Hi everyone. Well, work has gotten the better of me lately and my hobby time last week was pretty limited. I was away for work and out most evenings so, unfortunately, my little oasis of painterly calm had to wait.
Luckily, things have calmed down enough for now that I've been able to spend some quality time with my lizards. My goal after last post was to finish off my Saurus Knights. Unfortunately, I've fallen well short of achieving that. I would say that they are about 75-80% done:
The big things that I need to complete are the bases and the shield arms. Aside from that, there is a lot of small details that still needs some layers of paint on them. As much as I've made fun of the cold one models for being the derpiest derps in all of derp town, there is a great amount of texture and detail on these models to paint. They are a lot of fun to paint though they are time consuming.
Painting them has really made me think about my ideals and standards; what I perceive as "good enough". There were plenty of times while I've been painting these models that I've gotten impatient and and thought, that looks good enough, I can't make that look any better. But I've pushed through these moments and tried to extend myself by going for that extra little detail, or highlight or transition. I don't think they're perfect, but I think I will have finished these models being a better painter than when I started.
Some things that I've tried on the Saurus Knights that I hadn't before:
- Diluting my washes with lahmium medium. This got rid of the shininess that my shadows had on previoud models where the wash collects and dries.
- Blending and transitioning between layers. The feathers, bone materials and claws were great places to practice gradual shade transitions that I'd never really been confident enough to try out before.
Also, while working on these models I started to think that there is only as much detail on any model as you want there to be. I enjoy the process of painting, and so I look different textures and materials on the models to paint, but I think I could very easily have just done base-coat/wash/drybrush on these models and gotten a fine tabletop standard unit. I guess I'm more of a journey than a destination kind of guy.
So, these are still not finished. I didn't achieve my goal of finishing them by now, but I don't really mind. I'm taking it slow with these ones and learning a lot. It's teaching me patience and making me extend myself technically.