Volomir's Blog

Sunday 29 January: Painter's Day at Leviatán (Local store in Madrid)

2012-01-26T11:58:00.001+01:00

A friend and former pupil of mine opened a miniature store in Madrid which I encourage you to visit if you happen to be around Madrid. It's called "Leviatán".

This Sunday (January 29, 2012) you are all invited to attend "The Painter's Day". We will gather in the store, grab some brushes and spend some happy time painting and enjoying our hobby together. I will be there, I hope to see you there! And of course, we will have some beers after this painting afternoon. It's a must!

Leviatan's address: Calle puerto de maspalomas 6 posterior, Madrid

:)

WIP: Swordmasters of Hoeth Part 1

2012-01-24T17:21:00.000+01:00

Next in line in my project to build an army of high elves around the hero that is the elf prince of Tribute to the Fallen, today I start the WIP series of articles on the Swordmasters of Hoeth. I hope you guys follow and enjoy this new series which will go on for a quite a long time, I'll try to be as fast as possible!

The miniatures are from the Warhammer: Island of Blood box, just like the High Elves Sea Guard I painted in 2011. I am going to follow a very similar approach to the painting. I'll perform some little conversions, specially to the armour scales, too big for my taste, and also modify the banner so that I can paint a nice freehand instead of painting some boring reliefs that I dislike. Then I will use airbrush as much as I can so that I spend as less time as possible, and get the best out of it.

There is another thing which I'm going to do differently this time: the basing process. What I learned from the previous experience is that even though it is much more comfortable to paint the miniature separate from the base and glue them after they are all painted, it is much more time consuming, because you paint things in the base which you don't need to paint, and also, gluing and basing after the paint is done is also quite dangerous, you can destroy the work already done. So this time, I'm going to convert first, create the bases, glue the miniatures to the bases, and then I will start painting. Let's get to it!

So first of all, let's take the miniatures out of the sprues and clean them.

No mercy for those horrible mould lines!

As I said, I hate those nasty reliefs they did on the banner, so I'll trim them off very carefully with the knife. I said very carefully... I can't stress this strongly enough. The less care you give to this trimming, the more putty you will have to use to correct defects afterwards.

Of course, you can always go for the chaotic approach, destroy all the reliefs with a dremmel or similar and then cover all up with putty. Whatever suits you best. But I'll be careful this time.

I'll also pass the knife around the edges of the flag, that way I'll make them thinner and more like actual cloth, and not thick and unreal.

And I will also dig a hole on the horn of the musician. There's nothing worse than a horn or a gun nozzle without a cavity, it's so unreal!

I can't forget to trim out the reliefs of the hero's sword. What a bad idea from GW designers to do this stuff. I hate when they do that!

Ok then! Ready to start with the putty! Formation!

That's it for now. Stay tuned!

Back in Madrid

2012-01-19T15:08:00.001+01:00

Finally yesterday I arrived back in Madrid after my various trips over the United States.

Looks like I won't be having any other trips on the next months so now that I am much more calm and established at home and with normal routine, it's time to get back to painting. So expect news very soon! I've got many things on my desk right now, ranging from the Imperial Fist from Master of the Forge to a new unit of elves for my army, some new Krieg and many other projects... lots of things and very little time, as usual!

Stay tuned!

Confirmed dates for Golden Demons 2012

2012-01-04T21:33:00.000+01:00

Games Workshop has published confirmed dates for Golden Demons 2012 all over the world. I've seen this piece of a spanish White Dwarf on the Spanish Team Forum which confirms the dates:

I've just updated the dates in the events calendar of the blog, so use it to keep track and plan events and contests!

Also, Golden Demon Spain will be held this year back in Barcelona, as it was done before the last 3 years. Not good for me as I live in Madrid, but better for all europeans who would like to attend as it will be a little closer!

Time to start planning what I will attend this year!

Happy new year!

2011-12-31T12:00:00.000+01:00

The time has come. Goodbye 2011!

2011 is leaving and a new year begins. Let 2012 be at least as good as 2011!

