What's Vax been doing? {image heavy}

[Vaxillus]

While I'm by no means a celebrity on these boards, I thought I'd give folks a little update on my work bench. I've been busy with lots of stuff, including a summer job, 2D art, friends, and some personal ventures into writing up a game system (though it'll probably never be finished). I have done some painting, though, and have been experimenting with some new tricks. Unfortunately, my photography still sucks. Anyways, first up is my DA Brood:

Old entry into the Khubla painting contest of '07



Unleash the hounds!



The good looking Ratchet




Heavyweight Champion of the World






Again, sorry about the shoddy camera work, the colors have been rather washed out.

Next up was an experiment in light and shadow. Though it's hard to tell from the picture, this miniature doesn't have one drop of black paint on it 'cept for the rim of the base. The shadows are entirely purple. I've used just a bit of yellow for all the highlights for a somewhat counter-shaded effect.




Next up I tried to immitate Wayne Reynolds' beautiful artwork in miniature. For those who don't know, Mr. Reynolds does work for Wizards, and did all the 4th Edition cover art. This ws WIP when I photographed it, but has since been finished.


All surfaces have been blended from black to whatever their color to near-white, with some slight adjustments.

[blkdymnd]

love the effect on Numbskulls fists, nice work. The Brood look really crisp overall and I love the color choices. The other stuff looks great too, love the Slayer.

[DA_Grafter]

WOW, one of the best looking cohesive Brood army I have seen, and the fists on Numby is fantastic...

[kainthedragoonx]

oooo! Nice looking brood! I cannot wait to get through Gencon so I can finally work on stuff I want to work on!


o, and I dig the alkemy wolf warrior! :P

[Lupus]

Dam those are some fantasticly painted Brood.

[Breten]

Looks great.

[Pez5767]

Hey Vax!
Those are some sweet lookin' Brood. (I've seen MJB in real... he's even more awesomer )

Thanks for sharing.

[punkrabbitt]

While I'm by no means a celebrity on these boards,

You partied with us at GenCon SoCal a few years back, that makes you a celebrity to me!

Nice work on the Brood, too.

Who's the guy with the axe at the bottom?

[Vaxillus]

Thanks for the feedback guys! I love the Brood because they tend to just paint themselves. I picked up one of the hounds after MJB and just started painting. The amount of flesh and quality of muscle definition means that they get done fast. It also means I can easily use washes for all the shading.

Process for skin = snakebite leather base followed by a brown ink wash. Next, the areas facing upwards are blended back up to snakebite leather and followed by a 50-50 mix of snakebite and bubonic brown and then straight bubonic brown. I've added some crimson washes in some of the recesses just to make things feel organic, but it wasn't really that necessary.

And I have to hand it to Matt on Numbskull, the texture and subtle irregularities on the chitinous areas really add a lot of character to the figure.


To answer Punky's question, the thing at the bottom is an Aurlock Wolf Thunder Warrior from the new-ish French game Alkemy. It's an interesting game, and the models are very high quality despite being plastic. Unfortunately, the price is extremely high due to elitist French presentation (packaging, everything comes in a fancy box), shipping, and the fact that the dollar is getting crapped on by the Euro.

And for the record, I don't play Warmachine, I just like some of the Cryx models 'cuz they're techno-zombies.

[Cain]

Hey Vax,

If I might be so bold as to ask, but how long have you been painting? I love the earth tones you used for your Brood - the skin looks, well like skin and the chitin and/ or bone looks so organic I would be afraid to touch your models!! And you had just a hint of purple in the bone of the Numbskull - What is a Numbskull? Great Job!!