The various thoughts and experiences of one individual given the gift of the written word. Now more cynical than ever; The science of selling yourself short approaches life from the point of view that almost everything is essentially contestable. Mass dissatisfaction ensues.
So recently I took part in, and completed Inktober 2016, which I posted regularly on my Instagram! I thought I'd post them here too, just in case you missed them, and to talk a bit more in depth about my experience. If you haven't heard of Inktober, you can just check out their website. In short; 'Every October, artists all over the world take on the InkTober drawing challenge by doing one ink drawing a day the entire month. I created InkTober in 2009 as a challenge to improve my inking skills and develop positive drawing habits.' #1 - Fast
This was the first one of the challenge.
It's Sonic, the very real hedgehog.
As you'll come to see (especially if you check out the full album) the effort lefvels and ambition were quite high to start with.
#4 - Hungry
I'm a big fan of the following things; Pokémon Fusions, Kirby/ Smash Bros and D.Va/ Overwatch.
I think Gremlin D.Va is one of the est thing to have happened to the internet, so decided to fuse her with Kirbz.
#7 - Lost
So, I've put this as Rock/ Lost for a few reasons.
When I first sketched the picture for lost, I didn't have the confidence to ink it.
So I posted this picture I did on the same day of Terlard instead.
Now, when I did the actual Rock at a later date I accidentally ruined the 'Lost' picture which infuriated me, especially since I massively rushed the rock picture, and I'm really not proud of it.
So, Terlard will kinda do (especially because I really like it).
I saved the 'lost' picture at a later date, so all was not lost.
#24 - One Dozen
So I really enjoy Pokémon!
I like this as it was my first attempt of applying a whole lot of layers of Pro Markers (Terlard only has a couple)
#30 - Wreck
So this was the original picture for lost, the one I ruined (before I ruined it)
I was quite proud of it.
It is one of the most detailed and accurate drawings of an actual picture I'd done in a while.
Hence my lack of confidence to ink it.
But once I'd ruined it, well, the fear had gone.
So this is what it became after inking... which, given the state it was in, I was fairly chipper with.
And that's it!
I learned a lot doing this challenge.
Drawing a picture every day is quite difficult.
Staying motivated, interested and inspired is a lot harder than it sounds.
I've spent years investing my time in other endevours, and it has sapped my creativity and originality.
After completing this challenge I felt great; while some of the drawing were rushed, and done just because, I really feel like my drawing has improved, especially digitally.
Not only that, but my desire to draw has returned... not at the pace of Inktober, but on a semi-regular basis.
I find myself inspired more often, and some of my ability has returned.
I recommend this challenge to anyone, at anytime.
Anyway. if you want to check out all of the pictures you can see them on this Flickr album - Inktober 2016
Alternatively, follow my Instagram; All the posts are on there, and it is where I generally post my art - Instagram
If you enjoy it, I highly recommend you join my on the 'TechnicalTuesday' show on my Twitch, where I usually do some digital artwork! - Twitch
I have an Inktober post coming in a few days. Inktober is a ink based drawing challenge in October, where you do a picture every day. I posted them all on Instagram while I was doing them, and I'll be posting all the pictures I drew throughout Inktober on here so you can view them at your leisure. I'm happy to say that I managed to 'technically' not miss a day.
The main point of this post is about my YouTube. Up until now my weekly 'Free For All Thursday' Twitch stream videos have been uploaded twice a week (Monday & Friday). I felt that this is a bit of a slow pace of uploads, especially when we're recording 4 to 5 a week while I stream. So from now on I'll be uploading 3 of these videos a week. The new release schedule for these videos will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hopefully reducing the gap between videos will help folks who want to watch them feel less distanced from each episode. I'm also hoping it will allow me some freedom to make different videos, and some YouTube exclusive content too.
Anyway, if you haven't checked out the Pokémon Uranium episodes yet head over to my channel, or just check out the Pokémon Uranium playlist. If you catch up, them join me live of Twitch! That's it for now. Peace! -DH-
Hey there! S'been a little longer than I'd have liked in between posts and stuff (just over a week). But I've finally been made redundant and that kinda was a bit of a speed bump... A subject I'll come back to at another date as it deserves its own post to be honest. Onward to the subject of today's update: Inktober.