I am celebrating new year's eve in New York (thus the photo in Times Square), and I will be in the US (San Francisco) for the first two weeks of the year because of work, so again, no miniature related activity will be done these days. Not the best way to begin the year for the blog, I know! But I will return and I'm sure I'll have a lot of stuff to share with you guys.

Enjoy in the meantime! And I wish you all a wonderful 2012.

Do Not Miss: December 2011

2011-12-30T00:00:00.000+01:00

This great 2011 ends, and before it does, let's review the best I've seen in the internet on December 2011:

Normandy 1944" by Pedro Fernández: Rafa Coll shows us on his blog (as usual) the process photos of this wonderful miniature by Pedro Fernández.
Kifaro from Studio McVey: This new miniature is a Rhinotaur by Allan Carrasco, once again a superb sculpture. We expected no less from him!
Jabba the Hutt by Romain Van der Bogaert: This new release from Knightmodels is modelled by Romain and Alfonso Gozalo (Alfonso modelled Leia while Romain did everything else in the scene, including Jabba). Romain now shows us photos of the process of sculpting this wonderful kit.
V day by Jorge Jaldón: I saw this entry on Rafa Coll's blog. It's a beautiful diorama showing us how there is still a lot to be done in historical miniatures apart from just soldiers and weapons. This scene depicting a victory parade is just beautiful.
Realistic spiderwebs by Raffa: Simple but great tutorial on how to create very realistic spiderwebs, on Massive Voodoo, as always.
Eleriel and Alaniel by Angel Giraldez: I follow Mr. Giraldez a lot because he has a great production rate of painted figurines for artboxes and brands, but this time I was surprised by this piece, for the company Raging Heroes. It's true that the photos are very bad, but I can guess this is a great piece.

WIP Artscale Imperial Fist part 1

2011-12-19T13:45:00.000+01:00

Today I start this WIP series of articles about the painting of this Artscale Imperial Fist created by Simon (Master of the Forge).

It is an Imperial Fist, so I will be painting him in a scheme based in yellow and black. It is a Deathwatch space marine, somehow related to the Inquisition, thus the symbol on the left shoulderpad. This will be the chosen colour scheme:
Yellow is a difficult colour to deal with so I think this is a very interesting process where you can see how I deal with it.

First of all, white priming with Gunze Sangyo flat white with an airbrush. The perfect way to prime in my opinion.

Now, first coat of sunburst yellow, the middle tone, by airbrush. I will be using the tecnique we call "reserving the lights". This means I will give this first base of yellow but not as a uniform coat all over the miniature. Instead, I will paint everything except the areas which will be in light, leaving the white coat which is underneath. This is based on the fact that lighter colours always cover better over other light colours, so I will get a brighter finish if I just paint lights over pure white instead of over a coat of the middle tone (base colour).

And after this, I'll start the shadowing process on the yellow, airbrush again. First, adding a bit of bestial brown to the yellow base.

Second shadows with more bestial brown.

Last shadows with bestial brown adding a little bit of blue, but not too much.

Once I'm satisfied with the overall yellow, I start working on the shield. Even if I am not satisfied entirely with the yellow, I would reccommend passing on to something else, because once the surrounding areas start getting some colour, we will probably see things differently. I want to paint the fist in the shield, in black colours. As it is a big surface, I'll use the airbrush again. So first of all, I'll mask the areas I don't want to paint, with masking tape and also liquid mask for the most difficult parts to mask.

I'll paint the black starting on the lightest colour and then going down progressively to the shadows. Again, this is because I find easier to paint lighter colours over white than over dark colours. So, airbrush in the lightest colour of black, which would be a mid grey to which I'll add a bit of sunburst yellow to ensure coherency with the rest of the miniature.

Adding some black to the mix, next step. This would be our base tone for the black.

Final shadows with pure black. I'll add a bit of blue to certain areas, with the normal brush, so that I add depth to the black.

And now I'll take the masks off.

Leaving the airbrush apart, I'll give black to the parts that will be in that colour. In this step I even give lights and shadows to the blacks in the chest eagle, with the same colour scheme I used in the fist of the shield.

