cleanest painter i know. "Smoothnes" of Blendings is your priority - i think that will never change as it is also your style of painting.

I think 30 hours are very acceptable and a good destination. I like the miniature a lot, and if the customer wants it exactly that style - everything should be fine.

I wonder if Roman and Raffa (and maybe me too) have too much tried to push you into the direction to paint another style. There is so much potential, you know, and you ARE able to do it if you want too. If you would put the two styles together you would maybe unstoppable in your creativity and i think that is what Roman and Raffa always wanted to bring you too : to open a gate. Seems as it was not the right way and i can understand that you dont feel glad about the way some things happens. But let me tell you : You are a fantastic painter with unbelievable endless patience, who can paint smooth blendings as hell - thats your strengh.

And if you say : come on guys , its just the style i want to paint ,than should everybody accept that.

We should have telepone call today, hu ?! ^^

Regards Count
Keep on happy Painting

Like him. The face looks great. Maybe the black lines are a bit too strong, especially on his hands. Try brown inks instead of black and begin with thin layers early on, that worked out for me.

Hey Yvonne, Raffa and me are sitting together at the moment and definatly we don't want to make you stress at painting it is simply an idea and a thought of help to bring you further. We admire your skills when it comes to patience and smoothness... in the end it is only important that the Painting you do is Voodoo and happy... so don't give to much on our oppinions, painting works in your heart and at your workbench, nowhere else... I like this model, the NMM rocks for me personally the most and i like the basework you've done there - i think your comissioner will be very happy with such a great gaming miniature...

@CountZero: Many thanks for your comment :-) Phonecall sounds good.

@Flann: I`m glad you like him :-) The outlining is darkbrown (I almost never use black for outlining).It looks as odd because of the sculpt, it is not sculpted regulary at the borders of the details and if you don`t have 80 hours for the paintjob such things are not to manage better ;-)

@Roman: Yep I understand but one time telling me a advice is enough. I keep it in my mind and when the time comes I try to follow the advice, or not, anyway I decide it should be okay for others. Because I do it all my way, when painting is not anymore my way then I can stop it. Let`s have a phonecall too :-)

I absolutely love your clean style, and in my opinion it suits a gaming miniature perfectly! In contrast to a display-mini - which is a snapshot of a situation and which portrays the model as part of a certain atmosphere - a gaming miniature, and especially a roleplaying mini, as I understand this one is, goes through many different situations during gaming, and therefore a set atmosphere on the mini would be "wrong". It would "lock" the miniature, and not let it fit into many of the atmospheres of the game!

The clean style allows the mini to blend into many different situations, and as such I can very well understand the customer's request for a clean style.

As to the painting itself, I think you've created a wonderful piece: as others have mentioned, the gold's great, and personally I love the head of the staff. The only thing I think I'd try to do differently myself, would be to make the gem slightly darker, to give it a more deeper look.

And 30 hours doesn't sound too bad to me, for such a great and smoothly painted mini. Then again, I don't paint miniatures for a living, it's just a hobby for me, and I find great joy in the painting itself, letting me tune out from the stressfull world around me, so I'm not sure if I'm the right person to answer that question...

I hear the "older apes" brawling about old-fashioned painting styles and such. In my opinion, creating art should come from your own heart, and be in your own image. Noone else should dictate how you are to paint, that choice belongs to you alone. That being said, one should never be scared of pushing one's limits and test something new. Quality might decline, if one never dare to open one's eyes to different approaches, but instead gets lost on a one-way track...

Keep on happy painting, you (goes to all apes out there) and your work is great inspiration!

Awesome high Quality Keep ir up great to learn from you =)
Greeting from "taunus"
:P
Carsten

@Noeste: Thank you very much :-) You ARE definitely the right person for telling me the answer, because I see things quite similar. I don`t live from painting. It is just a hobby for me too :-) There has been a time when I wanted to be a great, famous painter but I gave it up because I recognized that it is stress pure. Damn that is not my way, lol. I`m to old for that nonsense,lol.

So I also just want to enjoy painting :-) I do commissions from time to time, but very seldom and the last mini I sold on ebay is 4 years ago or so. But I would love to sell my minis on ebay sometimes. But that is all I want and so I really don`t need this pressure.

I`m glad we are seeing things similar and thanks for your encouraging and competent words :-)

@Zee: I love your enthusiasm, lol. Thanks and keep it up too, you are a great student :-)

I would love to say some closing words to this posting:
I had a phonecall with Roman and this made things clearer. Seems that my monkey brothers thought it would be a good way to kick in my ass for to push/force my developement as a painter. They didn`t recognized that I don`t want to develope to any cost. I just want to relax and having fun at painting. Sure I also wish to develope but slowly, slowly lol. There is no need to hurry up for me. So that was the missunderstanding. Means: No monkey battle here :-)

ALL minis are for gaming! What the heck else are you going to do with them? ;-)

Good job.