Here be Giants!

This crew was a of fun to paint. I really like working with large, humanoid, strange creatures as they allow me to play with colors. I aimed for overall cold color scheme with some small differentiation between crew members. I'm afraid pictures don't do them justice as plenty of browns/greens/blues went into making the skin what it is. Blue is not the easiest of colors to work with so I wanted to make sure I give the skin plenty of definition and depth with more extensive use of colors.

In the fluff Euripides and his Gigants return from desolate mountainous areas to help Titania. I wanted to use this knowledge when working on their bases (larger pieces of rock), but at the same time I wanted to make sure they fit in thematically with the rest of my Neverborn crews (swamp-themed). And of course I've put some extra touches into painting Geryon and Euripides as they are the leaders and should stand out a little more.

Now I only need to field them and see how they perform in game. It's going to be a major challenge (not only due to pandemic) - I haven't played the game since Fall 2018...

#7 Mamba Mentality

This book reads very well although it's not great by any measure. It feels more like a collection of thoughts on various aspects of the game of basketball; training, maintaining your body, injuries, attitude, fans, opponents. I particularly enjoyed reading sections in which Kobe described his on and off-court relationship with other players. It felt like being taken behind the curtain to where things were actually happening and left lasting impact. Coupled with great pictures it makes a good read for fans of Kobe and those who appreciate learning about different layers that go into becoming one of the best in the game. 

I grew up watching and supporting Kobe. Ever since his dunk contest win I saw something special in him. The way he embraced competition and constantly sought opportunities to fine tune different aspects of his game was nothing short of exceptional. For me, this book felt very deep and personal despite lack of wider narrative construction and coherence and this is something that can put people off. For me it was an interesting way of getting more insights into daily challenges and understanding Kobe as a professional better. His passing really hit me hard and I do miss his positive energy, smile, and the ability to make everyone and everything around him better.

Trollbloods Extreme Mauler

I painted this beast a while ago but never got round to posting pics on the blog. Almost half a kilo of pewter, prepping this one for painting took probably more than painting :)

      

  

#6 How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk

As a father of two happy, rambunctious little girls I can honestly say that there are no good answers as to how children should be brought up. And I didn't expect any from this book. What I expected were relevant "case studies", as well as pointers that could guide me and show strategies of tackling emerging challenges of parenthood. And I wasn't disappointed as there are plenty of those there.

#5/2020 Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America

The fact that services like Facebook keep track of all our interactions in order to aggregate specific data describing behavior, beliefs, and other pieces on information is pretty much well known. What is not widely known is how deep it actually goes and how much of ourselves we leave at the fingertips of large organizations. It is  mind blowing to realize that we actually let go of more information  to FB willingly than we would reveal during torture. It's scary but definitely worth reading to understand the history behind Cambridge Analytica and what it had means so far.

Angry Gigants

 At the beginning of the month I decided to dig into Eurypides' box and paint something from it. I started with three Gigants. I didn't really like the 3D renders when I saw them first as they seemed a bit too puffed and borderline comical. As I continued working on them, I changed my mind. The main challenge here was finding right color for the skin. I used bright grey undercoat and worked with a number of contrasts/glazes/washes to get this pale, slightly purplish look.

As always, the most challenging part was taking decent pictures...

Lord of Blights

Crazy times we live in and it's hard to keep high spirits when there are even more depressing news daily than usual and when shelves at your local store look like that...

I highly recommend watching this TED talk as it's the most comprehensive take on the whole situation I've seen so far:

 Painting is one of the ways to keep your mind focused on more pleasant things. I've recently finished my first WFB miniature in a long time - Lord of Blights. I painted it following Darren Latham's excellent youtube tutorials. Speaking o which, make sure to check it out as all the videos will be pulled down in May.

I've also started working on Euripides' set for my own Malifaux collection. So far only a start with some skin tone experimentation