And that's it for today. Stay tuned!

Painting with... Rémy Tremblay

2011-12-15T10:52:00.002+01:00

Now that I'm back from my week vacation in NYC, and following our line of interviews to Slayersword winners of 2011, today I bring you the winner of the french Slayersword, the very well known Rémy Tremblay. Professional painter and sculptor, he currently works for a lot of miniature companies all over the world. He has an extraordinay portfolio and a lot of works done in his career. If you follow Volomir's Blog often (as you should) you fill find that he is practically always mentioned in my monthly section Do Not Miss. Let's talk a bit with him and see what he thinks about the miniature world.

Volomir:

Rémy, when would you say is the moment when you started to paint and sculpt miniatures seriously?

Rémy:

Volomir:

Have you learnt to paint and sculpt all by yourself, have you attended courses, or do you have some sort of personal master?

Rémy:

Volomir:

Your works are mainly fantasy themed, but we also see more historical works from you. Which do you prefer, historical or fantasy?

Rémy:

Volomir:

Which do you consider is your best work so far?

Rémy:

Volomir:

When did you decide to become a professional artist? Is miniature painting/sculpting your goal or do you want to shift to something else in the future?

Rémy:

Volomir:

Your diorama, Slayersword in France 2011, was an outstanding piece, something huge which required a lot of work and time put into it. How long did it take you to create something so big? Did you have all the diorama planned beforehand?

Rémy:

Volomir:

People often prepare great works to compete for the Slayersword. They consider all the aspects, such as size of the entry, trend topics, or commercial decisions. Do you think there is a specific formula to enter competition to aim for the Slayersword?

Rémy:

Volomir:

Can you tell us something about your upcoming projects? Is there something as big as the diorama coming in the near future?

Rémy:

Volomir:

And finally, last but not least. I’m sure any painter new to the hobby is eager to hear some counsel from one of the best artists currently. Do you have anything to say to help someone who is starting now and would love to win a Slayersword someday?

Rémy:

Thank you very much Rémy! He left us a lot of interesting comments. Let's see what he is able to create in the future, and I wish him the best on his professional affairs. Meanwhile, you can follow Rémy on his blog:

Rémy Tremblay Art

Until our next meeting!

Back to the City

2011-12-02T15:00:00.000+01:00

The next few days I'll be travelling to New York City again, so I'm afraid there will be no miniature activity until I return.

My life is been a bit crazy lately, I am changing jobs and travelling quite a lot. As I said, I'll be in NYC until December 12 and thanks to my new job, I'll also be travelling to NYC and San Francisco from December 31 to January 16. I guess I won't have much time to do some miniature painting work but I'll do my best.

Even so, I won't leave you without good stuff on the blog since I am still doing the 2011 Slayersword interviews, so stay tuned!

Do Not Miss: November 2011

2011-11-30T23:59:00.000+01:00

Seen in the internet on November 2011:

Pimp my Monolith: This wonderful article in Bell of Lost Souls teaches you how to build a Necron Monolith with some LEDs and plasma discs so it looks absolutely awesome in the battlefield.
Carnevale sculpts by Remy Tremblay: This new game coming from Spain has the honour to have some of Remy's sculpts in its just released miniature catalogue.
XIV Encuentro de Modelismo Almería 2011 in Rafa Coll's Blog: Rafa Coll went to this event in Almería and shows us some of the works presented. Not a very well known event, but there are great things to be seen!
Stalingrad Miniatures: This month I discovered this fantastic brand of resin miniatures. The box arts are not very good but the quality of the sculptures is really nice. Check it out.
Carnevale's greens from Patrick Masson: Versper-on games will release articles about the greens of their new miniature game, Carnevale. This is the first one, the sculptures created for the game by Patrick Masson.
Outnumbered, Zombie-Cthulhu diorama by Crackpot: This is a very nice diorama made out of Red Box Games miniatures, a line which I love very very much. I really like what Crackpot did on this one, 2 months spent on its creation!
Forge Father Stormrage Veterans by Remy Tremblay: Awesome new sculpts of this sort of space dwarves for the Mantic Games new system Warpath.
Forge Father Huscarl by Remy Tremblay: And another sculpt of a space dwarf for Mantic Games' Warpath, by Remy.
Bucanero by Ernesto Reyes: "Er" delights us with some real marvels from time to time. In this case, this exquisitely painted bust of a buccaneer.
Ghost Rider and other new releases by Knightmodels: One again, Knightmodels is over the top. Ghost Rider is one of the most amazing miniatures I've ever seen, sculpted by Paul Deheleanu and painted by Alfonso Giraldes. The PIECE in capital letters.
Abyssal Warlord and other releases by Scale75: Check out the new releases by Scale75, specially the Abyssal Warlord, sculpted by Raúl Latorre and painted by Diego Esteban and Alfonso Giraldes in different versions. Amazing!
Fujita's Dinner by piquifl and Arsies: Wonderful tandem by these two monkeys, filled with subliminal messages. Fantastic the detail of the Golden Demon in the rubbish, what a declaration of intentions!
Sledge Racers por Freeman: Look at this marvellous creation by Joaquin Palacios (Freeman) for the least warlike line from Andrea Miniatures. It's ideal for a gift!
Benoit Cauchies for Mauser Earth: Two new sculptures by Benoit Cauchies for the range of models called Mauser Earth. I love the girl!
Historic Art new releases on Rafa Coll's blog: Two awesome new releases by Historic Art Models. The soldier reading a letter in Normandy is just pure beauty.

Painting with... Vincent Hudon

2011-11-28T09:00:00.000+01:00

I'm starting a series of interviews with Slayersword winners of 2011. The first to go is USA's Slayersword winner, Vincent Hudon. I'm sure you know about him, he's one of the classics, the author of probably the most famous Khorne Paladin on Juggernaut, also known as Magmatrax. Let's see what he has to tell us about his vision of the miniature painting world!

Volomir:

Vincent, you are one of my favourite painters of all time. When I started painting I used Magmatrax as the goal for what I wanted to achieve someday. A lot of time has passed since then, but I still see Magmatrax as a classic from the past, a piece in which future generations will look back to. Talking about the past, when would you say is the moment when you started into painting miniatures seriously?

Vincent:

Volomir:

At that time, a more obscure period in which internet began to flourish to gather all painters around the globe, you must have developed your techniques from somewhere. Have you learnt to paint and sculpt all by yourself, have you attended courses, or do you have some sort of personal master?

Vincent:

Volomir:

Your NMM are an all-time reference, and your World Eaters a poster for all Khorne theme lovers. Have you finished your Khorne-Gold NMM relationship forever or will we see more pieces on this theme in the future?

Vincent:

Volomir:

We see fantasy themes in all of your works, but have you ever tried historical? Do you like it?

Vincent:

Volomir:

Apart from heavily converting (and nearly full scratching like your work on Lord Graviax), have you tried completely sculpting from scratch just using wire or a mannequin? If not, do you think you will be going for that in the future?

Vincent:

Volomir:

As I said, I am completely in love with Magmatrax, since always, but maybe you have a different favourite from your collection. Which do you consider is your best work so far?

Vincent:

Volomir:

Do you consider painting as a hobby or do you have any professional interest towards miniatures? Do you take commission painting jobs?

Vincent:

Volomir:

You won the Slayersword many times, in Canada and in USA. Are you planning to come to Europe to compete here?

Vincent:

Volomir:

Here’s a difficult question. There has been always a lot of talking about the GD painting level difference between Europe and America. Regarding what you know and see from contests abroad, do you think this is true? From your overseas point of view, how do you see the painting community in America?

Vincent:

Volomir:

Can you tell us something about your upcoming projects?

Vincent:

Volomir:

And finally, last but not least. Everyone has started from the bottom and I’m sure any painter new to the hobby is eager to hear some counsel from you. Do you have anything to say to help someone who is starting now and would love to get to paint like you someday?

Vincent:

Thank you very much Vincent! What a great interview filled with awesome thoughts about the hobby and how to improve our level of painting if that is what we are looking for. And remember, keep painting whatever happens!

