Showcase: The Skethar King

Last week I debuted my first 100% original model sculpt, the Skethar King.  The completion of the S.K. was definitely a milestone in my modeling career, one that started 10 years ago and has steadily progressed from simple weapon swap conversions to large scale sculpting additions.  In a few short years after that I was making models from scratch and adding a few manufacturer's components to finish.  It has truly been a labor of love and an absolute delight to take an idea in the mind and bring it to life on the table top.  That's why I created the Monster Lab a year and a half ago and gave it its namesake, so I could share my work with you and the rest of the world.  That goal has never changed, and as I've shifted from one career track to another, hobby has always remained a mainstay in my life.  It's really a dream come true to now be doing it for a living, and I'm excited to see where it will go in the future, studio painter? studio sculptor?  I can't wait to see.

I'd like to thank you for reading and sharing a piece of that journey with me and I hope that maybe, in some small part, I've touched you and inspired you in your hobby aspirations.  There's so many in my local hobby community and the blogosphere that have inspired me.

As for the S.K., here he is,  painted and complete.

Face in focus

Crown in focus

Last week I discussed the decisions I made in modeling the S.K.'s pose, so this time I'd like to talk about the colors used to paint him.

Drawing my inspiration from the original DGS Freeblades Skethar sculpt, I felt there was a strong classic "devil" theme there (red skin, horns, spaded tail, pernicious and mischievousness attitude), so my first decision to give the model red skin was an easy one.  I wanted to take that idea to the next level and add another level of depth to what could easily be an overly simplistic paint scheme.  I'm a big fantasy art enthusiast and a casual Magic: the Gathering player and I love checking out the new art featured on M:TG cards with each new release.  When considering what I wanted to do with the S.K.'s base scheme, a card, Rakdos Cackler, immediately popped into mind.  I decided I would paint his spine darkest and freckle down from there onto his arms, face, and chest.  The highest points on the model (spine, spikes, and ears) would be the darkest areas on the model, a reverse highlight if you will.

Everything else would be shaded in contrast hues to add strong focal points on the model, like his fingernails, horns, eyes, and teeth, drawing attention to his hand gestures and facial expression.  The base he's standing on is painted in the rugged earth tones of the scrubland deserts native to the Grular tribes, those who summon the Skethar demons in battle.

As I mentioned last time, this model was a special gift made for my long-time customer Jon C. over at DGS games.  He commissioned me to paint a group of six Skethar, two "alphas" with six arms and four regular little 'uns.  He asked me to convert two separate alphas, each from two existing Skethar models since DGS doesn't currently have a sculpt for the model.  I knew I wanted to do something special for Jon, and decided it would be be really fun to do the first original rendition of the Skethar alpha.  All the little Skethar out now are females, so I thought to sculpt a male "king," complete with a crown stolen from a human counterpart!

I'd like to present the Skethar horde.

Here's the S.K. surrounded by all his ladies, along with the female alpha in back.

Here's the alpha I made as a conversion from two existing Skethar models.  To distinguish her from her lessers, I wanted to highlight her exceptional strength and magical mastery by adding glowing eyes and runes across her body (the little 'uns have beady black eyes and mundane coloring).

Each of the little Skethar received a different form of color blending, this one is red from front fading into orange on her back.

The first Skethar I painted out of the batch, I did a "mittens and boots" approach, fading brown into orange. I got the idea when I asked my girlfriend, Harley, for color suggestions, "paint her orange!" she said, suggesting her favorite color.

Since I had already done a traditional red-devil scheme on the first Skethar I painted for Jon, and I was again doing a similar color scheme on the S.K. I wanted to dig into a whole other palette of color options, like purple, black, and magenta.  These two Skethar are both from that selection, blending colors from the top of the model to bottom.

Here's the whole group together!  If you line them up from orange, to red, to magenta, to purple, to alpha, there is a visible transition across the color palette and the squad.

That's it for this week, thank you for stopping by and checking out the latest project I've been working on here at the Monster Lab!

As always, happy hobbying and good gaming!

What's On My Desk: Custom Bases

This week I'm kicking off a new feature that shines a bit of light on what crosses my desk on a weekly basis. As a professional commission painter, I see a wide variety of projects, week in and week out, and have the fantastic opportunity to try new hobby techniques and styles.  "What's On My Desk" is a glimpse of projects and a look at work in progress pieces, skipping lengthy tutorials, and looking at the models before completion.  Through this feature I'm excited to be giving you a glimpse at what I'm doing on a weekly basis and share those experiences with you! 

This week, I've been hard at work basing a number of Freeblades models.  For the necromancer above, I wanted to give him an imposing base, where he was placed looming above some jagged rocks.  There is going to be a heavy glow effect coming from the rocks, radiating up to create a sinister under-light on the necromaner.

This Celtic warrior-seer held a ton of opportunities for a really cool basing.  In the end, I decided upon an open book and a couple of potion jars, surrounding him with the baubles a wizard might need while slinging spells.

Another of my favorite projects of late is this Arabian merchant.  I wanted to go outside of the box for this one, and instead of basing with rocks, grass, and the like, I went with what a desert city dweller might be walking over on a daily basis.  For this guy it's a Persian rug draped over a sandstone floor.

For this Grush, described as a porcupine-bear in the Freeblades universe, I wanted to put him on a mountainous base, reminiscent of a dry slate creek bed.  To do this I scoured a... of all things, a dry creek bed for slate rock.  I found these rocks during a harvest expedition (a rather lofty name for roaming around with a hammer and plastic bags while banging on rocks) and broke them into smaller pieces before applying them to the base.  I'll go through the process of finding and shaping rocks in a later post.

The rest of what's on my desk this week is less of what's on it, and more of where it is.  This last weekend my girlfriend and I completed our new work studio!

Now I have a space for completed models and WIP's.  As you can see I have a lot of work cut out for me, but the customer comes first and since I have a full commission schedule these guys are going to have to wait a bit longer..

We even have a small communal space for playing games, eating, and hanging out.  Note the Star Trek Generations movie poster on the back wall.  I uncovered this gem while cleaning an old room.  It's about 17 years old and still in great condition!  It had to go in the new room, as a child I was a huge fan of the Next Generation TV show, and I still remember being pumped to go see the movie in theaters.  What's cooler than a movie with your favorite captain, Picard?  One with both Kirk and Picard!

That's it for this week and what's on/where my desk is, stop by and check out what I'm working on next time!