There’s a point in every miniature I paint where things look terrible. You’ve worked hard, you haven’t (necessarily) made any mistakes, yet for some unfathomable reason, it just looks garbage.

Its the most depressing part of any painting project, and the only way through it is to just push forward. You need to trust in your skills and just keep painting. This is obviously easier said than done, and personally, this is often the point where said miniature/s will be shuffled along the shelf above my desk and amalgamated into the undignified collection of other half painted miniatures, the dreaded “pile of shame”, the sad collection of “I’ll keep telling myself I’ll finish you, but never really have any intention of doing so”. Sorry plastic and resin friends.

Sadly, right now, this is where the Monkey King is languishing. It’s been over a month since I’ve put paint to brush. So long, in fact, that I can’t quite remember what I tackled last with the Great Sage Equal of Heaven.

“Heaven sought order, but the Phoenix can fly only when its feathers are grown.”

Monkey Magic – TV Series Opening Credits

Painting Monkey’s fur

I decided it was time for Monkey’s fur and hair. There isn’t a lot of it, but it does cover key parts of the figure, notably his head, amazing sideburns, chest and various patches across his arms.

Again, I was pretty indecisive about what colours to use here. I was fairly certain I wanted to go with a fairly standard brownish colouring, but the temptation to go with some bright fiery reds and oranges was high. Before leaping into it, I decided I’d do a few test palettes, in order to get a feel for what the end results would look like, and to work out which specifically which paints I’d use. At the time, I thought this was a great idea – its not an uncommon technique, but something I don’t utilize enough. I worry, however, I made a terrible error as part of this process. More on that later.

Firstly, I grabbed a few shades of orangey- brown, splashed them down on my work pad and loosely blended them together.

Then, did the same thing with some brown / tan colours, moving from dark brown right up to a very light sand colour.

I decided pretty quickly that the brown tones were better. I found them generally easier to blend and work with and the colours suited the overall ‘mental image’ I had for where I wanted to get to.

I was actually really quite happy; it was a really clean gradation from dark to light, they’re colours I’m fairly familiar with and confident work with, so brimming with enthusiasm, I got stuck into it.

Test Palettes

I don’t have any in progress shots here. It was one of those spells of painting where you truly get lost in the process; time fades away, but you’re so focussed you just don’t notice, nor care. These periods are absolute bliss; one of the primary reasons why I love painting so much. Am I happy with the end result? Well, almost.

I don’t feel the contrast is strong enough, and I think I’ve pushed the highlights too far (in order to achieve a stronger contrast) and ended up with an excessive amount of highlighting. However, there may be something else at play. The colours and tones don’t quite match the test palette I put together (this is the mistake I alluded to earlier).

See, the big ole’ pad of paper I use as under my work space is the cheapest pad of paper I could find. Quality doesn’t matter here; its just a place to test paints, wipe of excess paint, catch spillages etc. Being such cheap quality, its yellowed over time. This means that the I wasn’t working with a truly neutral base, and it would have had an impact – however minor – on the end result.

.See the image above, comparing the tones of the pad I did my test palettes on with the tones of the primer on the figure. I’ve pulled out some of those tones in each and formed another palette (the circles below) to illustrate the difference. I’m not entirely sure how strong an impact this may have had on the end result, but I’m not prepared to rule it out.

All that glitters is gold

Any miniature artists’ greatest weakness – aside from new models – is probably new paint. Sometime ago, I picked up this delicious (yes, for me, paint can elicit similar emotions as food) little pot of Vallejo Liquid Gold. I’d heard about Vallejo’s range of liquid metals, but hadn’t seen them in stores. When I did, I quickly snapped it up and I’ve been dying to use it ever since. One of the staff members of the store I bought it from told me it contains actual metal, so I needed to be careful with water on my brush whilst using it, else I’d cause it to rust. Exciting.

Given Monkey’s royal status and his amazingly detailed pauldron, I was ready to give it a shot. I cared not for testing it out (don’t do this) and just jumped straight into it. I laid down a brown base over the primer to give a warmer base to work from, cracked open the Liquid Gold and went to it.

Gotta say, this stuff is amazing. It gives really good coverage and is a joy to work with. It does dry rather quickly, so you have to work fast, but the end result is great. It leaves a really solid coating, almost as if it had been dipped in liquid metal. A few washes and some gradual highlights and drybrushing of other golds and some silvers, and Monkey’s pauldron was looking suitably regal.

With that done, I called it a night. My high school basketball coach (varsity point guard here believe it or not) use to always tell us to leave the court on a basket; the last thing you do, regardless of whether you were practicing with the team, or just mucking around on your own, always put the ball through the hoop before you leave. I decided to end on a win.

That was over a month ago, and I haven’t painted since. I could rattle off excuse after excuse, but the truth is, right now – I don’t like where this model is at, nor where its going. However, reviewing these photos and writing this post has kindled some inspiration. Maybe I can coerce those flames into something powerful enough to give the phoenix its wings.

Musical Interlude

I would have been all of 8 years old when Noiseworks’ “Take Me Back” was released. It conjures strong feelings of nostalgia for me; memories of driving to soccer practice in Dad’s silver Ford Fairlane.

Although it doesn’t have any particular connection with this post, its a song I’ve a strong emotional connection with, and in someway, has helped these words come together long before I actually wrote them.

More Monkey…