Stay tuned to the blog to see more interesting interviews about the hobby!

Gimme some horses!

2011-11-24T15:12:00.001+01:00

You might have noticed a lack of painting activity on my part lately. Well, I have to say that I have been pretty busy with other stuff in my life, but also sculpting a 54mm model which I cannot reveal yet. But I will... when the time comes! In the meantime, and now that I've got a camera once again, here is a quick shot of what is next in line in my painting table:

Yeah, you know what they are! And also, this is coming next in my painting line, as I told you not so long ago:

Back to painting! Stay tuned...

Death Korps of Krieg At Ease

2011-11-16T09:00:00.000+01:00

This is my squad of 10 guardsmen from the Death Korps of Krieg. Again, another paintjob for my armies, following a very similar scheme as the other Kriegs I painted in the past. This unit went to Golden Demon Germany 2011 and won Silver in 40k Squad. There is a partially completed WIP process in the WIP section of the blog which I will finish sometime, because hopefully more Krieg will come in the future!

Link to coolminiornot (where you will find bigger photos too): http://www.coolminiornot.com/291808

Mount San Savino Show 2011

2011-11-14T18:20:00.001+01:00

As you may have noticed by now, because I am sure you are already following the events calendar on my blog (if you don't yet, what are you waiting for!!), this weekend the Mount San Savino contest was celebrated with loads of fantastic miniatures.

I couldn't go but here I leave you with this link to awesome photographic material about the contest you have to check out!

Great link with photos of the event

In the meantime, look at this new beauty by Knightmodels, future release coming soon!

The curse of photography

2011-11-10T16:39:00.000+01:00

You might have noticed lately that I am not uploading any of my recent works in the last few months. This is mainly because I was thinking of buying a new camera. I wasn't sure about what camera to buy, and when I decided to postpone the buying decision, my old camera fell to the floor and died.

This is not really my old camera, but illustrates the situation
And so there are no new pics on the blog, and there is a lot of silence on my part. I still have to post pics of the Korps of Krieg unit that went to GD Germany, I hope I can when I get my hands into some nice piece of gear. But then the question arises. Which camera to buy? I'm a total loser in what photography is concerned, and I really need to buy something that enables me to make good pictures, but I don't need to spend gazillions of euros/dollars in a camera that could even travel in time if I knew how to do that. Can anyone with a little more expertise in photography help? I know the most important thing is the light and the optics not the camera itself, but there are so many cameras and options that I'm just overwhelmed. Point and shoot? Reflex? Damn!

In the meantime I'm preparing new stuff, and as soon as I get a new camera I promise I will share it with all of you.

Do Not Miss: October 2011

2011-10-31T23:59:00.007+01:00

Seen in the internet on October 2011:

The Summoner by Cris and Piquifl: Arsies (Javier González) is not the only one painting at home. His wife, Cris, is a very talented painter, something she has always shown us since I know them. This is a very pretty piece, converted by Piquifl and painted by Cris. I Love her Craft! (Get it?) :P
Buster Crabbe (Kings Road miniatures) by Remy Tremblay: Kings Road is a miniature company that is releasing pieces which are different to what we are used to, and I love them for this. Look at this new future release sculpted by Remy Tremblay. Really something else!
Making scenery with Emmanuel Nouaillier: This tutorial about creating buildings from the start of the 20th century is simply awesome, it's amazing what this guy can do with a bit of plasticard and featherboard. And some good painting of course!
El Flautista by Jesus Martín: Second version of the Nocturna Models new release, El Flautista. I really love the miniature and the painting is superb.
Valhallan Diorama by Guilliman: I really like this diorama, specially the sculpting part, very well deserved award. It's not my style of painting though, very plain GW colouring without contrast. I would have loved to paint the diorama in a very different way but even so, it's a great scene and a lot of work put into it.
Stephan Rath tutorial on his Khemri standard: This article from Stephan Rath (aka Derwish) explains his approach on painting freehands. Chek out how he painted the famous Khemri standard that was awarded Gold in GD Germany 2011. A must! The bad part is that it's written in German.
Knightmodels new releases (at zwoart studio): Knightmodels releases a new set of stunning miniatures this month. Did I mention I fell in love with the stormtroopers?
Color warz serie 1 by Remy Tremblay These new figurines sculpted by Remy are simply a beauty. They are for a boardgame soon to be released. I don't know about the game but if the rules are half as good as these miniatures, oh my!
Building the lamps on Frutti di Mare: This is a tutorial on how Robert (a.k.a. Muhani from Massive Voodoo) built his lamps for the diorama called Frutti di Mare. I'm sure you know about this outstanding diorama but this tutorial is great if you want to build some lamps for yourself.
Batalla por Teutoburgo: Rafa Coll shows us in his blog the latest release from Historic Art Models. A fantastic diorama about Roman Empire times sculpted by Benoit Cauchies and painted by Jesús Martín.

