Why do I paint NMM?

Now that I have been able to take some pictures of a few of my Arthurian series of paintings, I thought I could use them in this post to explain why I use the Non Metallic Metal technique.

The question has been asked over and over again, and now I have pretty pictures to go along with the explanation!  Yea!

Before I get started...this is NOT a debate about NMM vs Metallics.  Please dispense any hatred at the door :-)  It does not matter to me what anyone uses.  I don't really care about the absolutes and other insanity that flies back and forth between the rival camps.

There is one reason, and one reason only why I use the technique.  I spent many years painting 2D art.  Since there are no metallic watercolors or pastels, I had to "create" the effect of metal, as artists have done for centuries.

These images are examples of knights in armor, painted in watercolors.  The principles here are exactly the same as what I do on a miniature.  Obviously, there is a "back" to the figure.  However, The concept of reflected light, horizon lines, strong contrasts and reflected colors all apply to both 2D and 3D.

The first image has a bit of Sky-Earth Non Metallic, or SE-NMM.

For this second painting in the series, the object was to show the height of the glory of Camelot.  Summer vegetation, bright colors, sunny sky, and SE-NMM.

Now we see something different from the 4th painting in the series.  The fall of Camelot.  Fall colors, grey skies, and less reflectivity and bright highlights on the armor.

Again, the idea is to reflect as much light as possible.  You have seen me do this many times in miniature form.  In some ways, it is much easier to paint the effect on a 3D miniature than to create the illusion of shape on a piece of watercolor board!

There you have it folks.  The reason why I use the Non Metallic technique.  Simply has to do with my path to miniature painting.  I hope it makes sense to you all! :-)

Stu strikes again!

I don't know where he keeps finding them, but Stu Has another 'lady friend'.

Maybe he heard the screams as the zombies closed in...

And then decided to pop a cap in some Zombie brains!

Uh, oh... Da Preacha man is at it again too.

There'll be no funny business on Preacha Man's watch.

Those zombies don't stand a chance!

From Kislev with love

This was a figure I originally made for my Adepticon army.  He was intended to be Chenkov, until I went with a Raging Heroes figure instead.

It had been so long since I made the conversion, I forgot that I used a WFB Kislev miniature and some I.G. bits!  His color scheme really matched the Highland Guard pretty well, so I will shoot some pictures of them together.

He is also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321441337152?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Burning bright

A few more Reaper Minis from the vault!

It's always fun to so some of the orange object source lighting on cooler flesh tones such as this.

The see through clothing effect is tricky.  Certain colors are easier to do than others.  I guess white is the easiest.  This turquoise is somewhere in the middle.  Not so bad, since the cooler greens can be reflected in the shadow areas of the skin tones as well.

I put some turquoise in the floor colors as well, so that I could make sure some of that would be reflected...

Another art chapter.

Not long before I shifted from 2D art to miniature painting, I was doing a lot of Celtic Mythology inspired paintings.  I am still trying to track down more of the images.

This one was probably the largest and most elaborate, although I can think of some others which would give it a good run for its money! :-)

This is one of a number of designs that I painted on Celtic drums (bodhrans) numerous times.

This one is Epona the Horse Goddess.  I painted a good portion of this by candlight during a big rain storm in our booth at the Ren Faire.  Not much else was going to happen anyway, so time to entertain the 'guests' trapped inside!

This is one of the very first images that I painted, called "The Caretaker"  It has puppies!

Big and Rich

Giant dudes like this get mighty heavy in metal!  It weighed a ton... makes one glad for Bones figures, doesn't it?

This thing was massive, obviously.  That made it very difficult to hang on to.  Having worked on some bigger Bones figures, it is really nice to have the lighter figure, but also a more absorbent surface.

That means that the paint will stick on there despite all the extra handling that something of this size gets.

And some dwarves to go along with him!  Dwarf Rune priest...

One of my favorite Reaper dwarves.

And a few buddies!

First with red hair...

And then white.

A fun batch that was painted some time around 2008-2009.

Sand castles

Time to play in the sand once again with these North Africa campaign color schemes for Memoir '44 vehicles.

It's an especially fun scheme to carry through.  It's all been practice for a Secret Weapon RAV 6 x 6 project.  Shhhh... don't tell anyone!  It's a secret. :-)

Anyway, it's going to be a lot of fun to see these guys mixing it up with the British Commonwealth forces!

At some point I will get some pics of these guys together with the Crusader tanks.

Off to battle!