8. Our non-human wizards

Where did I end up in the previous post? Listed up some options for getting non-human wizards. What I couldn’t make last time, to show, what wizards I have. While I really love kitbashing, I had no torsos left from the wizard box, and I didn’t want to buy another for that reason. So I had to buy specific ones.

My first try were dwarf wizards (with a complete warband) from Reaper, from the Bones material (soft PVC). Unpainted they look not as bad, but after the first coat of color, terrible… The details are so blunt, it’s frustrating to paint them. And the result is disappointing. I’m nearly not good enough painter to get mediocre results with them. I really hate these miniatures… But they are certainly playable, and they represent a point in my learning curve, so they stay. But still… I don’t want to talk about them any longer. I don't even want to show pictures, because i couldn't force myself to paint them ready.

Next step was to get Reaper, but Bones Black. There is a huge quality difference between the two materials! The story of the first two started with browsing the range, and then I saw Vatanis, the warlock…

My god, its such a good sculpt! Look at the pose, the facial expression, that weird staff and all the small details! Beautiful! I knew instantly, that I want him. The only question was, who his apprentice should be. I didn’t found a fitting figure, with horned head, but I found a dark elf wizard, who is looking also very grim, and also has a staff with a skull. I bought both of them, and the elf got some small horns (just two small pointy things, glued into two small holes), because the apprentice obviously didn’t dive into the dark arts so deep yet as his master.

For the painting, my first idea was to paint a pale skin, with purple, vein like lines all over, with white hair and black horns, like a mash-up of Viren , the main antagonist, and the moonshadow elves from “The Dragon Prince” animated series.

So the color scheme should fit to this: purple and off-white, with black (because it should get a dark appearance, and too much purple would look like a plum, not like a warlock) and gold for some complementary color. Then I tried to paint the purple veins, and I failed... It looked awesome in my imagination, but turned out awful under my hands. Here is a big learning for all of the beginner painters out there: what looks good, and what you are able to make, are two different piles, and you have to find that small part, what these two piles have common! Don’t be afraid, that common part will grow with time and practice, but the miniature of today will be painted whit the skill-pile of now. Anyway, I had to start over. At this point I was in love with the planned color scheme, so I kept it. For the skin now, I used normal flesh tone, I painted the eyes black, but that would bee to flat to leave so… I needed something, what shows out, what catches the eye and what I was able to paint. At the end I decided to paint the pointing hand of Vatanis, like he is in some demonic spell: the complete arm black, followed by black veins going from the black parts to the other body parts, like roots (the veins were made with a 0,1mm fineliner, its much easier then with a brush). The result was pretty good, but something was still missing. That little eye-catching something. And then came the kiss, from the muse: glowing hand! So I painted the arm with a color transition from yellow trough orange and red into black. My wet blending skills are poor, but an undefined transition on a small part like this, was I able to make with satisfying results. And finally, here are the pictures from my favorite minis so far:

The next, and until now the last non-human wizard pair is not mine. Me and the kids could finally persuade my wife to play the game with us, so she needed own wizards. Furthermore, she needed elf sorceresses, because elves are girly (and only elves were left in the oathmark-race-sharing-negotiations of the family). So she choose two Bones Black female wizards (one is more glamorous, the other is a bit ripped off, but whit the identical colors it will work), and we started to plan the color scheme.

My wife loves blue, turquoise and purple, so we searched for references in that direction. We found a picture of some wizards cloak, with a color transition from light sky blue in the bottom into deep dark blue on the top with some stars on it, like the sky at dawn. We immediately had the winner. The same wet blending skills, that made the warlock hand, turned to be insufficient here… The surface was much bigger, and the transition needed to be more exact in vertical direction. But the bad wet blending made a pretty god base for another wet blending. At the end it was not perfect, not even good, but okay. Maybe a bit more like deep ocean, not the daybreak. The other parts were designed with the passing, cold colors (blues, white, silver), the only warm opposition to this is the skin, hair and some small details in brown.

Another important thing: these are females. And not every painting process works here as fine, as with male. Woman's faces have usually much finer, smoother details as man. So the same highlighting methods will make a more masculine look. The simplest solution is not to highlight. Really, a wash is enough there. And the eyes... This was my first try to make outlined eyes. I wouldn't use this on male miniatures, because with my coarse skills it looks like make-up. But I think, it fits here. The eyes are so the most dominant points of the face, and this fits the smooth transitions on the other parts. Take a look at the results:

These were all the wizards until now.