I am taking part in Inktober this year. If y'all are unfamiliar with the event go check out the website - Inktober If TL:DR I'll give you the gist here; 'Every October, artists all over the world take on the InkTober drawing challenge by doing one ink drawing a day the entire month. Inktober rules: 1) Make a drawing in ink (you can do a pencil under-drawing if you want). 2) Post it online 3) Hashtag it with #inktober and #inktober2016 4) Repeat Note: you can do it daily, or go the half-marathon route and post every other day, or just do the 5K and post once a week. What ever you decide, just be consistent with it. INKtober is about growing and improving and forming positive habits, so the more you’re consistent the better.' That's pretty much it. If you want to take part just follow the above instructions and prompts on the picture. I'll be posting my drawings exclusively on my Instagram so be sure to check that out (and follow me while you're there!) I have a few more things I want to talk about, so expect updates ot happen soon. Until then Peace!
-DH-
If you're subscribed to me on YouTube you may have seen my latest video (If not, you should totally clink here now!) In this video I drew one of my friend's (and potential future member of The Bross) Dungeons and Dragons characters; Dex the Tiefling Sorcerer as an Avatar. The video is the product of 2 separate streams on my Twitch channel (which you can follow by clicking here!). It took about 7 hours to draw and paint (with a few hiccups along the way!), but I've condensed it down to about 20 mins by upping the speed by 2500 times! Anyway, you should go check it out.
Thanks for reading and watching! Comments and constructive criticism always welcome, either here, on the video itself or on the completed pieces Instagram post If you'd like to know what I'm doing follow me on YouTube, Twitch and all the socials @DarKHaZZl3. Also, I've updated The Underhive Hero with some more hobby project goodness, so go check that out too. Peace! -DH-
Continuing on that Mice and Mystics hype... I've finished the rest of the cockroaches that I didn't get to finish the first time around
They started out scorched brown with a highlight of dark flesh, then washed back down with a dark brown wash. From there it was a cash of progressively highlighting with Dark flesh adding vermin brown with each layer. A Flesh shading was was applied afterwards before being finished off with a final highlight of vomit brown. And that's it Yeah! That's all the bad guys done, and all the good guys done! Woo! I'll post a picture of the complete set (hopefully in action), to round off the post count to 10 for this series. In the end I had a decent time painting them, despite the shoddy plastic the miniature are made from. If you want to add some constructive criticism or have and other feedback/ questions, then feel free to drop me a comment on here, or hit me up on my Twitter. If you'd like to see what I'm working o, as I'm working on it then follow me on Instagram. And finally, if you're wondering what I do in between projects, follow me on Twitch and YouTube, as I'll either be playing games or doing a hobby stream! So, until next time Peace! -DH-
MOAR UPDATE! Because consistent updates are a thing for now. Mainly because I have a boat load of things I want to get finished! So, more Mice and Mystics stuff. This time it Nez and Tilda!
Not overly fond of how Nez's fur turned out, but Tilda turned out a lot better than I expected. That's all of the mice done! I might re do the bases of Lily and Colin to match these guys a bit better... maybe... On to the last 5 cockroaches!! Comments, constructive criticism welcome, as well as general chatter :) Until next time -DH-
MOAR update! If only I'd been this productive my whole life I'd have A) Finished this project when I starte dit, and B) Probabaly gotten a lot further in life. BUT I DIGRESS! There are no work in progress shots for this, just glorious finished models. This first is Maginos the mage.
This is where the comeback started. I just fancied doing him on a whim (I knew leaving them all on my desk would get to me eventually!). The hardest part was trying to get him to match his more white furred artwork, without being too bright. The way I decided to get around this was to just make the rest with a lot of viable fur darker (Nez and Filch to some extent). He'll look light enough by comparison. I really enjoyed doing his wooden staff and the ladybird. The next up is Filch.
