GottaCon 2015 this weekend!

Just a reminder to anyone who can get to Victoria, B.C., that GottaCon 2015 is running this weekend.  Along with the usual gamer-y goodness (tournaments, vendors, used stuff auction, etc.), there is also a fantastic painting competition (judged again by yours truly, and Lee DeKock), as well as a drop-in painting clinic (again, run by myself and Lee).

I've had some questions asked regarding the painting clinic, and thought it might be good to explain what one might expect, why we're running it as a clinic (and not as a formal class), what materials you should bring, and times.

First of all, what exactly is a painting "clinic", and how does it differ from a "class"?

Live demos! Free advice! Bad jokes!

Clinics are drop-in friendly ways of learning how to paint, where we address the specific areas of painting that each painter wants to concentrate on.  Drop by, sit down, pull out some models that you are currently working on (and possibly having difficulties with), and either Lee or myself will happily discuss and demonstrate any tools or techniques that will help you get to the next stage of your painting level.

We will have a few painting stations set up, and I will have a number of my own paints and supplies out to work with.  However, painters should bring their own models, brushes, and perhaps some of their own paints as well.  In addition, as I can only bring a limited number of lamps (and I'm not sure what the overhead lighting will look like yet), and there is a limited number of outlets anyway, I usually recommend bringing a headlamp (one of my favourite items for painting while travelling).

In fact, if you pack a kit like the one I outline in this previous blog post, you should be fine:
http://www.sableandspray.blogspot.ca/2013_06_01_archive.html

A typical portable painting kit.  Yours may differ slightly.

The advantage of a drop-in painting clinic is that it allows the painters to concentrate on their own particular goals and challenges.  If you are having a hard time getting smoother blends, we can work on that together.  if you want to see how to get deeper contrasts on your models, we can show you some techniques that would help there too.  If you want to learn how to get more precise freehand work done, we can take care of that too.  And once we've shown you how, you can practice it for as long as you like, and get feedback any time you like.  And if you need to rush off in order to get to your next convention event, you can pack up and leave any time you like.

Don't get me wrong, I love painting classes too.  It's just that in the context of a huge gaming convention, with many interested participants coming and going due to all the events going on, an open free-form skills clinic seems to have worked out the best for everyone involved (both instructors and participants).  In contrast, classes seem to work best when there's just one instructor, and a whole mess of students, and they all have a set start and finish time (with plenty of time in between).

Speaking of time, my intention is to get to the venue early on Saturday, set up the table, and run it until dinnertime.  Lee and I will alternate back and forth (giving each other a chance to go to the bathroom every so often), and give any participants our full attention.  After dinner, we will shut down the table, and then focus on judging the painting competition.  On Sunday, it's likely we won't open up the clinic table until sometime around lunch, and then resume painting until we have to pack up and head for the ferry back to the mainland.

Judging last year's painting competition.  ;)

As for the painting competition, I've run coverage of the previous two years of GottaCon's events, as well as my thoughts as a judge (starting with this post from Feb 2013).  If you are interested, I suggest reading through a few of the posts for examples of previous entries, and my feedback as a judge for each.  In addition, there's some great advice from a painting judge's point of view in these two articles as well:

http://www.sableandspray.blogspot.ca/2013/02/explanation-of-judging-process-for.html
http://www.sableandspray.blogspot.ca/2013/02/gottacon-2013-miniature-painting_25.html

Anyway, it's getting pretty late, and I'm going to pack it in for the night.  I'm currently in the middle of trying to get my condo ready for sale (actually, the first open house is while I'm gone in Victoria for GottaCon), and the whole process has been absolutely exhausting.  Between renos, cleaning, packing, staging, and negotiating details, I haven't found any time to paint or blog much.  But before I head to bed, I'd first like to thank Lee for offering to help out this year, and to thank Paul Puhallo, who runs the whole miniature gaming component for GottaCon.  It's a huge job, and without his help, there would be no miniature painting component either.

I'd also like to mention that I've been corresponding back and forth with Loquacious over at House of Paincakes, and have been invited to contribute every so often to their fantastic blog.  They've got some talented writers over there, with an even quirkier and twisted sense of humour than I do.  I invite you guys to check out HoP often, and see for yourself.

Goodnight, and I hope to see you at GottaCon!

Goodbye 2014, Hello 2015

Happy New Year!

I've got a few posts that I am working on at the moment, and they are slowly coming together bit by bit. The other day, a friend of mine was asking when I would finish off the GottaCon 2014 miniature painting coverage, which was a fair question, considering that GottaCon 2015 is coming up VERY shortly.

The fact is, Sable and Spray posts, no matter the topic, take an eon to write.  It's entirely my fault though... I majored in English Literature and Creative Writing back in University, and can't help but agonize over every word, sentence, and paragraph.  When you used to crank out a minimum of 3 to 6 essays a week, and then get them handed back to you the following week with red pen "suggestions" and criticisms all over it, it tends to make you very paranoid about trying to get your writing "just right", in a futile attempt to have your next essay defaced just a little less by an angry professor.

On top of that, I also used to write for the University school newspaper.  Yeah, I know... I was a glutton for punishment.  I originally did it for the loftiest of intentions, which was to get some work experience in a setting similar to what I was hoping to eventually work in, but in the end I just did it for the free CD's, and free movie and concert tickets (FYI, being an "Arts and Entertainment Journalist" has WAY better perks than being a news reporter).

That being said, 20 years later, I find that I actually ENJOY writing.  It's even better when I get to write about things I really enjoy talking about.  The only problem is that the rest of my life is so hectic that I rarely get a quiet moment to sit and paint, let alone WRITE about painting.

