| This converted sister of compassion was painted by Jennifer Haley in 2002 and was at Gencon. It's the mini that really started it all for me. Previously I had thought that my Tyranid Codex was the pinnacle of mini painting perfection. I had no idea that such smooth blends were possible. Even seeing it in person I still couldn't believe that anyone would ever be able to paint the tattoo. Many thanks to Przemyslaw Jeske for the image. |
| After seeing Jen's mini I trotted over to the Paint n Take, and started chatting with a nice lady who was painting Lucrettia Belladonna as a vampire. I asked her if she'd seen the angel that some dude had painted. After she'd straightened me out, she gave me some pointers. It turns out that the nice lady was Anne Foerster, now of Reaper Miniatures. She went on to win a Silver Demon with this mini. Thanks to Chris Engler for finding this photograph. |
| This was painted by Bobby Wong. The blends are absolutely mindblowing. I spent a lot of time on coolminiornot studying it, wishing that I could get my blends this smooth. I'm not the only one who finds this mini inspirational. On coolminiornot it has almost thirty thousand views. The image in the thumbnail is used without permission, and the main image is in coolminiornot's gallery. |
| This mini was my first exposure to cyril's work. The paint is so perfect, the blending is seamless and the lining is flawless. She looks like she's made of porcelain. After seeing this, I told people that I wanted to paint like cyril when I grew up. The image in the thumbnail is used without permission, and the main image is in coolminiornot's gallery. |
| Judas was one of the first pieces I had ever seen by Derek Schubert. The whole piece is pretty spectacular, but in particular I was blown away by the reds. In my coolmini gallery you can see my attempts to replicate that red. It took months before I got anything close. |
| Lysette is another one by Derek. At one point when I was struggling to paint eyes, Anne sat this mini down in front of me and told me to paint them just like Derek did. |
| This is Fatima by Liliana Troy. It's all a lovely paint job, but I was fascinated by the non metalic metals she did. I believe this was done in 2003, and it's still some of the best out there. |
| Toshiro is another one of Derek's that I got to see early in my painting career. His freehand is beautiful and suits the mini perfectly. |
| Valendil is one of Anne's minis. I recall that she was displeased with him for quite a while before he was done. He's quite a tricky mini to paint because of all the different layers of cloth, leather and armor. This mini is a great example of how to solve this problem. If you paint each layer a different color, it makes the color theory part of your brain hurt. Anne solved this problem beautifully by painting a pattern with his faction symbol and colors. |
| This dwarf is by Liliana Troy. Lili has the most incredible brush control. I wish I had a picture of the filigree on the the back of the shield, because it's absolutely mind blowing. You can still get a feel for her precision by the tight lines on the horns, and wood. Another thing I really like about this piece is how she highlighted the underside of those non metalic rivets. |
| Elise the Witch was painted by Jennifer Haley. One of many things Jen excels at is painting expressive faces. This mini is rather naughty,(where's that pumpkin stem?)which casts that expression in a completely different light. Another thing that Jen does really well is pay attention to details. If you look very closely at this pic, you can see the highlight underneath her fingers which make it look like she's actually grabbing her leg. Woo! |
| Anne painted this mini. She's Terzenya, and she totally schooled me. While the colors are not flashy, everything is tidy and perfect. My perfectly nice mini suddenly became sloppy when placed beside it. |
| Jade the Dancing girl is a really fabulous piece by Derek. The dual light sources on the bottles that he sculpted are incredible. The freehand pattern is also great. I spent hours making her dance on reapervision. |
| Rasia was painted by Lili. The non metalic metal is lovely, but what I really like about this paintjob is the face. Man, she looks angry. That's hard to do on a 28mm miniature. After seeing this mini I stopped trying to match the eyebrows with the hair color, opting instead for a more expressive but less realistic dark line. |
| Jolie the Scribe was painted by Jen for Gencon. I hadn't realized quite how much I was inspired by this mini until long after I'd painted her myself. I had unwittingly copied Jen's color scheme. Sorry Jen! |
| Turanil by Derek Schubert is just simply gorgeous. Really. Wow. I love this mini. |
| I can't decide what I like best about Lonnia. Her freehand is amazing. Random swirls are reasonably easy to paint on a mini, because of the randomness, but concentric swirls like these would be crazy hard. The non metalic metal is amazing. That sword just shines. |
| Mother's Day is a conversion that derek did for Reapercon 06. This is just cool. The nmm is awesome, as are the filigree edges. One of my favorite parts about this mini is the transparent lace that derek painted on her head cloth. I believe that he's the first person to do that. I really want to try it out now too. |
| Derek sculpted Ingrid for Reaperminatures. Which is pretty darn impressive in itself. The painting on Ingrid is lovely. It just sort of pops. I'm not entirely sure what it is about Derek's style that does that, but I think it's beautiful. |
| Derek won best of show at this year's (2007) gencon with this amazing pieces. The colors and the light in this are just amazing. I'm particularly blown away by the sunlight ripples and the shadows. Those are painted on, and not from the photography lights. Also these minis are all extensively converted. The swimming sea elves' only point of contact is the spear shaft. This is a huge file, please be patient as it loads. |