Filch was largely done to be honest. I just was really uninspired to do his fur and knife... and that was still true while I was finishing him off. But I really like how the fur turned out; nice and dark, buy with enough flicks of light grey to give it a good texture. I also decided to spruce up the knife. First I added the little poison tip, to give him more of a D&D rouge appearance rather than just a thief... but ti still didn't fit well. It was then I decided on the slightly battered golden hit for the knife and boom! Perfect. 2 more down. 2 left to go; Tilda and Nez (as well as 5 cockroaches, but screw those guys). Nez shouldn't be too hard... just trying to make him stand out as interesting will be the challenge. I'm still not looking forward to Tilda... too much white :| Anyway, that is it for this update! If you like what I do, why not subscribe and check out all of my other projects? I post non-board game related hobby on The Underhive Hero. Recently I've been doing some Salamanders Space Marines. I've been streaming games on Twitch; mainly Heartstone, Rocket league and more recently Chronicle: Runescape Legends. I also put highlight reels up, and other videos I think are worth it on my YouTube Channel. If you want a head sup on what I'm working on then follow my Instagram and Twitter (Both @DarKHaZZl3). Anyway. That's all for now. Until next time! -DH-
I mean, that's what I last posted about, right? Right! So I've been on a bit of a painting roll right now. Not something that happens too often so I'm taking it as far as it will go. I've set myself a few projects to do while I'm in the zone, and one of them was to finish my Dr Mario custom Amiibo I started on post 59. Cutting right to the chase he's about done!
So, because I'd used significantly less masking tape than required to do this guy (read as none at all), I had to repaint everything; the pill, the hair, the skin... all of it. But yeah, all of those bits are painted now, and he just needs his base cleaned up and he's done! 2 Amiibo's in the bank, and more to come for sure! If you'd like to get a sneak peak at what I'm working on, I usually post it on my instagram as and when I'm doing it, so go heck that out!
On occasion I may stream a painting session, so you can go follow me on Twitch for that (and other stuff, mainly Chronicle: Runescape Legends at the moment). If you have any questions about this, or anything else I do (or other comments/ constuctive criticism/ praise) then feel free to leave a comment on this blog/ my instgram/ tweet me (@DarKHaZZl3). This includes questions about commissions. Anyway, that's all for now. More blog activity heading your way soon (I know, quite a lot recently, right??) Peace! -DH-
Nope, not actually award winning, just finished. Check the not so great pictures out!
If you follow me on Instagram you'll know I've actually done a lot more on the Mice and Mystics models. I just haven't got round to posting them. I've also done a fair amount of work on my Lizardmen Bloodbowl/ Age of Sigmar stuff, which you can see over on The Underhive Hero. I'll be getting back into posting a bit more regularly now I'm settling in to my job, and now I've passed my driving test, so watch this space (and my others too)!
So that new job I was talking about in my last post has actually taken up a lot more time than I care to admit, I did some more work on my Mice and Mystics mini's (quite a while back actually), and I thought I'd share some progress with you. I ditched the Mice for a moments and decided to work a bit more on the mobs of enemies. I decided to work on the rats first at this stage it is just initial base colours and the rust effect for the weapons.
I've actually done a lot more since. I'm currently work on the details and parts without fur. There isn't a great deal left to do so hopefully I can post them on here soon. If you'd like to know anything about this project then drop me a comment or a Tweet @DarKHaZZl3 I've also started several other projects, so be sure to check out The Underhive Hero for update son those. Also, The Cardboard Cartographer is up to issue 11, so if you like board games, check that out too.
Sorry for the delay guys, I have been mega busy. I've been working on The Cardboard Cartographer. Recently I posted issue 10 about the Spiel des Jahres winner Colt Express, so go check it out. Also, I have a new job! Firstly, this had kind of messed around with my days off and such. Secondly, it involves painting miniatures, so doing it a lot a home might burn me out a little. I'm taking my time with my personal projects so I can enjoy them. With that said I have got some progress on the Mice and Mystics models. I decided to split the remaining models into little, more manageable groups. So to start with I worked on Colin and Lily
At this point Colin was almost finished, but Lily had a fair way to go. But after some work, and a lot of touch us later... So here is the completed Colin Front
Back
Lily Front
Back
And a couple of action shots with the centipede
So those guys are done! On to the rest! If you're enjoying this project leave a comment, hit me up @DarkHaZZl3 on Twitter, or check out my instagram where I tend to post things as I do them. So, you know. Spoilers! Peace out! -DH-
I know in the previous post I was talking about smashing out the project... and then nothing. Well, the UK Games Expo happened. That took a whole lot of my time. You can check out my write up in issue 7 of The Cardboard Cartographer. Anyway, in the last few days I've been back on the painting hype. So without further adieu. I've done a lot of work on the Spider mob miniature.
