Lending a free hand...

Everybody's favorite... freehand cloaks!  Oh, and a shield, and some tattoos for good measure :-)

I tried to spend as much time as I could on all the 'preliminary' work, such as the design sketches and such things.

By the way, that is Greek for The Painting Pyramid.

Time to see what this will look like in color!

So, a color sketch to better work out the design, and plan ahead.

It is really handy to have a guide like this right next to the piece you will be working on.  Cathy gave me the idea for that!

Time to lay out the design on the cloak...

And the back as well.

Lettering!  My favorite, since I am a 'closet calligrapher'.  At least that is what I have been told.

The design quickly shaded...

And then placed on the base.

Don't forget the shield!

I got your back!

A box from Germany made the Taters think that a new spaceship had arrived.

Powdering one's nose...

I am pretty sure the one qualifies as the most 'exotic' of the videos.  Essentially, it is a very extreme version of painting with the weathering powders (these were Secret Weapon pigments).  I did this to show how far you could take them, even though most people will use them for something far more basic.

While you can simply 'dust' on the pigments like pastels, I discovered that you can actually 'paint' with them, due to the new Pigment Fixer developed by Secret Weapon.

This means that you can secure the powders quickly as you paint, and not have to spray between layers, etc.  That had been an impediment to me trying this sooner.

I painted the base as the first example.  Doing this reminded me of just how much I enjoyed painting bases with the powders.  I think I will be doing a LOT more of that in the future!

It is very tricky doing this on a miniature.  My primary thought was to use this technique on bigger figures, where it might be more difficult to blend colors, etc.

When you use rubbing alcohol to turn the powders into liquid paints, you can blend the colors on the figure, since they are not sealed yet.

That makes it a little like oil painting, except you have complete control over the drying process!

Again, this is not something for beginners, or even intermediate painters.

Still, for those that want to try this out, I think you will find some useful things that you can adapt to your painting style.