Ampersands stuff

[ampersand]

got a few lil updates for anyone that may not frequent my blog that you may or may not be interested with
having shamelessly taken seb's gnobblar/goblin mash up idea and running with it myself i have the first of a few goblins to show.

im starting to find my hobby time become more available so hope to keep the ball rolling with more. and hopefully soon also finish the last of the heroquest furniture too lol

[cynthialee]

wow!
Once again I look at your mini's and I loose all motivation to paint. Your work is exquisite and shames the attempts of the dabblers.

[StratosVX]

So jealous of your skills...

[knightkrawler]

Glad you're back rolling.
Perfect skintone. Do I see purple in the shadows or is this regular brown? If so, which one?

[ampersand]

thanks guys, most humbling im glad how these are turning out...even more glad i stumbled upon sebs blog to nab the idea in the first place.

the skin tones are really simple.
1. death world forest base.
2. wash with athonian camoshade
3. first hightlight 50/50 watered down death world forest (leaving the deep washed colours for the deepest recesses and watered down to allow blend between shades)
4. add a little straken green to the mix to add further highlights (keep mix nicely watered to a milky consistancy)
5. build up to full straken green colour on majority of the skin and raised areas
6. final mix add a little ogryn camo to the mix for final edging highlights.

the trick is keeping the paint wet to get the gradual blends to the tones (i use this teqnique on all skin tones to try and keep it smooth looking)
the amount of straken green and ogryn camo can be varied to give varied tones to the flesh.

tip - never ever ever dry brush. day i stopped drybrushing was the day i improved as a painter (chainmail is perfectly acceptable though

simple!

knightcrawler - i noticed you are starting to use mixed colours in your painting. looks great...however not something i have the balls to do just yet lol

[knightkrawler]

Talk about balls.
I bought a size 8 heavy duty brush to try a new technique. My main brush for basecoating and for even small highlighting these days tends to be a size 4 Filbert brush.
I can do everything with that thing: basecoat, highlight, drybrush, wet blend, dry blend... Only shading and washing is difficult. That's where my size 1 W&N comes into play.
On a sidenote, I sometimes drybrush even skin, but I do it in 15 color steps and then shade and glaze the hell out of the mini.
Indeed, I'm having fun.

Everybody tells you to not drybrush, thin down your paint as much as you can, etc.
But the truth is, every technique, every color, every way, every texture has its merits. Drybrushing is perfect for bone if you do it in 12 steps or so.
Unthinned paint is good for shaded basecoat, where you wet blend different colors in the very first step.
A beautiful NMM is good for a sword, but almost impossible to pull off with fine chainmail.
You can load two different colors in one brushload and thusly blend them on the surface in fell swoop.

I watch so many painting videos on youtube... The fun they can teach!

[Thantos]

Love those conversions! Great idea Seb and great execution Amp! Is there a link on how to go about making these?
And needless to say, super painting as always

[ampersand]

Love those conversions! Great idea Seb and great execution Amp! Is there a link on how to go about making these?
And needless to say, super painting as always

simple.

random gnoblar heads.
goblin regiment torso and legs.
night goblin arms + random shields.

[Seb]

Hah love it Ampersand - as you mentioned, but I predominantly use Warhammer 40k Gretchin heads - its great to see a mob of them using Gnoblar heads only. Might try that myself too!

[knightkrawler]

Hey Seb, how's the cruise?