No more Mr. Nice Monkey
  --8 August, 2008, 16:15:00

Well, I've finally strained out the nugget that is Almaran the Gold; he'll be traveling up to GenCon Indy next weekend, so you'll be able to see what the non-crappily-photographed version looks like if you go.

So, on to why there's been such a hiatus. I've been job hunting down here in Dallas for a long, long time now, and used the past month as kinda the last huzzah. If I never have to go through another Unicru survey I'll die a happy man. Suffice to say that I never got any real bites, which is probably from a combination of factors too numerous to count. At this point I was going to go back to school, but when the GI bill changed all the counselors warned about jumping GI bills mid-stream until they figure out exactly how the new one is going to work, so I still have till August 1st of next year to keep myself gainfully occupied.

Now that I gave it my all I can officially stop my job search. That's it. I'm done. No more Monster, Careerbuilder, Craigslist (well, Craigslist forever, just not the job stuff); I'm going to go all-out on miniature painting. The first fruits of which are already gone; Almaran had some marathon sessions over this past week as I upped the time my eyes (hopefully will be able to get new contacts soon) and my hand (well... the hand is still permascrewed, readjustment to pain levels is all) are able to paint daily. I'll be pushing minis out on eBay, farming for commissions, teaching monthly seminars, and of course the odd web job here and there to make ends meet.

Why haven't I been painting more in the interim, I'm sure some of you would want to know. Well, when I'm spending eight hours a day staring at a computer screen stressed out about finances and job outlooks it doesn't juice my creativity at all. Now that I can say "This is my job" and put 10-14 hours a day into it the mental mindset's shifted enough to make it work.

I also cut caffeine almost completely out of my system for almost two months as well (only had a coke or two on Saturday nights during gaming sessions). Most of it was on the advice of doctors past and present who attributed my sleeping problems to not having a set schedule and too much caffeine intake (as opposed to chronic shoulder pain that comes and goes). Well, now I can say that the doctors were wrong, and juice myself up with the sweet, sweet caffeine my mind craves to keep me bouncing all day long.

Hm, what else... Oh yes, I'll probably be making some videos for YouTube in the next couple of weeks to talk about miniature painting, both to drive up interest/mainstream it and to get more traffic to my minis (since a feller's gotta eat, ya know). We'll see how badly I do in front of a camera then :).

Anyhoo, I think that's about it for now; back to the brushes!

Still kickin'
  --19 June, 2008, 2:01:18

Still working away at stuff! In the benchcam you can see my new spiffy wet palette in the background. I picked one up after taking Jeremie's seminar, and I've been practicing with it ever since. I can do some really quick layering with it, though it takes a bit more glazing than I'm used to in order to smooth things out. I'm at the point right now where I know if I spend more time with it I'll have a better feel for my paint consistencies, but I also know if I use my regular welled palette I could paint a bit faster. The tug of war will continue a bit longer, I'm afraid :).

The mini you see in the foreground is one I'm trying to finish up quickly for Reaper. Apparently a few weeks back Anne sent me an email that I must've read but forgotten afterwards asking if I would finish up a piece she saw me start at ReaperCon so they could use it in an advertisement. Fast forward to last Saturday at Paint Club to where Ron walks in and asks me how the piece is coming along. Mystified, I told him I was still plugging away at it (as I had planned to do two versions at the same time, one metallic, one NMM, to really push myself). I guess he saw the confusion in my face, because he then asked when Reaper would have a photo of it, and, well, everything got laid out soon afterwards. I plan on sleeping a coupla hours and getting up bright and early to finish things out on the guy, but we'll see how I do. It's a massive amount of NMM for one piece :). I normally wouldn't have made him almost entirely gold, but his name is "Almaran, the Gold," so what's a painter to do.

After he's spat out of the presses there's a GW fig I'm going to wrap up and call donesies, then it's on to an Angel I've had my eyes on for a bit.

Some re-assembly required
  --26 May, 2008, 18:19:42

Now that all the Con and Post-Con stuff is finally over (shuffled off the last painter on Friday), and the inevitable recovery period (well-deserved post-Con party party) I've finally got things re-arranged and back to normal-ish. I had to redo my usual paint setup to accommodate the huge wet palette I bought. I still prefer welled palettes for basecoating, selective glazing (duh), and a few other techniques here and there, but since I'm used to layering with kinda thick paints the wet palette offers up lots of interesting opportunities. Of course, watching Jeremie paint up competition-level minis in 8-10 hours helped to convince me to give it a shot as well :).

So far my NMM Gold re-work's turning out nicely technique-wise, but I'm going to change up my usual lighting/shading style I think as I definitely believe I can go up a notch or two from where I've been for a while.