Even so, I do get a fair bit more writing done than what you readers see in Sable and Spray.  Most of it I consider unpublishable, simply because some part of me still fears the red pen.  Therefore I only publish the stuff that I've tweaked over and over again, self-edited at least half a dozen times until it's like a polished ball of words.  Other articles are literary dead ends... I start writing about some topic, and then a few hours or days into it, I realize that what I had produced was the typed equivalent of a perm on a dead poodle.  In other words, lots of pretty words that formed an otherwise incoherent mess.

My most productive period of writing for this blog was while my son was in his last year of pre-school.  I was fortunate enough to be able to take a year off from my government job (unpaid leave, mind you, but my wife and I thought it was good to take advantage of the opportunity to spend some serious quality time with him).  Whenever I dropped him off, I walked over to the neighboring public library, and just wrote.  A few hours later, I picked him up, and late at night, I would have another hour or so to write or paint at home.  It was really great... it mellowed me out, and was an extremely satisfying and productive year.

Outside of that time, I basically have the same "golden hour" that all parents of young children do.  After you get off work, you go pick up your kid from after-school care, then do all the things you need to do as a family, up until the moment you put your kid to bed.  Then you get about an hour to decompress, watch TV, play video games, read a book, paint, write, or do whatever you like.  But you only get about an hour or so before you have to get yourself to bed, because you have to get up early to do the whole routine over again.

This is what happens when I try and paint BEFORE my son goes to bed.

If I'm lucky, I crank out a few paragraphs, find a pic or meme to insert into my current work in progress, and maybe read a magazine or watch a "Survivorman" episode on my PVR before passing out.

Well... he DOES have a better survival rate than Sean Bean, that's for sure.

BTW, I LOVE survivalist books and shows.  Dunno why... I was definately bred as a full-on city boy, but with the beautiful wilds of western Canada just a beyond the urban sprawl of Vancouver, it's easy for the boyhood fantasy part of my brain to conjure images of me roughing it in the back country (the reality is far less fun than the fantasy though... way too many mosquitoes in real life).

Anyway, back to painting and blogging.

2014 was an eventful year in terms of both.  The traffic for Sable and Spray continues to grow slowly and steadily, despite the slowdown in frequency of published blog posts.  In particular, the GottaCon coverage got quite a few hits, which is nice because a number of people who read them live nowhere near Victoria (I believe people found much of the advice and examples posted in those posts to be very relevant to improving their own painting).

In addition, one post got quite a favourable response: the post where I used a quote from Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters / Nirvana to illustrate the fact that it's okay to turn out the occasional disappointing piece in order to get better at anything.  You have to push the boundaries of what you're comfortable with, and really scare yourself with the shaky first steps into uncharted territory, otherwise you will never improve as an artist.

Of course, sometimes unexpected challenges and revelations come from accidentally bumping into unanticipated problems, such as my painting competition base that rejected having paint stick to it.  Turns out that I wasn't the only one this has happened to, and my trick of adding white glue and liquid dish soap to the mix was something people were happy to learn about.

And my latest series of trying to pin down what I consider the top ten most influential works of art within our genre has also gotten some positive feedback.  I simply love history, and our hobby has a rich one.  Even though miniature painting as we know it (from gaming roots, that is) is still relatively young, it has it's equivalents to Michelangelo's "David", or Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa".  I even got some nice responses from the guys at the Coolminiornot forums, and even one of my idols in mini-painting, Mathieu Fontaine messaged me to give his two cents (an honour, considering how many people he's influenced, and the important part he's played in miniature painting history).

As for my own growth in the art form, even though I didn't produce a ton of finished models this year, I can happily say that every single one I did taught me something about painting, and pushed my skills in new directions (or solidified / strengthened my grasp of those techniques and tools).

The highlight has got to be the course with the wonderful Meg Maples (formerly of Privateer Press and Reaper, but now a superlative freelance artist and instructor).  We Vancouverites were incredibly fortunate to have her come to our town to teach a weekend course, and thanks to her, I finally got a handle on two-brush blending.  My skills in that technique still need a lot of work, but at least my feet are pointed in the right direction now.

I wish my university experience was half as fun as being in a Masterclass miniature painting course.

GottaCon 2014 was a blast as well.  I got to do a little miniature painting instruction myself, by running an open table and miniature painting workshop.  I also got to see for myself just how far the miniature painting talent level of Western Canada has come in the last few years, and it's looking really promising.

Speaking of local talent, one of the best painters I know, Arthur Nicholson, and I got together and created a Facebook group specifically for Vancouver painters (which now includes a few from Victoria and other surrounding cities / towns).  Through the group, members have been able to share their own pics for feedback, inform each other of local painting events / sales / competitions / get-togethers, and ask one another for advice on finding certain painting supplies / tools locally.  It's a great network of local talent, local emerging talent, and die-hard hobbyists.  In the short amount of time it's been in existence, it's grown to almost a hundred members, who have uploaded over 300 pics, and actually helped bring Meg Maples to Vancouver to put on a class!

