Tharn Magic!

This is actually a WIP as I haven't as yet been brave enough to do the seeping blood from the heart he is clecnching in his fist. I have used the now famous Mika Gore receipe a few times and it is really hard to get it to look good and not overdone. I have already runined a giant model for Warhammer by putting that little bit too much blood on and I don't want to repeat the experience with this guy. Especially as he took me an age to do. There was so much detail lurking in this model. I didn't like him at all at first but now that I have painted him I have come to like him a lot. It's really interesting how that can happen. Sadly it can do it in the opposite direction for me to and it means I end up with a lot of half finished models. I am not too bad at the moment butin the past I was terrible at starting one model and coming to hate it. Then it would languish on my desk for a few years before either being hidden or completed. I suppose the Farrow Bone Grinders are a good example of this. I started then years ago and finished them only a few weeks ago.

Back to the Shaman. I am pretty happy with how the skin came out. I have the tones worked out well and I think I amanged to make the skin here look a lot less purple than on the other Tharn I have been doing. Some of that comes from learning how to shade and highlight flesh/musculature. I really enjoy painting flesh now even though I hated it once. I still have a good few Tharn to do so lets see if I still like it after all of them! I also used a lot more yellow on this model to tie him in with the female Tharn who have it on their scheme. It suits the autumnal colour scheme and I think I shoud find some excuses to use it a little more.

I have been listening to the first twelve novels of the Dresden Files while painting and I am up to book seven now. These have been keeping me going when I find my motivation lacking. I can't paint anymore without listening to something. I used to paint in silence for hours but I slowly developed the habit of having the radio on. Then I watched the Lord of the Rings with all the various audio commentaries on while painting. I think that was the rubicon. Now I have to listen to something while painting, oh and music won't cut it. The one thing that is a real benefit however is that if I first start listening to an audio book I find myself slowly getting in the mood to paint. Looks like you can teach an old dog new tricks...