If you google tarantula this is pretty much one of the first ones that comes up. I can't say I enjoyed the spider to be honest. Theoretically, a tarantula would have enough detail to pick out, with the hairs and such, but this model just doesn't. The hair is not raised enough to be picked up well with drybrushing, so all of the detail I've done is freehand. Another area I didn't enjoy painting was the legs. They simple don't match symmetrically. Which is absurd. The fangs and read stinger/ web thing was done with Tamiya clear green to give it a sickly shine. Moving away from the enemies, and on to the good guys. These are the miniatures you really want to stand out With most miniatures the face is the focal point, however, as these miniatures need to be easily distinguishable at a distance. To this end I've spent a lot of time focusing on their largest area of difference; their clothes. When you look at the character cards most of the characters in mice and Mystics the clothes are distinctly different colours.
The red Cape; Colin, green cloak; Lily and white habit; Tilda are all visual distinct from a distance without anything extra being required. Filch, Maginos and Nez are all shades of brown. Filch has a hood, and as such that will provide him with a dark brown overall appearance. Nex only wear a set of blacksmiths armour, so his unique colour will be his fur which is grey. Maginos the mage is a little of both. Like Flich his cloth s are brown, but like Nez has an uncovered head. However, Maginos has a much lighter appearance due to having lighter fur. I think these factors will ensure that these three characters will be visually distinct from each other. We'll see. So yeah, it might not seem like a lot of work, but there is an absolute ton of laying on the cloths, especially on the brighter colours. Anyway, that is all for now. If you're enjoying this project leave a comment, hit me up @DarkHaZZl3 on Twitter, or check out my instagram where I tend to post things as I do them. So, you know. Spoilers! That is all for now. Peace! -DH-
After prepping the models I gave all the heroes a quick base coat to help distinguish them from each other... but as that is pretty dull I'll share with you something a little more interesting.
I spent a great deal of time painting on of the enemy creatures; the centipede. Some of you may know this already if you follow me on Instagram or Twitter.
Here is the sneak preview I sent out a couple of days ago;
I continued working on it yesterday, giving the carapace some highlights and detail.
The bottom half of the second picture is the most true to life in terms of colour and clarity. The highlights don't jump out with absurd amount of brightness, but they are noticeable at a distance, and look pretty good close up too.
The base is set to match the colour of the tiles in the game, while retaining a bit of a rubble/ lose ground feel. I think the contrast between grey and brown/ cold and warm colours works quite well.
I'm really happy with how it is turning out so far. Still a little more to do on this guy.
So, as always, if you have any questions about the modeling, sculpting or painting progress then feel free to drop me a comment or hit me up @DarkHaZZl3 on Twitter. Also, follow me on Instagram for sneak peaks and other general stuff!
So, those of you who follow my hobby progress on The Underhive Hero or The Bolter and Chainsword will know I've been doing a fair amount of painting recently (for me at least). I also mentioned that I've been working on painting up the Miniatures that are included in the Mice and Mystics board game.
The first time I ever played Mice and Mystics I always thought the game would be much more engaging if the miniatures were more visually distinct. I mean, the miniatures from this game look pretty awesome; the plastic is a bit rubbery for my liking, but it does the job well enough. The models were of good quality, but they were all beige which made it difficult to pick out the player characters at a glance.
It is to this end that I decided to give them custom paint jobs. I thought I'd share my progress with you. First step was was to clean up the models. Here the hobbyist in me really comes to the fore. A pet hate of a lot of hobbyists is mold lines and gaps
It isn't really a huge issue, but as you might well know if you do follow my hobby endeavors, is something that bugs me. So, I used my hobby file and craft knife to tidy up the mold lines that I could; a task made more difficult than it should have been by the soft rubbery plastic used to make the miniatures. I then proceeded to fill in the gaps. To fill gaps I use a material called 'green stuff.' It is a two part part epoxy resin that is malleable when mixed, but becomes hard and waterproof when it has cured.. I also add another two part resin called 'magic sculpt.' This makes it a bit more workable and at the same time reduces the curing time. I do this in a 1:1:1:1 ratio
While most of the work is just filling and smooth gaps, there is a little sculpting required.
Seeing as I intend to go the whole hog with this, I also decided to add some sand to the bases, to give them a little texture.
Then it is time for the black undercoat.
The next step I did was to paint on a dark grey 'guide coat.' This helps me to pick out any of the details.
That is all for now. I'm enjoying painting this project so far, but like all painting projects, it is extremely time consuming. If you have any questions about the modeling, sculpting or painting progress then feel free to drop me a comment or hit me up @DarkHaZZl3 on Twitter. Also, follow me on Instagram for sneak peaks and other general stuff! Peace out! -DH-