One real regret I have this year was that I had to miss the IPMS Vancouver Fall Show.  I discovered the event in 2013, came away with some incredible pics and inspiration, and also managed to pick up a number of wins in various categories.  I intended to return in 2014 with some new entries, and my camera warmed up and ready to go, but the scheduling clashed with my family Thanksgiving camping trip (Canadian Thanksgiving is a month before the US one... we Canucks are quicker to say "thank you" than our neighbours to the south).  ;)

One event that I did manage to attend was the Immortal Brush painting competition, held at Strategies Games every year.  I have NEVER attended a hobby shop painting competition as strong as Darren's, and he really works hard to make it a memorable and rewarding one each year.  As always, it was attended by some of the most insane talent in our corner of the world, and there were some great entries.  It's also a fantastic entry point for people entering the competitive scene as well, as there was an entire table of random door prizes given out to people just for entering!  As for judging, Immortal Brush's is consistently good, as Darren often invites leading and interesting talent to determine the winners.  In the past, he's had video game art directors, leading fantasy and sci-fi commission and contract artists, professional miniature painters and sculptors, and local game designers do the judging.  The weird variety of backgrounds of these judges actually formed my wide approach to miniature painting competition pieces, as evidenced by my blog article about the "Shotgun Approach".

I also got hooked into playing the "X-Wing" miniatures game.  For anyone who is not familiar with it, it's a great ship battles game with pre-painted models.  While the pre-paints are fantastic (possibly the best I've seen), I have seen some great re-paints online, and actually did repaint some X-Wings and Tie Fighters for the Immortal Brush competition.  I'm now building up an Imperial fleet, and looking forward to fielding some more repaints on the gaming table.

I should probably start finishing up this particular blog post, and start with some random pics of projects I've worked on in 2014.

As for 2015?  Well, GottaCon is being held in Victoria again in February, and I plan on being there (judging the painting competition, and running the open painting workshop again).

My local Games Workshop store usually runs a spring and fall painting competition, which I've only ever managed to attend once or twice.  Hopefully I can make it this year and get a few entries in.

I've got to keep working on my two brush blending, and my airbrush skills.  Both are proving to be most challenging, and I mess up more often than I succeed.  Still, I get better each and every time I try.

I'd also like to review my notes from Mathieu Fontaine's course, and develop my weathering skills a bit more.  Use of oils and pigments in particular still scare the crap out of me, but they did manage to elevate my Space Hulk diorama to a whole new level back in 2012.  I've just got to keep working with these, and referring back to my original notes to refresh my memory, until I get more comfortable and confident with them.

I also want to work on creating more memorable bases.  I consider them an integral part of the artist's canvas, and while you do not want them to overshadow your central piece, if you do the absolute minimum with them, I consider it a wasted opportunity to show off a little bit.

Immortal Brush will loom over my head until next fall, and for two years running, Matthew Beavis has won the diorama category, and the People's Choice award (both of which I had won the year before that).  I hope to give him some more competition this year with a dedicated competition entry.  That'll be quite the challenge, as I can't think of another painter who works nearly as hard to improve himself and up his game year after year.

I also want to get more into X-Wing.  I picked up a shuttle, tie advanced, tie bomber, and a Firespray recently, and can't wait to see how good they can look with a quality repaint.

I may be moving sometime this year too, which is likely to put a big damper on my painting and blogging though.  My painting for sure, as many of my supplies will likely be put into storage when we list our current place for sale.  With the market in Vancouver being so competitive, we need to display our place as if it was a showcase condo in a trendy new development.  That means only having the bare essentials in our place, and making it look like something out of a design magazine.  Gamers might like seeing display cases of miniatures, bookcases of art and gaming books, and a table full of modelling supplies, but it would likely confuse most potential buyers, and make the place look tiny and cramped.  On the plus side, it'll be fun setting up a new workspace in whatever place we move into.  Maybe I won't have to paint in a tiny room with the cat's litter box just behind my desk any more!

I would love to attend another painting class or two, but don't know of any coming up around here (other than the one I'm running at GottaCon).  Failing that, I'm thinking of trying to organize a regular communal painting night somewhere.  Imagine being able to get a room full of great local painters, all working on various pieces, and freely sharing tips and feedback.  That's a fantastic way for everyone to get much better at painting, and get to know one another better.

And I'm looking forward to my new Figone book by Jeremie Bonamont being finished and delivered to me sometime in 2015.  I really enjoyed my Massive Voodoo Indiegogo books from 2013 (2014?), and hope that Jeremie's will prove equally inspiring and insightful.

Perhaps this year I'll be able to make the IPMS Fall Show, but as my in-laws are already making plans for the same weekend, perhaps not.  I'm still convinced that seeking out different art forms in order to cross-pollinate tools and techniques and concepts into our own style is a really good way of developing into a distinctive and interesting artist.

Anyway guys, thanks for following Sable and Spray.  I really do appreciate it.  Please keep checking back now and then... I hope to make it worth your time!

Game Changers: OSL and Victoria Lamb's "Rescue of Sister Joan"

Welcome back for the 2nd entry in my list of Game Changers: The Top Ten Miniature Paintjobs That Most Inspired / Influenced the Art / Hobby Forever.

OSL (for "Object Source Lighting", in case you were wondering) feels like it's been around forever in miniature painting, but in reality it hasn't.  And it's origins in miniature painting isn't something that organically grew over time, like some slow evolutionary step akin to fish growing legs and starting to walk around on earth.  Nope... OSL hit the scene like an enormous wrecking ball, and the lady at the controls was an Australian named Victoria Lamb.

First of all, what is OSL?  WAMP (one of the premier mini painting forums) has an excellent on wiki mini painting terms, and they define OSL as:

"Object-source lighting or OSL is a painting technique where the light source is a fixed point (or points) near or on the miniature. The usual light source in OSL is an object on the miniature that one would expect to be casting light, which gives the technique its name. In contrast, miniatures are often portrayed with a light source which is far away, such as a sun directly overhead in the case of zenithal lighting.

