More Digital Scribbles…

As I mentioned the other day, I've taken up digital art as a way to bridge the gap between work and play. Maybe make some extra pocket money as a consequence.

I've turned my attention away from Christmas, to something more current (on this blog at least)… Romans!!

This fine fellow was my first attempt at painting a Legionary. Did it in a couple of hours after work earlier this week. I'm still very rusty with the art (been 20+ years since I studied) but I'm enjoying it a lot and the results are turning, albeit slower than I would like. Like most things you just have to practice every day – at least with the digital you don't have to clean up afterwards!

Even within this pic you can see the difference over a couple of hours: I did his head/shoulders first and his sword, straps and shield last.

To be continued…

Auxiliaries Arrive…

After weeks of procrastination and downright faff, some new models appeared on the painting tray yesterday. I have added an Auxiliary spearman and a couple of bowmen to the growing number of Romans waiting for paint. These should fill the gaps in the ever-expanding secret project.

You may recall my challenge of creating some Auxiliary bowmen without wanting to spend too much or buy specific models. My solution was quite straightforward in the end. I bought a single Auxiliary spearman sprue (consisting of four models), then trawled ebay for bitz. What I ended up with was some Warhammer Empire archer arms which fitted the bill (almost) flawlessly. The scale of the arms is a tiny bit larger than the Auxiliaries, but given that I'm only using hands it wasn't such a problem.

To help disguise this minor glitch I shall probably add a bit of greenstuff to create gloves (or something similar), but I have to say they turned out rather well I think!

To be continued…

Xmas update…(??)

First off, apologies for the blog post that never was yesterday. Post some stuff a little prematurely and decided to hold fire until it couldn't get me into trouble. More to come on that.

The main news is that there is no news. Hobby time has become something of a near-forgotten myth in our household at the moment. However, I did take the painting tray down yesterday and dust off my Romans. The enthusiasm to paint is slowly returning now that the weather is cooling off a little.

I have made a sneaky tech purchase – a Wacom tablet. I have qualifications in fine art but haven't practised in a long time. Hopefully this new toy will encourage me to spend more time drawing and painting. I have been dabbling for a few weeks now and the image above was one of my first goes with the tablet. Whilst just a scribble, it has given me an idea for a series of Christmas cards and some hobby-related illustrations.

Hopefully more to blog about after the weekend!