Events Calendar: another great initiative!

2011-10-24T11:44:00.000+02:00

And yet another great section for Volomir's Blog. This time it's the events calendar:

Calendar

This new section will be great to know at a glance about all events and dates internationally. I will need help to build this little event database, so if you know of any important/relevant contests and their dates/locations, please let me know and I will include them in the calendar.

So from now on remember to check it out on the static pages of the blog and plan your entries ahead!

Seeking sensation: elements of suggestion

2011-10-21T00:00:00.000+02:00

Today let's go deep into artistic talk, for all of you hardcore painters who seek something more than just a correctly painted miniature.

I'm having a wonderful discussion with my friend Francesco Farabi, a great miniature painter from Italy who I'm sure you a lot about already. The discussion was regarding his last piece, the Last Stand of Nuln, modelled by Mariano Numitone (a great honour) and painted by himself. I'm also sure you have seen this one already, presented on the last Golden Demon Italy and awarded Gold in Diorama (I posted pics previously on the blog):

While the scene is just outstanding, I pictured out that the painting is too clean for a battle scene like this, I miss blood and dust and dirt in general. I couldn't see how the guys could be dying from arrows without choking in their own blood. Francesco answered:

About the question of dirt... yes you may be absolutely right, but there is a reason because I chose not to put a lot of dirt. It's because there is no close combat body fighting been done there, this is a "long distance attack, like some terrible enemy attacking the bastion of the castle and the soldiers go to the broken part to defend as a last stand, but a great swarm of arrows arrive and kill them all. If you look there are no soldiers with blade weapons, only guns, also the campion shouted with arrow in the neck tries to bring his guns, not a sword for example.
About blood... yes interesting in effect! Also because I am an habitual gory painter (i make a lot of blood effects in my miniatures) but we talked a lot with Numi about how much blood I wanted to put and therefore I studied that arrow shots don't create some blood spatter effect because it is very direct and quick, there's just a little quantity of blood exit from the wounds before you pull the arrow off from them.

My comment just started a great discussion around the use of explicit elements to achieve sensation which I wanted to share with all the readers of Volomir's Blog because I'm sure you will find it deeply interesting and maybe we can learn a lot together with it.

I had my own inner discussion about this when I painted my Last Stand of the Crimson Fists (which has also flaws because of lack of time and impatience, but that is another topic). I used the illustration as the main source (I very much copied it and tried to translate that into a 360º scene with 3d volumes) and in the drawing there is not much blood, or even dirt. There is weathering on the armours, yes, but not that kind of blood and dirty stuff that you would expect from a war scene. And I tried to be loyal to that concept because the drawing pours war and drama sensation from every brushstroke and I thought I could get that with my scene using the same resources. Some say that I got it, some say that I failed. I really can't be objective because it's my own creation and I have mixed feelings about it. Sometimes I think I got it, sometimes I don't. There is also a bit of regret in some decisions that I took during the process, specially because it took such a long time that now when I think that I could have done better it just freaks me out. But anyway, that is done and past and from that I learned a lot (at least is what I try to think) and next time, when I do something to try and achieve something dramatic I'll try to use my own resources instead of just copying, so for that I am happy.