It is common to use object-source lighting when the viewer would expect part of the miniature to cast light on other parts, such as when there is a torch or campfire present, or a powerful spell effect. Object source lighting can be used alone, when the object(s) casting light are the only sources of light present, or can be combined with other light sources like zenithal lighting. It is also common for the object source lighting to represent an object casting colored light, such as a torch casting a warm glow, or an arcane spell effect casting blue or green light.

To paint OSL, the goal is to simulate the effect of a light source with paint. Objects closer to the light source should be lit more brightly than objects far from the light source, and only objects with an unobstructed line to the light source should be lit, so shadows will be cast directly away from the light source.

A classic example of object-source lighting is Victoria Lamb's diorama, The Rescue of Sister Joan."

And no, I did not add that last line.  Evidently someone else agrees with me that The Rescue of Sister Joan is possibly the most well-known example of OSL.

In any case, before I post a pic of this game changer, I should set the scene for you.  The year was 2001, and Games Workshop was perhaps at the peak of their dominance over the miniature gaming world.  Their convention, Games Day, was being held in 7 different countries at the time, and their miniature painting competition, the Golden Demons, was THE painting competition to win.  In the same way that competitors at the Olympics can forever call themselves "Olympians" afterwards, someone that competed at the Golden Demons and won one of the iconic statuettes could thereafter call themselves a "Golden Demon Winning Artist".  It was the Oscars of miniature painting (and might very well be again, but that's a whole different blog article to come).

Australia had been hosting their Games Day / Golden Demons for only 3 years prior, and from what we could tell from pics published in White Dwarf and on the Net, there was a strong group of painters down under, but it had a long way yet to go before it was considered on par with the UK, the US, or France (Canada had it's own GD as well, and while our pool of painters was still working hard to gain international recognition, the fact that many top US painters came up to Toronto to compete gave people the illusion that our pool was just as strong as anywhere else).  Now, before anyone thinks that I'm bashing on the Aussies, I'm not.  They had some crazy talent (Leigh Carpenter comes to mind, and this was before Sebastian Archer exploded onto the scene), but miniature gaming was newer there than someplace like the UK, and it had the same problem that Canada did when trying to showcase the BEST of the country... geography.  It cost me almost a month's wages (at what meager amount I was earning back then) to fly to Toronto from Vancouver (driving it would have taken me close to half a month to get there and back), including hotel stays and other expenses.  That meant that really only half the country could reasonably expect to make the trip to compete, and I expect it was much the same issue in Australia.

But I digress.  Pics of the Golden Demon winners were almost always featured in White Dwarf magazine, and were all over the Internet within hours of the event itself.  It was a huge deal, but I don't think people had the same sense of anticipation to see the latest winners of Australia more than they would of the UK or France.  There were some really impressive works that were winning down there, technically very proficient perhaps, but rarely anything that would make a person go, "Oh Snap!"

But then this came along:

 

Yeah, my jaw dropped when I first saw pics of this entry.

"The Rescue of Sister Joan", by Victoria Lamb, won the highest award of the day, the Slayer Sword.  More than a Golden Demon (with a bronze, silver, and gold awarded in each catagory), the Slayer Sword is awarded to the best entry of the whole competition, much like a "Best of Show" award.

First impression?  It's an amazing diorama.  There is a clear story going on here, one with plenty of drama and tension.  With the help of a little bit of conversion work, every model is dynamically (yet naturally) posed.  There is no dead space as well... it's a tightly composed set piece (helped, no doubt, by Victoria's background in production set and costume design for theatre).  

The painting itself is technically very well executed (with only one "shortcut" that I will explain later).  The style is exactly what we expected to see in Golden Demon entries of that time period... clean, uncluttered, bright, and vibrant.  A bit more use of grey than what we were accustomed to seeing in your typical 'Eavy Metal paintjob, but that was a deliberate choice that suited the mood and purpose of this piece very well.

If you don't recognize the miniatures, they come from a GW game called, "Mordheim".  Set in the Warhammer Fantasy universe, each player picked one of the various factions, then created a gang to game with.  The story behind the game was that there was a city recently ruined by a cataclysmic meteor impact, and now it was crawling with gangs of looters, monsters, and puritanical nutjobs.  The nuns in this diorama were from the "Sisters of Sigmar" faction, and their opponents here were from the "Witch Hunters".  Ms. Lamb's diorama perfectly captures what would happen if the Witch Hunters were attempting to live up to their title.

The Sisters arrive in the nick of time, in order to save their compatriot from the fire of puritanical righteousness.  They have dispatched a number of the deluded fanatics, only to be held at sword's length by the leader of the warband, who makes his last stand, ready to thrust his burning brand deep into the heart of the stacked and pitch-soaked kindling.

Not to be overlooked, the background is also simply wondrous to look at, and could be considered a character in it's own right.  The stone walls depict one of the many ruined buildings in the city of Mordheim, and the damaged outer wall lets the viewer see the pale moon partially obscured by a cloudy night sky.  Seriously... every horror movie we've ever seen has conditioned us to get in the mood for some drama.

The stepped floor is also planned out to perfection.  The different levels allow for the models to be positioned at different heights, giving us a clear view of each.  They are angled diagonally across the floor, instead of at right angles to the edges of the diorama (a classic tip from Shepard Paine's "How to Build Dioramas"... the original Bible of diorama building) in order to engage and interest the viewer's eye better.  They also draw the eye up toward the main focal point, which is the Witch Hunter's torch, and the subjects it illuminates.

