Forged Hope: Work In Progress

It has been a while since I've painted anything.  When I'm away, I usually find a contest to jump back into the swing of things.  Happily, the Forged Hope contest popped up on Massive Voodoo right when I was looking for something to do.  Besides the cool looking mini to work with, this gave me a chance to experiment with some of the things I learned in Jar's class at Adepticon a few years ago.

So, since I knew the crew over at MV would do the judging, it was time to scour their extensive tutorials for some inspiration.  (When in Rome...)  I knew I was going to do a much more elaborate base than I normally do, because if you've seen anything over at MV, you know they like basing.  They also use some wonderfully unusual materials and techniques and went I ran across their demonstration of a burnt wood base, I knew that one was for me.

I was working with some soft pine instead of the hardwood in the sample, so I knew it would burn a little differently.  I also wanted to have a rounder front, so I first carved off a bit of wood with a chisel.

Then came fire.  I am not patient enough to get good results with a butane lighter, so I cheated and went right to the butane torch.  The torch gives a much hotter and more focused flame, and it made quick work of the soft pine.  I even got a very character-y looking split on one side.  I think I'll cram some roots in there.

Next up was building up the front and top of the base.  The burned look was nice, but because of the angle of the cut of wood, not enough detail for me.  I had the idea that my robot would be posed over the edge of the cliff, looking out into the wasteland.

It was coming together nicely, but I needed something more: a vertical element.  Then I had a dream: toothpicks were sticking out the back of my wood base.  That morning I decided my robot had built a bridge to this cliff.  The bridge would add some verticality and provide a little framing.

The tools for this project: a thick and thin glue, fine wire and toothpicks.

So far so good, still almost too months until the deadline.