TO THE CORE, 2026, 23.5”x23.5”, acrylic on canvas

a gift for my therapist from my time in a partial hospitalization program from july through october last year

still practings here are some test part I used

Because a lot of people liked the other post about the Glavenus project, I thought I‘d go into detail about how I made the figurine!

After I had found a model that was detailed enough, I threw it through my slicer to get an estimate for the size of the model and the duration of the print. The model was pretty large and had to be printed in parts, taking up over 30 hours of print time.

Next, I assembled the model to prepare it for priming. Priming is a necessary step where a foundational layer of paint is applied that sticks to the model and that you can paint on. I did this twice, once in black, once in white from above, to simulate the position of a light source for shading later.

I had to chose a color palette. My friend really loves the deviant version, Hellblade Glavenus. So I went with dark blue and darker shades of red. Next was the base layer of paint. I generally like this step the least, since you don’t really get very satisfying results at first. Only in the later steps the paint job really comes together.

Next, I started the objectively most fun step: Drybrushing. With drybrushing, you can bring out highlights very well in models with sharp topography, which the Glavenus had a lot of. Especially in big models. It is also a pretty forgiving technique for clumsy people like me. I kept highlighting with the drybrush until I was happy with the result and went on to the detail work. Here I painted teeth, claws, eyes and everything else that needed special attention. Usually I would also do edge highlighting, but the drybrushing largely took care of that.

When that was done, I applied a protective layer of varnish, which also gave the model the glossy look which really made the colors pop. I then glued the Glavenus onto the base (which I had primed, based and drybrushed separately).

- Marbol

I don't mind! The paints I use are Faber-Castell watercolors! I use the concentrated ones from the tube and let them dry on a palette, re-wetting and mixing them as needed.

If you're curious how I got the black to smear on Dream's cape, this is called the "dry brush" technique. This is where you don't let your brush get too soaked with paint, then force it across the paper, creating really beautiful textures.

I also own a professional flatbed scanner that I use to scan my artwork when it's finished. Then, after cutting the image to the right size in Krita, I adjust the colors in GIMP with the Brightness-Contrast scale.

I hope this helps!

Today I’m continuing my Army of the Dead project with the cavalry.

I was quite happy with the final colour scheme on my warriors (see previous posts 😉), but since the cavalry feels more like an elite unit — and the miniatures themselves are cast in metal — I wanted to give them a slightly different character. Keeping the cold, ghostly vibe, I decided to introduce subtle purple tones on the horsecloth. The paint was heavily diluted to a glaze consistency (this was actually my first attempt at working with this technique). Afterwards, I reapplied highlights and a light drybrush, so the violet remains only barely visible — as if the colour had faded over centuries of this cursed existence.

Bases To be honest, I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the bases I made for my foot warriors. They were fine, but nothing particularly interesting. (Also, 25 mm bases are often just too small to add anything meaningful.) With the 40 mm cavalry bases, I finally felt I had enough space to introduce more detail. I went with violet flowers to tie in with the new colour accents, along with a few green grass tufts — and overall, the bases feel much more visually engaging. There’s definitely progress here, and that’s probably the most important thing.

Zagblag had joined the Venombelly Clan!

I experimented with dry brushing some white over the black primer before painting this little dude up and I feel like it really helped, even though I don’t think I did a good job of getting enough paint off my brush before I started.

I bought some minis and I bought some paints. A month later, what have I learned?

These are the basic steps that will ensure an acceptable paint job:

1. Primer. Spray is fine but I found some readily available brush-on primers as well. Color is largely irrelevant because of the next step. If you want to use the primer as your base coat, consider a dark one.

2. Base coat (option to do this twice) using paints (not primer). Dark is good because the shadows in the crevices will look good and won't need extra attention when applying your final color. Make sure this dark color is the darkest of the main body of your color scheme for your mini. Black is also fine, but dark colors are more fun, IMHO. A second base coat is not essential, but it can be helpful if you don't want to do many layers of the final color. You can do different base coat colors for different parts of the mini. For light final colors, you need a white base coat.

3. Start painting the core first. I find it's hardest to paint the core of the mini because the outer bits provide loads of access for later painting decisions. If you smudge the outer bits, trying to reach the inner bits, it's not a disaster because you're not working on the outer bits yet. Use mid-tones of the final color so you can shade and highlight it later. Aim to do this twice so you can dilute to about 50%, making it easier to apply and control the paint. It needs about 30 seconds between layers, so it's not much of a holdup. Just work on another bit instead of actually waiting for 30 seconds.

4. Apply a dark wash over your mid tones, liberally. Do this twice for a more dramatic effect. The second wash can be even darker. It'll get that lived in, awesome look now.

5. Apply dry brushing over your relief ridges (perpendicular strokes). Watch tutorials on this technique to make sure you don't mess up your kinda awesome mini at this point. Use light colors over your mid tones for dry brushing. This will make things pop, and the eye sees more detail.

6. Use a second layer of a lighter color of metallic over your blades and metal armor. For silver, use a dark underlayer for dark metal silver. Silver is just a bitch so whatever makes it pop out is worth doing. Everything else can use a second wash to bring back that lived-in look and pull it all together, but use one that is close to your intended colors, or it will darken more than you intended.

7. Varnish in matte or semi gloss before use, so your hands don't rub of the paints over time.

8. Use and/or display your mini and wow people with your cool paint job!

9. Learn painting techniques as you go. Finish minis and move on even though you can now do it better. More minis is more chances to develop your skill.

Learn to remove smudges quickly. The best technique I've tried is to have a larger brush at the ready during painting. When you've smudged something, drop your paint brush and grab the other one, dip in water and drop the water in abundance on the smudged site. Give it a swivel. Then remove all water with a tissue. You have 5 seconds before it sets, so work fast. It's worked about 90% of the time, so far. I'm just a novice, though, so what do I know?