Journeyman Painting Log # 20

The best I can say is she's finished. 

Depression and elation in today's post.  I will begin, as you might expect, with the bad.  But first, the good part of the bad: Annyssa is finished.  What's the bad?  Look at the picture and you'll find out.  I was really looking forward to painting this model, which may well be the first cavalry model I've ever taken to completion, but as I progressed through it I became more disgruntled with each brush stroke.  Nothing quite turned out like I wanted it to, with (perhaps) the small exception of the hooves.  The face in particular caused much grief as it went from bad to worse before finally settling on a pretty good impression of Aughra from the Dark Crystal.  I'm no psychic so I can't know what the sculptor was shooting for, but I feel confident saying that they probably drew inspiration from a different source.  To close this paragraph in the only way possible I present an apology to whoever sculpted this model: I'm deeply sorry for what I've done to your work which deserved better, despite the ginormous gap between Annyssa's butt and the saddle.  I'll let the game developers take credit for the game entity having no melee weapon when the model has a big sword strapped across her back.

Redemption?

Fortunately there's a happy ending to this sad tale.  When I was done butchering Annyssa I expected to be done painting for the day.  I left the table, sat down elsewhere to do non-painting things, had a cool(ish) beverage, the usual post-painting routine.  One thing was different though: I still wanted to paint.  When I finish a model I'm normally done painting, especially when my stated goal for the day is to finish said model (as it was today with Annyssa), happy to have accomplished my goal and content to leave the brushes alone until next time.  Today my painting muse was not satisfied, so I went back to work.

Bigger, brighter, still missing a hand.

While painting Annyssa I contemplated what to paint after her.  The obvious choice was the Blackfrost Shard since I'd already started painting them.  Pushing the artist aside to let the gamer speak, Striders were a better choice as they'd potentially make more lists since they're not characters.  Striders are workers, actors, strikers, while the Blackfrost Shard provides support, utility, accompaniment.  The smart choice was the Striders, but the BFS was already on the table, while the Striders were located far enough away to make working on them infeasible.  Recalling my desire to paint the BFS well, or at least better than I've been painting my Legion so far, I brought out the big gun: the Windsor & Newton brush that sees far too little action.  In the grand scheme I didn't accomplish much with the BFS, just the purples, leathers, and most of the skin, getting each model about halfway finished.  The real value lay not in mere painting progress, but in recharging my painting batteries.  It's been a long time since I've taken my time with a model, painting it as well as I can (or close enough), so long that I'd forgotten how much I enjoy painting.  With about three weeks left in the Journeyman League, not to mention the Nova Open starting two weeks from yesterday, I'm trying to stuff a lot of painting into a small window.  That I've been less than diligent recently doesn't help matters.  Painting has become akin to work, which is no good for anyone.  There's still a large pile of stuff to work through, a pile I'll starting chipping away at when I've finished the BFS.  I'll be taking my time with them though, enjoying the process (even if it only lasts another session or two).