Here is a great example of how to achieve drama sensation and battle without the use of a single drop of blood:

When I see this picture of the spanish civil war I don't see dirt, blood or anything gory (it is true that absence of colours is also very powerful and we are adding colours to the equation so that is really something we cannot forget). I see drama there mainly because of two reasons. The first one and the most important and evident is the dynamism. The pose of the soldier falling, the weapon in the air, the clothes inflated and the blurryness of the picture around the area of the feet clearly suggest that there is action going on, and you feel that he is falling. Second is the expression of the guy. If you just concentrate con his face and forget about everything else you'll feel like if he is sleeping, at least that's what I get from it. But in the context of dynamism and movement you feel as if he is dying. You see no pain, you see no grief or scare, but you see he is "leaving", he is passing out. And you get the feeling that he is being shot because of the pose and specially the weapon on his arm, which suggests he was fighting. But you see no blood, no dirt, not even the place where he has been shot. And still you get the feeling that he has just received a gunshot.

Doing this is very difficult in my opinion. I see what Francesco tried to do, and I think he did it very well but there is still a long way to go I think. What if you had to do what Francesco tried to do, how would yo do it? Now I'll tell you about an idea of mine that could work:

In a scene like this you don't use blood, you don't use dirt, but you still need to reflect action, war and suffering. Francesco used the right colours for a realistic ambience, greys and dark reds, desaturated. But it is the same greys and amount of saturation that you use when he painted the rocks. What if you transform the scenery, and make it more colourful, more saturated, specially the banner, the ground (maybe adding grass or flowers, I don't know) and the standard bearer, his face much more reddish and orange? Just saturating their colours, but leave the dead in a more grey ambience, the same way they are now so that you suggest death with the use of colours. I think it would be a very good idea. I think that if you don't use explicit objects like blood or dirt, the use of colours is the key, and you used the right greyish ambience to suugest that. But if you don't show a contrast so that the effect of the grey ambience just stands out, I think that the main purpose just doesn't show.

So, today I offer you this interesting debate to all of you fellow readers of Volomir's Blog. What do you think? Discussion will help you better understand this great piece of work and will for sure motivate you in your own personal creations!

Premiering new section: Volomir's Compass

2011-10-20T11:23:00.000+02:00

With this pretentious title, today I add a new section to the static pages of the blog. In this case, The Compass, a collection of links to other websites of interest about the world of miniature painting. You will see that there is a good list of interesting sites, some of them essential, that you must visit if you do not know about them already.

If you know about any very interesting sites about miniatures and painting, do not hesitate to send me a mail and thus make the compass the ultimate reference.

On the other hand, I have to say that the painting course I will organize in November in Madrid is complete. Anyway, I encourage you also to keep sending me emails if you are interested because you can enter the waiting list or become part of the first to find out about future courses.

Golden Demon: Slayerswords of 2011

2011-10-19T10:00:00.000+02:00

With this last Golden Demon in Italy, the GD season of 2011 has come to an end. It has been a very good year regarding level and number of participants in practically every country. I would like to do a little summary of the Slayerswords we have seen this year, let's see:

Remy Tremblay's skaven diorama, sword in France.

Rubén Martínez's duel, sword in Spain.

Vincent Hudon's motorbiker, sword in USA.

Matt Cexwish's diorama, sword in Germany.

Kyle Morgan's ork, sword in Australia.

Angelo Di Chello's sorcerer, sword in UK.

Matteo Murelli's Nurgle paladin, sword in Italy.
Not bad at all! Which one is your favourite? And your least favourite? Do you think next year will be similar regarding quality? Is the level of the swords somehow representative of the level of the painting community of each country? Can we see any sort of national painting style just by looking at the swords?

Interesting!

Golden Demon Italy 2011 - Results

2011-10-17T13:11:00.006+02:00

And finally, Golden Demon Italy took place this weekend, thus ending the GD season for this year, which I have to say, has been a wonderful year for Golden Demons.

Let's take a look at the SlayerSword, courtesy of Matteo Murelli (congratulations!):

Great work indeed. Take a look at some other photos of the contest, just very few of them:

You can see there was really good stuff to see in this GD. Take a look at these links (where these photos were taken from) if you want more information on this contest:

I wish I could have been there! I feel the deepest envy right now!