Which brings us to the main reason why this work of art is an easy pick for my Top Ten Game Changers list.  The glowing Object Source Lighting effect in this diorama.

Now, I don't know if this was the first time that OSL was used in miniature painting.  Considering how long OSL has been around in 2D canvas art, I rather doubt that no one else thought to apply it to miniature art before 2001.  However, this is definitely the first time I laid eyes on it, and likely I'm not the only one.  

Before OSL, mini-painters used to paint highlights and apply shading in order to simulate an even tone of light across entire models.  Everything was painted as if the subject was a magazine fashion model standing in a photo studio, and there were photographer's assistants standing all around with big round photo light reflector discs.  Even zenithal highlighting wasn't all that common a technique to see applied to a miniature.

Is this an example of an evenly lit model, or a weak excuse to post another pic of Kate Beckinsale?

If you think about it, it makes quite a bit of sense.  Miniature painting as an art form in it's own right wasn't as big as it is now.  At the time, almost all miniatures were painted for gaming purposes, or painted as if they were going to be used for gaming.  If that's the case, then the model was going to be viewed from any angle.  Having a forced perspective wasn't going to be the case 99% of the time, so the model had to look good from all directions.

And we also followed what we saw in the gaming magazines very closely... most notably White Dwarf magazine.  Games Workshop's own in-house studio of painters was called the 'Eavy Metal team, and their sole purpose was to make their miniatures look as good as possible for marketing purposes and to drive sales of the miniatures first and foremost.  If evenly lit models sold Louis Vuitton and Gucci clothes really well, then the same could be said about Games Workshop's own Citadel brand of models too.

This is the standard of painting we all strove for, back in the day. They did look consistently good from all angles though.

But OSL is different.  Object Source Lighting is rethinking your way of highlighting and shading to imply that the model is being lit from a particular object ON the model itself, or just off to one side of the model.  It may leave the opposing side of the model in shadow.  It also may mean that the surfaces directly facing the light source are cast in a harsh reflection.  There will be extremely strong contrasts between anything facing towards the light versus facing away.

OSL isn't something you just apply like a tool or different medium.  OSL starts in the brain of the painter, and requires a carefully considered approach.  It's not just "whatever is closest to the light source is brighter, and it just gets dimmer the further away from the light source".  Yes, that's partially true, but anything facing away from the source will be in the shade no matter how close or far away, in direct relief from the light (like the underside of a sun umbrella).  That's why I shudder when people seem to think that all they need to do to get a good OSL effect is hit the area with an quick shot from an airbrush.  Yeah, that might work, but only if the cone of paint is traveling in exactly the same direction as the light would be from the light source.  Personally, my preferred tool for OSL is a regular ol' sable brush.  More control, more thought, no easy way out.

Ohmygerd, OSL!! Seriously, the Hellbrute's face looks like there's a blue spotlight on it, instead of being lit from within.

Yoda shows us how it's done.  Size matters not.

I won't turn this blog article into a "how-to" for OSL (lots of great articles and vids on the Net for that already), but it's good to have a basic understanding of the concept and application so that people can imagine how different this was for us back in 2001.  Even so, this particular piece is not necessarily the BEST application of OSL ever presented in miniature art form, but it was a huge first step towards that.

Why would I say that this wasn't the best application of OSL?  Well, perhaps I should say that it wasn't the most involved use of OSL... it was a half step.  Victoria explains it best on her own website:

"The rescue of Sister Joan was my first attempt at painting lit models. The scenery and figures were painted separately. I did not seriously attempt to paint reflected torchlight on the figures themselves. I simply shaded and highlighted them as normal while keeping a rough idea of where the light was coming from. I made sure that the surfaces closest to the light source were painted lighter and those in shadow were darker and heavily shaded. I did not add any orange "light" to the figures themselves."

If you think about it, the light coming from the torch is a warm reddish / orange light.  If the torch is the only light in the room (other than the weak moonlight from above), then all the surfaces catching the light should be "tinted" orange.  Instead, while she did highlight towards the torch, it didn't influence her use of colour, and the models are lit as if from a clean white light.

However, she did do this right when it comes to the stone wall behind the torch.

"The dramatic lighting in this scene was mostly achieved with the stone scenery. I started by painting it as normal, just dry brushing with progressively lighter greys to create a normal stone effect. I then temporarily placed the witch hunter figure in position and stuck a pin in the stonework directly behind the flame of the torch.

After removing the figure the pin served as a marker for the light source. Working outwards from the pin I dry brushed a large circular area of stone with a dark red, and the same in a large pool around the position of the witch hunter's feet. Orange was gradually added to the red and the process repeated in smaller circles finishing up with the brightest orange (but not as bright as the torch itself) directly behind the torch in the position marked by the pin."

So Victoria simplified the OSL process by quite a big margin, but it still worked beautifully.  By neatly side-stepping the tricky colour calculations involved in orange-tinting the figures, she can maintain the true colouration of the skin, armour, weapons, and clothing.  This allows for a more diverse range of colours to be used in the diorama as a whole.  While not as "realistic", some artistic license should always be allowed for, as this IS high-fantasy art, after all.

On simpler subject matter, however (nothing as big as this complex diorama), colour shifting can be very beautiful and impressive:

A great example of colour shifted OSL by Natalya Melnik

On a later project, Victoria once again "shortcuts" her OSL and earns a Golden Demon award with this duel:

"Fiery Angel" 2003 Bronze Demon winner

Again, the shortcut here being that all the surfaces that the OSL treatment is applied to were black and white to begin with, making it easier to bring the orange fiery tones in.  Again, this makes little difference on the overall visual impact... sometimes simplicity is best.

