ReaperCon Prep - Part 1

I've made progress! It's not a lot, since painting is still emotionally taxing given everything the family's still going through, but it's enough to make me proud. I finished one of my competition entries! Behold, Hasslefree "Mystic Warrior Jen" (the first picture is for scale):

I also finalized my ReaperCon itinerary today. It includes advanced painting classes, basic sculpting, advanced basing, airbrush classes, and two evening banquets and plenty of unscheduled free time. Last year, I took several full days of back-to-back classes which resulted to little time to socialize and relax. I shuffled quickly from class to class for eight hours straight and absorbed as much information as possible-- totally worth it (for me). I enjoy binge-learning things I'm passionate about. While I don't recommend over-scheduling one's self during conventions, I found that cramming that much information into my head (and taking plenty of notes) improved my painting ten-fold. 

While there's plenty to look forward to at this convention, I'm most excited to see the friendly faces I met last year. Some are accomplished, full-time professional painters, others are casual hobbyists-- many of whom won multiple medals last year in the painting competition. I was inspired by their knowledge, graciousness, and encouraging words. In fact, one of the friendliest of the bunch is teaching some classes for the very first time! Since I don't currently have a "Blog Roll", I wanted to list a few of the talented folks I met in person at last year's convention. These individuals have positively influenced me in the past year (apologies if I've missed anyone!) and I encourage you to check out their websites and/or examples of work. In no particular order, here are the people I can't wait to give a great big hug to when I see them in two weeks!

Jessica Rich "The Brushmistress" 

Michael Proctor of "Clever Crow Minis" 

Rhonda Bender a.k.a. "Wren"

Kuro Cleanbrush (check out his Youtube tutorials!)

Cash Wiley of "The Wiley Brush" 

Shannon Stiltz of "Queen Penguin Productions"

Andy Pieper a.k.a. "TaleSpinner" 

Max Styles a.ka. "Hot Chicks Jeff" (my own personal nickname for him!) 

Now I'm working on my newest Reaper mini I hope to enter in the competition, with my future color-scheme inspired by the character Kaylee's costume design from the show Firefly. Right now I'm still working on her face and blocking out shapes with liner. I have far too much to do with several works-in-progress during the next two weeks. Trying not to panic!

Christmas D&D Gaming

Hope everyone is having a lovely holiday season! Just for fun, I want to share the audio recording (broken into three parts) of the holiday-themed Dungeons & Dragons we played recently. It's one of our new Christmas traditions where we come up with crazy 4th level characters in a single-session adventure set up by our DM (or "Dungeon Master", a.k.a. "Game Master"). This is only the second time we've played 5th edition and so far, I think it's a lot of fun and allows for a lot more improv freedom than previous D&D editions. In our "one-off" games, we play our way through a seasonal story filled with goofy puns and familiar pop culture characters in a single-session. We don't get too bogged down in the rules so it's accessible to those who haven't played the game before, and 4th level characters are interesting, but not too complicated for less-experienced players. In fact, "Ugg" is played by our friend who has never before played a tabletop role-playing game like D&D-- so happy that he had such a good time! We've hosted similar games this past Halloween and Easter, and I can't wait to help plan the next one! In the recordings, you'll get to meet each of our player-characters the three of us created (in addition to the many other personalities brought to life by our DM):

Ugg (It's short for "Ugg") - Human Barbarian
Throzen Stoneheart (a.k.a. "Stockwood") - Dwarf, er, um, Fairy-something? 
Catnip "Kitty" Silverbells - Gnome Bard

Dungeons & Dragons is the game that introduced me into the world of miniature painting and I have a special place in my heart for it. It's something I want to play with my friends, my family, and one day when I have offspring of my own, I want to share it with them. It's imaginative, it's spontaneous, and if I ever meet someone who says, "Oh I played D&D, it wasn't any fun", I'll smile & tell them "Well, then you're doing it wrong" invite them to one of our seasonal one-off games. Hope you enjoy sharing in our fun! 

Holiday Traditions

Last year, we decided 2015 would be our very first stress-free Christmas. At first, we wanted to escape to Belize, but since that didn't work out for financial and work-schedule reasons, we're choosing to stay home this holiday. I have the day after Christmas off and the guy & I are being hermits and playing video games and painting the following weekend-- glorious! I'll choose my space-themed Reaper Con 2015 miniature entry and see if I can find those Christmas Mouselings I bought last year. Knowing it will be my first year to not spend Christmas with the immediate family, I felt acutely homesick over the past few weeks. Recently, I was lucky enough to swing by & see my folks for a short while and indulge in the foodie goodness that would bring. 

Ahi Tuna Tower

"Breakfast Shot" after dinner - it tastes JUST like syrupy waffles! 

If Christmas trees took selfies

It was nice being able to visit & catch-up. We hung out by the fire, talking and listening to music. I stayed up late to read my Kindle next to their epic 14 foot tree (my mom's motto is "go big or go home"). The fun didn't last long enough though--  early the next morning, I had to hit the road!  

Hitting the open road. 

Later that night, I started thinking: I love the holiday traditions from the "easy" Christmases I enjoyed growing up. All I had to do was sit in a car, play video games, listen to music CDs until we arrived at loving homes where we'd be fed and fawned over for days until it was time to go home. I bet we all have cherished memories of simpler times (thanks to our childhood innocence) and it got me thinking: it's time to make our own holiday traditions, like the 2nd annual Christmas-themed DnD adventure we hosted last Sunday:

I haven't been able to upload & combine those DnD audio files yet, but I'll have time to do it this weekend. Hmm, what other traditions can I contribute to? Maybe I'll make Star Wars gingerbread cookies and seasonal cocktails with d20 ice molds. The hunt is on for the next best holiday tradition!