Creative Corner

Hello everyone! I had some folks interested in what I do and how I do it, so here we go!

I am a professional miniature painter...no you can't make a living on that, but it's fun and I enjoy it. I teach and run contests and all sorts of weird things. You can find me at www.Paintminion.com.

One of the most grueling contests in this hobby is Iron Painter. This season we have over 250 people participating from around the world. Painters are matched up randomly, a theme is given, and they have two weeks to create, paint, and upload final pictures for judging. Highest scoring entry wins that Round, and then it starts all over again with Round 2, etc. Each Round, half the painters are dropped, so we have quite a few rounds to go.

I will find the website in a little bit and add the link...it's part if Wyrd Miniatures website, but this contest is anything goes, any company, any scale. Scoring is based on Theme, Technical, and Creative scores, 1-10, 10 being best. Ah...Here is the Round One Thread on their Forums. If you click on the Galleries, there is an Iron Painter Gallery as well.

ROUND 1: "Fool's Gold"

So my thinking with this round is to kill two birds with one stone. I have a promised commision that involves making a "Whiskey Dragon" for a certain musician who has helped me out in the past. Fool's Gold > Whiskey> Drunk Whiskey Dragon....it's a bit off the path, but I think the judge's will see clearly what I am doing with the theme. I also have a promise to myself. You can go broke buying stuff for this contest, so everything I use must be either already in my vast inventory, or I must create it myself.

So on to PREP WORK!

Hmmm, here we go...let's see how this works. I don't have my camera yet, just the phone...What size are these? Ahhh, huge. Sorry about that, I tried to resize in imgur, but it won't show the resized images, only the original. Will need daughter's help to resize them maybe, but for now, you guys will just have to scroll sideways...sorta fits the theme, Fool's Gold, aka Drunken Dragon. These are the prep work to gather the bits and change up the miniature and set up the diorama. Diorama's must always tell a story, so I hope we have a bit of that eventually. More tomorrow. I now have about one week left to finish and enter for Round 1 of Iron Painter.

I think I will create a new thread for this so others can watch this happen too when they wonder why I am ignoring my Guild and Wind Flight duties...lol.

cast bits in a hard plaster...




bits put together to form a single barrel...a BIG barrel




the dragon on original stand, twisted up a bit already




and what happens when you get all twisted up? You have to go to the tortu-er chiropractor...

So cool! I love all the textures and details!

@paintminion

WOAH.
Just gonna... bookmark your website and... uh... save money to maybe ask for something *stuffs money in wallet under bed to be saved*

Your work is spectacular, paint~! <3

@silvercatshadow

Sure I can paint something for you, just realize it may be awhile as I have commissions lined up for awhile.

Tomorrow I can post what the diorama will look like...I have to finish some pieces like sculpting a new dragon tongue, a barrel spigot, and working on placement and pinning. I kept dropping pieces on the floor so I stepped away for a bit. I will have to work pretty fast to get this done on time. I was hoping to be painting by now! But the prep work has to look right or the whole project goes wrong! Paint doesn't cover up any mistakes!

@paintminion

Yay~!
I probably won't be able to request anything soon due to severe lack of money, so you being booked up right now is actually just fine. ^^

I know how that feels, working so hard on something but kinda messing it up so much that you have to leave it alone for a while. You've got the best attitude about it, though! Just like in a drawing- gotta get the lines and circles in the right place before you can expand on them properly!

Last Prep pics before the primer and painting begin!

I took the big barrel I formed from the to halves in the casting mold, and sculpted a little spigot and put a big cork on top. I tweaked and filed the supports for the barrel too, and put pins in them so I know where they are on the base and I plan on gluing them into the base and painting the barrel separately as I want to do some special stuff. I took the smaller barrels and carved the blank ends to match the cast ends, then glued the three together and put a pin in them as well so I know where to put them on the base, and can paint them separately. I puttied up the wings and some of the telltale cracks on the dragon (from manipulating the metal too much), then filed the mouth line a bit and added the new tongue and the horns. blah blah blah...prep is endless and I don't even mention the mistakes...this is the third tongue cuz I broke the others, that barrel took forever, as the little pieces kept falling on the floor and I would lose them...

Anyway...pics!

Here's everything I need for prep. (wink wink - really, I HATE Whisky)




A bit of placement playing...




Next, we get painting that dragon, and then we let it sit while we paint the pieces and the base, and we bring it all together!

Clock is ticking...deadline is April 19 - 7 days...tick...tick...tick...

Also, sorry about the size and everything...again, I have to have my daughter fix things someday as my software no longer works. :-( Forgive...and we will fix it at some point.

And here we are a couple days later and my arm is just aching from all the paint work.

@paintminion

OMG I didn't know you were so artistically inclined with the many times you've asked for graphics for the Guilds o____o

Those are amazing!