Sunday 1 April 2012

Iron Painter round 2

The theme for round 2 was "THE NEXT STEP". When I first saw the, I immediately saw great potential for interpreting it. I thought I'd try to create a little diorama that would illustrate "the next step" as a milestone achievement in warfare. I did that but in a slightly twisted way (hence the title). I used a few models that I thought would fit the scene, added some scenery and a few mutilated body parts. Other than the slightly covert interpretation of the theme, there are a few other 'steps' in it; the next step of the armed pig (if you look closely you will notice that the fuse is lit on the dynamite) and its potential effects, the next step of the cannon-wielding pirate (will he manage to fire it in time to prevent another disaster?) as well as the next step of the lady with a saber and a dagger. Putting it all together (the house is made of several resin parts that were pinned and glued together) and painting everything took most of my evenings and two weekends during last several days. Fortunately, my wonderful wife was very understanding and I didn't have to feel bad about spending so much time on it. It is a departure from my usual style of painting as I went for much brighter, vivid colors. It's a pretty gruesome scene after all so I thought I'd lighten the mood that way. Also, the models have a satirical, comic feel to them. All of them are from the Tale of War miniature range, some really great stuff they're producing.
In the end I didn't qualify for round 3. This is the piece that was chosen as a better one. It's hard for me to compare these two as they were painted in a different style and there was a different approach to the whole thing in each of them. Well, I can only wish my opponent good luck in the next round(s) and try again next year.
In hindsight, I think I went slightly over the board with my interpretation of the theme. That's a lesson I had to learn the hard way - in this contest the entries should be prepared in such a way that the theme shines through immediately. Anyway, I had a lot of fan taking part in the contest and will definitely want to do it again next time. The piece will probably end up on ebay as I don't really have any use for it now. Well, time to get back to painting LotR minis - I see plenty of iron in my nearest future (Gondor) as well as some Malifaux stuff but I'll write about it later.

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