And the impact of "The Rescue of Sister Joan" was equally huge.  Her Slayer Sword win of 2001 was the first time a woman had ever won the most prestigious award in miniature painting (in gaming scale at least... I don't follow the historical / monster / vinyl kit / scale modeller / etc. scene as closely, so I can't comment there).  Painters like Jennifer Haley and Natalya Melnik won theirs shortly afterwards (both won a pair in the States, at Baltimore and Chicago Games Days), but Victoria was the first.  Women may represent a significant statistical minority in gaming, but the few female painters in our art form definately take home a sizable share of trophies and accolades.  People like her were an inspiration to female painters around the world.

As far as OSL was concerned, it was as if an infectious idea took hold of painters everywhere.  Suddenly everyone was giving it a try.

From the slightly subtle:

David Rodriguez's Gandalf. White light from tip of staff, against the red light coming from the lava.

An amazing mecha by "Bohun"

To the over-the-top obvious:

"Shawn R.L." did up this model titled, "FIRE!!!!!"

"Light My Fire" by "Thunderhawker"

Even GW's own 'Eavy Metal team got into it, as evidenced by this sampling of OSL paintjobs (including a nod to Victoria Lamb as well):

And they weren't the only company studio painters who used it to promote their own goods:

OSL essentially added a whole new dimension to miniature painting.  Not every miniature and paintjob benefited from it, but depending on the subject matter, and the mood you were trying to achieve, it did come in handy once in awhile.  And it was definitely one of those things you could do to help take a paintjob up a notch if you really wanted to show off your painting skills.  However, it had to be appropriate to the piece, and it had to be well done, otherwise it would detract from the quality of the model.

Another great example of Victoria Lamb OSL would be this Gen Con Indy winning diorama from 2004:

Slightly different in tone than her previous OSL dioramas, as the green glow of the auspex really gives it a sense of cold dread, rather than hot violent action.  And while she does use predominantly black areas to showcase her OSL (and simplify the process), she does have some colour shifted OSL on the face, hair, and fingers of the hunted and hounded Cadian soldier.  It's definately a step up from "The Rescue" in terms of technical mastery, but it's more intimate, and less like a theatrical set in scope and range of colour.  The main thing to remember here is that her use of OSL strengthens and enhances the story, rather than distracts from it.

And so miniature painting as we know it was changed in a very tangible way by this one work of art.  "The Rescue of Sister Joan" gave us Object Source Lighting, and now every painter trying to make a name for himself / herself would need to attempt it at least once.  The work imprinted itself on our collective consciousness, and made many of us push ourselves to master a new trick, and that's never a bad thing for the art form as a whole.

Without a doubt, this was a Game Changer, and an easy pick for my top ten list.

Any guesses as to my next pick??

Game Changers: My Top Ten Miniature Paintjobs That Most Inspired / Influenced Our Hobby / Art

Many of the most impressive and awe-inspiring paintjobs out there are the ones that show the most refinement... the artist takes everything that is currently known about miniature painting, and pushes the technical envelope, beyond the limits of what was possible before.  Those paintjobs represent countless hours of hard work, pain, and persistence.  The end product is something that can win competitions, drop jaws, and make other painters green with envy.

Then, there are paintjobs that aren't just more refined versions of what knowledge and techniques are already out there.  There are those painters who are more like explorers... venturing out into the unknown (at least, unknown in our hobby), and through experimentation and perseverance, bring something new into our art form.  These are the game-changers... the projects that represent some sort of revolution in painting.

There are countless awe-inspiring and inspirational miniature painting projects out there.  What I've tried to do is distill them down to what I consider the top ten most innovative (at the time) and influential paintjobs in the short history of our hobby (at least as far back as I can recall, which is the late late '80s, and beginning of the '90s).  No doubt, many people will disagree with my choices... "Top Ten" lists are rarely without controversy.  In fact, I asked for some help on the Coolminiornot forums in creating this list, and the discussion there was as heated as it gets:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?53114-Game-Changers-the-miniature-paintjobs-that-most-influenced-the-hobby-art

One of the big reasons for starting that thread was to do my best to take my personal biases out of the equation.  In that regard, I think this top ten list is a big failure.  As Avelorn said, "To make an objective list is impossible; keep that in mind when discussing."  Many works up for consideration got discussed, and discarded on the basis that they were inspirational, but perhaps not influential.  And it wasn't just as matter of innovation... the project needed to also have gotten enough exposure, reached enough artists, to have made a decided impact on the art form as a whole.  Just because something influenced me personally, and inspired me to approach my painting differently, didn't mean it was the one piece that defined or signified an overall change in the art form.

I'd also like to mention that any list that's limited to ten selections is always going to be a grossly incomplete list.  You simply cannot cover every revolution in miniature painting with only ten picks.  Just as Maxim magazine cannot list every beautiful woman in their "Top 50" list of hottest women, there was no way I could put together a top ten list without leaving out some incredibly influential and innovative works.  I made some judgement calls as to which ones I thought best fit the "Game-Changer" title.  Not to worry, I have every intention of doing more "Top Ten" lists in the future... perhaps your favourite works will be included in one of those.

Oh, and just for the record, so long as Kate Beckinsale is included in any Top 50 hottest list, I'm okay with it.  ;)

Let me be totally open and transparent about how I'm going about this: First off, this is still kind of a work in progress.  Instead of listing all ten in one super long blog post, I'll break it up into several postings.  This gives each work it's own breathing space... this way I can do up a fairly extensive writeup on each, which is what a hugely influential work deserves.

