[ENIGMA] Severus and Oqtarimus - part 1 Master and Servant

Before starting with some paint jobs for my friends (zombicide and X-wing), my Work In Progress was this two miniatures from Enigma.
I'm used to paint with a clear idea in mind. An inspiration, a reference, a project I want to build around a miniature. I decide the general colors, the environment before start the process and I have also taken the habit to build and paint the base first.
It's a good way to do a good job because you're working with the motivation and the excitement of a new project instead of rush your base at the end of the process just to put your painted mini on it.

I haven't proceed at all like this with Severus. To be honest, I have just finished Saphon and I've feel the need to paint something new. So I take out the first miniature I 've found and gone with"free painting". At the end of the evening, my old mage had his first colors.

At this point, I had no more idea about how to proceed. So, I spent some time on PinInterst searching some inspiration. I have several boards I feed regulary with illustrations (mainly fantasy). It's very useful, there is a lot of talented designers on the web who make fantastic stuff.  I've often found very good idea for color scheme thanks to this guys.

This old mage on the left was perfect for my Severus. Exactly the kind of wizard I wanted to paint. (I don't know the artist).
So main color in black, secondary in red (the cape) and the third color beige/cream.

Then I finish with the last details: the staff and the spelling book.
For this last one, I had some trouble. I'm not very skilled with free hand, so I paint very simple magic pattern with one color. Nothing fancy.

 

 At this point I was already thinking about the base. My idea was to use an Earth Elemental miniature from Rackham to create a little scene of Severus summoning a Golem.
But a good painter I know told me that an acolyte would be nice with him. In fact, it's a pretty good idea also because from Enigma I had an other mini perfect for this role. Same scale, same sculptor (Latorre) and the look of an ugly little bastard you perfectly imagine serving an old and bad mage.
Here Oqtarimus, the Faries Mutilator !

 His name comes from the lantern he holds which is in reality a cage with some faries inside. this element is a little challenge to paint for my concern. I'm still working on it.
Oqtarimus is fun to paint but he's also very tiny. As you can see, I've kept the same colors scheme than Severus to enhance the idea of a servant following his master.
I cannot wait to come back to this wip as soon I will finish with the X-wing commission, I have something in mind for the base and also the will to play with my basing material.  

[ENIGMA] Painting Lathiem in Bisley style

Some months ago, I painted a very nice miniature from Enigma.
Lathiem Oak Leaf sculpted by Latorre.

I have to say that I was so pleased by the sculpture that I really wanted to paint something different.
Actually, I had a clear idea about what to do...painting Lathiem like Bisley painted Slaine.
If you compare the miniature with Bisley's art, the likeness is evident. I don't know personnaly Latorre but I have the feeling is also a fan of Bisley.

Of course, the things were not easy because Sir Bisley has his own style and I was not really sure to be able to reproduce it with my limited painting skill.

So as I often do, I tried to focus a little more on the artistic side to compensate my technical limits.

The first step was the skin. Bronze flesh with some juices of orange brown.

Then, following the good advice of most experimenting painters, I've increased the contrasts pushing the higlights towards the pale flesh. Then adding some glazes of green in the shadows (same colors used by Bisley for Slaine) and red on the lights, finaly my Lathiem was a little bit more contrasted.

At this step, I've added some grey/black glazes on the face to simulate some shave skin.







The second step was the most difficult: painted a celtic pattern on the trousers like Slaine so Yellow with brown pattern.

I've started by the fist layer of yellow, painted some shades just to create the first volumes.
Then, I applied the first stripes in brown. As you see below, the issue was the diagonal leather stripe on the legs because they're generating confusion with the pattern below.

The only solution was to increase the contrast of the leather stripes to separate the different elements.
Ok, I love Latorre but I really hated it during this step. The leather stripes had been a nightmare to higlight. As I was not able to reach extreme highlight to create the wanted contrast, I had to use blacklining to separate the stripe from the trousers. As always, the good painters have right: better too much contrast than not enough. It's even more true with this kind of scale.
In fact, I added also some blacklining for the fabric stripes on the belly.
For the metallic details, I painted everything in NMM because it was more similar to the comics style I wanted. I've chosen cold color (mainly blue grey) to contrast the yellow and brown.


  

Then, I started to paint the fur coat. It was the most fun part for my concern. I love to paint the leather skin texture, you can play with the weathering of the leather and the different hue.

Usually I start with a first layer in wet blending to create the different leather colors (orange brown, grey, White). Then I added the texture with some cracks painted in white. And finally I add the washes to unify everything and give a general hue to the coat.
For the fur on the shoulder, I worked with same techniques: wet blending,  highlights, glazes and finaly washes.
The blade instead, has been painted like a large piece of flint. For the ornements I used the same colors than the metallic piece on the trousers.

 

Some wars painting on the eyes and the skin (just to give to Lathiem a little more of the Slaine aspect), a simple base of rocks and grass and here the result.

Probably not the best version of Lathiem around but I am pretty proud because so far, it's the first time I've dedicated so much time on a miniature and, most important, reach the result I wanted.