Golden Demon Italy this weekend: the last of 2011

2011-10-14T10:35:00.004+02:00

This weekend we will have the last GD of the season, Golden Demon Italy in Modena. I bought tickets to go there but finally I won't be able to make it so bad news on that part. But anyway, there will be spanish representation as usual, my friends Fenix (Borja Garcia) and Platon will be attending, let's see what they can manage this time.

Good luck to all participants, we hope to see many good entries to close this 2011 season of GDs!

Charity painting collaboration with Lamenter (Master of the Forge)

2011-10-11T15:49:00.005+02:00

I'm sure you know this website:

If you don't... what are you waiting for??

I've always loved Simon's work. He has an extraordinary ability to sculpt and convert Space Marines trying to make them look more proportioned and real life like. And I've always wanted to paint some of his pieces. So I emailed him and we arranged a little collaboration project in which he will sculpt some Space Marines and I will paint them. The first of them is going to be this little marvel:

I will paint this wonderful miniature and hopefully I will have time to show you pics of the process. When I finish it, we will put the miniature on auction and we will donate all the money obtained from the sale.

Choosing where to donate the money is always very difficult, so Simon decided. He got the dog he owns now from that animal rescue centre and he really feels the work they do there is very important. This is a cause that is very close to his heart. And I am totally in favour! So that's where we will be donating:

Birmingham Dogs Home

Link to the eBay space for donations for this centre

So we will keep you posted about all the process. I'm sure it will turn out to be a great miniature and I hope we can raise a lot of money for the centre!

PS: The friends from "La Taberna de Laurana" published an interview they did to me on their blog. Check it out, we talk about some interesting stuff! (in spanish unfortunately for some)

Link to interview

Today we talk about contest controversy (GD UK 2011)

2011-10-07T11:40:00.005+02:00

As I said the other day, Golden Demon UK 2011 was celebrated during my spiritual retirement. But even though I was away, news came to my ears that there were some important judge decisions that are now heavily questioned, and have generated a lot of chatter in forums. So let's talk today about contest controversy.

First of all, let's present facts. This is GD UK 2011 Slayersword winner:

And now let's see other European Slayerword winners this year (click on the names to see more and better photos of them):

This is Remy's diorama, winner in France.

This is Ruben's duel, winner in Spain.

This is Matt's diorama, winner in Germany.

I would never judge or question a decision. But this one just seems odd. We all know that GD UK is the contest with the greatest number of participants and entries by far. And there are a lot of great painters there, even many awesome non-UK european painters travel to the contest. I didn't go to the contest, but... was this sorcerer really the best miniature they found in all the contest? Really?

See more photos of GD UK entries here.

I know some great spanish painters (to mention just an example that I know of, not that I want to brag about spanish painting quality!) that entered competition with really great miniatures and dioramas. I believe that this sorcerer is a great miniature, that's for sure. But the best of the whole GD UK contest? Really?

Is this another example of GW commercial criterion being used to judge? Would this decision benefit GW commercially at all? Is there some other dark criterion we do not know of? Should painters start fleeing out of GW Golden Demons to protest GW policies as many people are proposing a long time ago?

I want to hear your opinions!

Golden Demon Australia 2011

2011-10-05T16:33:00.003+02:00

While I am still trying to readjust to normal routine, news came to my ears that this past weekend Golden Demon Australia was celebrated in that distant part of the world. Well, I want to talk about this contest because a good friend of mine won the Slayersword there.

Congratulations KYLE!!

I am so very happy for him! This is his winner miniature:

I also want you to see this banshee, painted once again by the grand master Sebastian Archer (automaton), another great friend of ours. See with your own eyes.

I have to shamefully admit that Golden Demon UK was celebrated during September and because I was completely disconnected from the world, I couldn't really follow the news about it. I may talk about this contest soon because there is a lot of controversy regarding this year's choice for the SlayerSword and some judge decisions are being heavily questioned (this is not really something new but there is a lot of talk going on about this).