Con's almost over, Hooray! I mean, Aww!
  --18 May, 2008, 10:08:28

Last day of ReaperCon today! All my classes are finished, so now I just get to chill out and paint for funzies instead of class mini prep and whatnot. I had some great classes this year with some good students in them, and I got to see two people who'd taken my How Not To Suck class in past years win some Sophies this year, so that's always gratifying.

Sunday's usually the staggery day at the Con, where the attendees and teachers are pretty much wound down, looking forward to a more normal-ish schedule again, and getting A Lot of Sleep and A Few Beers In. For me, I'll be rushing to pick the brains of the people who are leaving the soonest to cram as much new stuff in mah haid as I can. Luckily I'm sitting right next to Jeremie Bonamant, so I can pump him for info in the comfort of my own chair.

I also had a nice visit from my older sis (who's my little sister) and her niece too, and found a spot and time to actually hang instead of being in Con Pong mode for a change which was pretty cool as well. All in all not a bad bit of Con-going.

So, to those of you who've just taken classes and are coming here for the first time, the Recipes section is where you go for my NMM stuff, the Contact link is where you send me your mini pictures when you finish them (and you are going to send me pictures, aren't you?), and the Gallery is where you go to see all of my mistakes so you can learn from them.

'Cause I'm just that swell of a guy.

Bug go Squish!
  --15 May, 2008, 12:28:58

Fixed a little bug on the gallery commenting system; apparently when I put in my handy-dandy recipe code I borked a variable I shouldn't have. It's all been fixed now.

Of course, I'm sure you're all wondering what I'm doing fixing a bug when ReaperCon is currently underway. It's because I care that I do it. :)

Only a coupla days left!
  --12 May, 2008, 12:56:07

Only a few more days till the ReaperCon festivities start! This past weekend got off to a good start with Jeremie Bonamant Teboul coming in town a week early to teach a two-day seminar on painting. His technique was interesting to learn and play around with, but I got much more mileage from his explanations of color theory and lighting. It was a great two days, and I'm looking forward to putting what I learned into a competition piece for this weekend (go ahead, I know, you're not holding your breaths).

What day was Cinco de Mayo again?
  --6 May, 2008, 3:44:14

Did I miss it?

Been a bit, hasn't it?
  --2 May, 2008, 18:42:23

Didn't realize I was falling behind on the news and pictures stuff. I'll snap some photos on Sophie once I get my ReaperCon entry fully assembled (little more test-fitting left to do, little more sculpting, basework, final gluing, etc). I got a little delayed by a fuzzy kitty who, when denied my attention while I was on the computer, jumped up on one of the few horizontal surfaces in the house she's not allowed on. Right onto where I had all my mini pieces. I found all the pewter parts, and I only lost a thin piece of putty I was going to use as an antenna, so no huge losses, but still angerful all the same.

I saw Iron Man today, and had a blast. I thought it was one of the best superhero movies ever. All of the pieces came together nicely, none of it was too over-reaching (I know, silly to say in a superhero film, but still), and was just overall a great movie. You absolutely must stay till after the credits, though, if you've ever read Marvel comics (or watched the cartoons for you young'uns out there). Good stuff.

Anyhoo, my day of lollygaggin's about to start (cook supper, watch movies all night, wake up, play board games all afternoon, etc) so it's off to the store for some ingredients. Mmm, Broccoli Potato Chicken Parmesan's sounding good.

Yay Topaytos!
  --18 April, 2008, 21:22:00

There should be more dishes with mashed potatos on top.

I'm serious! I made Shepherd's Pie for the first time tonight, and the best part was smooshing the mashed potatos on top of the baking dish. I was very, very proud of myself for not going all Close Encounters on the ol' starch piles.

Well, ok, the best part was eating good food, but the playing with the potatos thing was still fun.

I said, I have an idea!
  --13 April, 2008, 23:17:23

I've been sitting on a Sci-Fi Sophie for a coupla months now, down and out because I had absolutely no ideas on how to paint her. I didn't want to do my usual "Stick Angel Wings on her", especially after Marike turned her rockin' one in. Ghost in the Shell is my favorite Anime, but white and purple armor wouldn't have rocked on the model (and I couldn't figure out how to do a cool therm-optic camouflage effect). I was casting all about for ideas, searching manga databases, looking through sci-fi web sites, and then I fired up a game I still play ever since it came out in the mid-90's, and all of the sudden I knew how Sophie would be painted.

And no, I'm not going to tell. I'm going to make you figure it out by the crappy webcam shots >:).