Second of all, I plan on interjecting the occasional, "honourable mentions".  These are amazing works in their own right, and ones that almost made it onto my list.  But even though they were stellar works of art, perhaps they didn't get the exposure required to reach enough artists, or for some reason they didn't inspire enough people to try taking their own painting in a new direction.  These are also works that some others will have argued for inclusion in this list, but I disagreed with.  Like I said, it'll be hard to keep my own personal biases out of this, but I think that my influences are very similar to most painters that have been around for some time.

Lastly, I'm going to admit right now that I only have 7 works nailed down with certainty.  I still have yet to make up my mind about which ones will finish off my top ten, but hopefully I can get some suggestions from you guys.  My criteria for inclusion in the top ten is going to be very stringent... a work has to be VERY influential on the hobby as a whole.  It can't just be a gorgeous work of art (in which case, this would be a very easy list to complete), but something that many painters can point to as a turning point influence in their own painting.  And while I've been able to point to many influential painters, often it's hard to nail down just one work of theirs that has redefined miniature painting as a whole.

Regardless, I've decided to go ahead and get started writing this series of blog posts, and figure out the final 3 somewhere along the way.  So... in no particular order for now (maybe I'll order them once I've finished all ten), here's the first of my top ten picks for Game Changers: The Miniature Paintjobs That Most Inspired / Influenced our Art Form:

Unfortunately, this was the best pic I could find.  Barely captures the wonder of this work.

A better shot of the banner, and the minotaur's back-side.  That banner is easily as impressive as any recent award-winning work, and it was done back in the '80s!

Of all the miniature painters, there are very few (if any) people that have more of an influence on our art form than John Blanche.  Seriously... if there was a Godfather of miniature painting, we'd all be kissing Don Blanche's pinky ring.  He was there at pretty much the very formative stages of our hobby, and if you look at where mini-painting was at before John Blanche became the art director of Games Workshop in 1986 (thanks Wikipedia!), it was a very different beast entirely.

If you want a good read concerning his history as an artist, and his philosophy and approach to art, one excellent article is this interview:
https://3c-lxa.mail.com/mail/client/dereferrer?redirectUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.leftlion.co.uk%2Farticles.cfm%2Ftitle%2Fjohn-blanche%2Fid%2F6266

Perhaps Mr. Blanche is better known for his 2D art than his 3D stuff.  Many of his works are instantly recognizable to anyone who's ever played a Games Workshop game, and there are many blogs and websites that have covered his work.  Two of my favourites are:

http://gothicpunk.tumblr.com/
http://convertorum.blogspot.ca/p/blanche-gallery.html

Of course, my two favourite 2D works of art by "The Man" are:



Warhammer 40,000 2nd edition box cover (1993)



Amazonia Gothique (cover of White Dwarf #79)

Which is very odd, because of all his works, they are possibly the least like his miniature painting style.

Oh, and as a Sisters of Battle player, I love this painting as well.  I even have a shirt with this work on the front.  This one is a bit more indicative of his pre-Raphaelite leanings, and his use of less saturated sepia tones and hyper detailed backgrounds.

You either love or hate the Blanche style of miniature painting (well, perhaps "hate" is too strong a word... maybe "confused by" is a better way of putting it).  It's really raw and unrefined.  Messy and chaotic.  Elemental.  Compared to other contemporary painters, it appears sloppy even.  But to many, it's simply brilliant.

There's an energy to his work that's hard to see in cleaner paintjobs.  It's precisely BECAUSE it is crazy and untamed, that he has so many "Blanche-ites".  Many works that I saw in early White Dwarf issues were very much in his style (late '80s, primarily), and there is a resurgence in Blanche-style painting and converting in the Inq28 (Inquisitor 28mm) mini-painting and gaming community.

Blanche-ites are miniature painting's counter-culture.  They have rejected the clean 'Eavy Metal style that is mainstream miniature painting by going in the exact opposite direction.  And it's a style that is unlikely to ever overtake the mainstream, as it's really unsuitable for miniature marketing purposes (you need a fairly "clean" and uncluttered paint scheme, with dramatic contrasts in highlights and shading to best showcase the sculpt itself).  Still... models painted in this manner are stylish in the extreme, and fun to look at.

For some excellent examples of "Blanche-style" (try Googling it. Not to worry, it won't turn up pages from the Kama-Sutra), check out:

The Spiky Rat Pack blog
The Legion of Plastic blog
The Officio Convertorum blog

Steve Buddle (multiple Golden Demon winner, sculptor, and associate of J.B.'s) discusses this style in length on his blog :  http://spyglassasylum.blogspot.ca/2011_11_01_archive.html
(Be sure to check out the comments. John posts a few as "J.B." to explain his approach to painting).

Jakob Rune Nielson (another one of the all-time "Greats" in miniature painting) is also heavily influenced by John Blanche.  This can be seen especially in his earlier works, but even now his stuff has an impression of dirt and dust and unpolished raw-ness.  His two websites / blogs are:
http://www.jrn-works.dk/
http://miniatextures.blogspot.ca/

So we've established that John Blanche is hugely influential as an artist, and has made a huge impact over the course of his entire career.  But how did this one Minotaur in particular make an impact on miniature painting as a whole, and why would I rate it as one of the most influential paintjobs of all time?

