Sparkleburst

I'm alive! I survived my 10-Day-Cold, a.k.a. this year's "Con Crud". I also got paid on Friday-- which was bad (or good, depending on how you look at it!) Things happened. I do not regret it. Christmas is coming up and I'm no closer to buying gifts for other people. However, after I emerged from the the feverish, drifting-in-and-out-of-consciousness state, I watched an obsene amount of anime and eventually signed into Kickstarter and found these:

I've backed both of them. I'm buying two of the Wyrmwood carriers-- one's going to be engraved "His" and the other "Hers". I can't wait! I also invested in the Super Dungeon Explore: Legends even though I haven't yet received the most recent Kickstarter "Ninja All Stars" which is projected to ship in 2 months in December. No one can have too many chibis, right? (But don't get me started on the Scale 75 Smog Riders!) If that wasn't enough, I received an e-mail newsletter from Kingdom Death this weekend. Oh boy. 

The Halloween Twilight Knight pinup was available during the weekend as well as several "Disciples of the Witch". I was extremely pleased to see two incredible male sculpts (along with their female counterparts) which I bought: 

I'm never allowed to get sick again. It's too expensive. Luckily, on Monday, I was feeling well enough to do some work on the next miniature I'll be finishing, Carla McCarthy. While I've been working on her bit by bit, she's taken a back seat to a few competition miniatures I've worked on but no more procrastinating! 

Here's where I left off after last night's Twitch stream. In order to commit myself to streaming on a fairly regular basis, I'm considering posting here on my blog once a week and streaming 2-3 times per week. I still haven't decided this yet, but I want to make sure I'm not stretching myself too thin since my full-time job takes up most of my time. It's a shame, really, my career is getting in the way of my painting, habit and at the same time funds it :) Either way, I love what I do and I want to expand and build great habits in the miniature painting hobby & community. In the meantime, I'll end my blog post similar to how Soda Pop Miniatures ends their 'Super Dungeon Explore Kickstarter updates-- until next time! *Sparkleburst* 

Reaper Artist Con Recap

I'm alive! I've had to take the last 2 days off of work after suffering from Con Crud-- it's nasty this year. I woke up just fine on Monday and by lunchtime I was starting to feel cold and my throat was sore. That night I was covered in blankets and shivering uncontrollably. The last two days have been quite miserable and I'm finally well enough to write a short blog post. Sorry for the delay! I plan on adding a bit more about the classes, but in the meantime I need a nap. Here's what I have so far:

I had a hard time getting to the Con because of the flash flooding, but I finally made it halfway through the first day. I kept my competition entry piece safe & sound in the cup holder.

I took really great classes at the Con, including Julie Guthrie's fur sculpting class, Jessica Rich's OSL class, and Aaron Lovejoy's basing class. Here are a few pictures I took in this order:

1. An example of one of Aaron's bases
2. Our materials for our hands-on base construction
3. My OSL work in progress
4. Getting started sculpting in Julie's class
5. My finished model-- first time sculpting fur!
6. An example of fur sculpted by Julie

I also left with some unexpected and awesome loot! Every year, a few "Tricks" are placed in the "Trick or Treat" con loot. This year, I was the lucky recipient of a rock! I've heard of them before but I've never actually seen them. Evidently they're pretty rare so I'm keeping it as a lucky charm! I also met Kevin (@KGXVII)  who makes some pretty amazing chainmail stuff. Over the last few months, I've followed the cool stuff he makes online. Kevin surprised me at the Con with a blue & green lanyard-- I love it! 

I have to say, the best loot I received at the Con was my Golden Crow-- 1st Place in the Halloween Painting Contest! I was blown away. This guy will sit next to my Bronze Crow I received last year when I got Third Place. I'm so excited and incredibly grateful :)

While I've yet to do an official little photoshoot with her, here are a few pictures I took once I finished her and before I packed her up and hit the road for ArtistCon!

Twitch Witch

I forgot to eat dinner last night. Well, it's more accurate to say that I got caught up in a creative project and totally skipped eating dinner-- ever done that? Yeah, it sucks. However, since I went into obsessive mode, I did some serious webcam troubleshooting.

The issue? I have a Mac. Yes, I accept the limitations that go along with it like not being able to play PC-based games. However, for the first time, my Mac platform is proving extra-difficult with the webcams I'm using. Long story short, Logitech doesn't provide drivers to support adjustments of the webcam focus-- a huge problem when you're working on such a small scale. But I'm up for the challenge! I'd like to avoid giving my viewers vertigo when they watch my channel. 

I also did some basic maintenance on my Twitch account-- headers, offline message, etc. It's time-consuming but so exciting to see it come together! Next up is my profile information. But enough about all that stuff, let's see some pictures!

Here's where I ended last night:

The layering on her stockings is coming along slowly but surely. I did some major cleaning up of edges last night and putting some glazes over different parts of the miniature like boots and her cape. I'm realizing that being inspired by Blair's character means that everything's going to be black-on-black-on-black. Well, shoot. I'm going to find ways to incorporate more interest and color into this miniature. I think I'll give her silky stocking bands and give them that semi-opaque look. I'm also going to attempt to make her bodice interesting-- but I'm not sure how yet! I feel like I started with an interesting, yet flawed concept, ha! But not to worry, I think I can change it up just enough to get this rolling for this weekend. Better get to it-- more to come later :)