First of all, it won the "Master Painter" award at Games Day 1987.  I'm not sure of the context of the "Master Painter" award... but I'm guessing that since Ivan Bartlett won the Slayer Sword that year, the "Master Painter" award would have been more like today's "Open Catagory" prize (a kind of "anything goes, and anyone but the judges can enter" catagory).  If you look at the time period, miniature painting as we know it was in its infancy.  There wasn't really established styles and techniques at the time.  Heck, people didn't even know what brushes and paints were best to use!

For a model painted in this hectic, cluttered, chaotic style to win a major painting award was huge.  It also helped establish John Blanche as a guiding force in miniature painting.

If you look at this model, the first thing you see is the amazing freehand painted Mona Lisa on the banner.  It pretty much grabs your eyes and won't let go.  There are many fantastic freehand painters on the scene nowadays (Karol Rudyk is the first name that pops to mind, but there are so so many others), but this rendition of Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece is still as good as it gets.  Consider that John picked one of THE most recognizable works of art ever.  When copying such a iconic image, there is no forgiveness for the slightest error... the viewer's eyes would pick up on any distortions or missed details right away.



John seems to really like the Mona Lisa, as also evidenced by this 2D work of his.

Jeff Vader's twisted take on the same theme.
http://convertorum.blogspot.ca/2013/05/carte-blanche.html

The ogre face sun shield atop the banner was a very common theme at the time... or did it become a common theme only AFTER John painted this miniature?  I didn't follow the UK painting scene very closely back then (being a 12 or 13 year old kid in western Canada would have made that difficult, and we had nothing even close to today's Internet), so I can only conjecture based off of my collection of vintage White Dwarf magazines.  It seemed like every miniature carrying a shield has some sort of "evil sun"... which perhaps led to the image becoming the mascot and theme for an entire clan of Warhammer 40K orks.  In any case, it's undeniable that John Blanche had a huge role in popularizing the use of freehand wavy sunbeams and saber-toothed mascots.

Unfortunately, this is what comes up when you enter "Painted ogre face" into Google.  Proof that the Internet is NOT infallible.

Ah, much better.  THIS is the way we used to paint shields way back in the day!!

Every square millimeter of the model is crammed with detail, which is a fashion that got lost sometime in the nineties, and didn't really come back in vogue until this decade.  Of course, there were many examples of exceptions, but bases in particular were very minimalist in general for a number of years (Eavy Metal set the trend for this, and it's my understanding that the corporate execs at GW had given them a set of rules governing how they could paint at the time... hence the bright green grassy bases on the studio Necromunda models).  That being said, I don't think anyone would expect a John Blanche model to be clean and simple... just look at the example of the Warhammer 40K 2nd edition box cover to see how he never seems to stop cramming detail in his art until there isn't a clean spot left.

This means the model is layered in detail... your eye can keep wandering around and finding little stories in every corner.  There are mouths here and there, random eyes, more than one head, pustules, fungus, etc.  And that visual journey around the whole miniature brings me to another characteristic Blanche detail that we all seem to take for granted.

Notice the checker pattern just under the head of the axe.  On this particular model, it's an almost insignificant detail.  However, just like the wavy sunbeam and the evil sun, it's a freehand detail that has insinuated its way into becoming a cornerstone of Warhammer imagery.  When someone thinks "Warhammer / Warhammer 40K", you can't help but think of skulls, checker patterns, and wavy sunbeams.  All three themes are in this one model, which helped push them into the forefront of gamer consciousness.  And it's stuck there to this very day.

Look familiar?

You could practically play Chess on this guy.



Confrontation goblins by Rackham.  A great example of the far reaching influence of John Blanche's utterly pointless but very stylistic use of checker patterns.  When competing miniature company studios are unashamed to borrow style elements from you, you know you've got influence!

I dunno... in the end, maybe this model DIDN'T start all these trends, but it definitely is the one model that I think best exemplified the dawn of this style of painting.  Whereas most paintjobs of this era do not hold up well to the test of time (when compared to the "modern masters"), John's stuff is still very compelling.  It kind of reminds me of something Brian Froud (concept artist for Jim Hensen) would have done for "Labyrinth"... if he was on a very bad LSD trip.

John Blanche's style of painting is not for everyone, and will NEVER be for everyone.  You either love it or hate it.  Blanchites are always going to be the creepy goth punk kid in the corner of the classroom, but that's okay by them.  Even though it'll never be mainstream, we can't help but be influenced by them, and elements of that style will percolate into our unconsciousness.  Just as my generation looked askew at guys with bright coloured mohawks back in the '80s, we can't help but see uncoloured faux-hawks everywhere these days.  Every time someone paints an evil sun on their ork buggy, they are unconsciously channeling John Blanche, and this model.  Every time someone paints a checker pattern on a model whose subject character probably couldn't paint a straight line, they are being influenced by John Blanche, and this model.  And everyone who juxtaposes a finely detailed piece of classic art atop a contrasting piece of a chaotic painting or conversion, it's very possible that they may have been influenced by John Blanche and this model.

John Blanche's Chaos Minotaur from 1987 was the "Typhoid Mary", or "Patient Zero" of the Blanche school of miniature painting.  And that makes it one of the most influential and inspiring pieces of miniature art ever.

...in my opinion.  And that's all this list is... various somewhat-researched, highly nostalgia-based, well-considered but very biased picks of just one guy who has been painting miniatures for a reasonable length of time.  :)


Oh, and just because I did say that no list was complete without Kate Beckinsale:

Hopefully this pic is a nice palate cleanser after seeing the one of the Shrek wedding.  Yikes.