Damrahl, Drune Wyrd. Confrontation.

This character was needed in a dark bloody atmosphere, so I tried to do it as far as possible in my opinion. I like him, hope you'll do it too.

 

CMON

Cairn the Apostle & Griffin Icon-Bearer. Confrontation.

Yesterday there was a great event in Moscow: Russian Alternative organized its first competition Winter Angel 2012. Organizers promised to publish more detailed event report a little bit later. But now I can tell one thing - it was really a very strong competition. There was a huge number of amazing works on it, and I'm sure that judges had a hard time to choose the winners.
Specially for this case I've made several new works. None of them won prizes, but I hope, they worthily took place in this event.
Because a luck of time (as usual before any  competition!) I've decided not to paint a new sguad for the unit category but add some characters to my Griffin Spearmen trio. So I added Cairn the Apostle and Griffin Icon-Bearer.

 

And another pics of new miniatures:

Cairn the Apostle

Griffin Icon-Bearer

Lelith Gesperax

So, "The Russian alternative' " started its second online painting competition devoted to the "Tatyana's Day". It's celebrated in Russia since 1755 as the birthday of Moscow University, and later as a Sudents' Day. And the main condition for all paticipants was a painting of female miniature. So, my Lelith Gesperax takes part in this competition:

CMON 

And, traditionally, a pair of bigger pics:

 

The competition was attended by many of the great Russian artists. Here is a link to resource where you can see all of the participants: Competition "Tatyana's Day". I didn't hope to won some prize because of so mighty participants. But some detailed comments of judges and other high-level artists are really good efford for me.
 
And I want to collect all comments about my work into a single pile. This is what comes out:
 
The second half of my constant "QA" (the first,of course, is my husband) - Ringil:"Nadia doesn't try to do the better work, radish! The polly turned out great but not so on the face. It would be more contrast and sharper. Well, and hair - they take almost one-third of the total figure  and require more work on it. In general if you finish the face and hair, a whole miniature would look different. " 

Dmitriy - one of my favourite artist: 
"Nadia, where are you? I mean, where is your magic NMM? Your Tanya deserves more attention to her armor."
Kirill Kanaev, grand master of the miniature painting:
"Another attractive Tatiana of my top five, honor and praise. Only a lot of white stripes along the edges slightly spoil the style."

Comment by Oleg (Kraksa), another one of my favorite artists:
A nice job. But, as it has been said before, her hair is not good enough. And, in my opinion, there is something wrong with her eyes. May be a harsh light "ate" the shadow and depth, and made this  person flat on the photo, or something else ... it is a pity. Necron witch looks very atmospheric, and author, I hope, will return to this subject. I see successful lighting effects, where the light does not "eat" model, but gives it a piquancy to the periphery.

Well, and here is the final chord - jugging comments (Ben Komets & Matt Cexwish):

"The most sophisticated Part of this figure is for sure the glowing green cloth and the glowing green of the magic crystals on the Base. Also the Work on the details is soft and nearly flawless.
Too Bad that quality of the skin does not match the quality of the Highlights.
The Painter has a good eye for contrast but should work on the Choice of Colors. The skintone is a bit to vibrant, therefore its not looking realistic."
And score:
Technique  - 7,5 / 10
Blending - 7,1 / 10
Choice of Color -  5,5 / 10

So, my Tanya took only 9th place of 13 paticipants. It's really awfull. Now I freeze in creative crisis. I'm trying to get out with such conclusions: 1. to be more serios with any work for competition and 2. it must be "my own" miniature to avoid a lack of time and give it more my soul .

Winter holidays - and Italy again!!!

And we were in Italy again! We spent our winter holidays 2012 in this wonderful country in the Dolomites. Last year, this place captured our hearts with its ​​beauty and warm welcome in Canazei. So there was not any other decision except to go back for those slopes, for this sun, for this snow. But this year we changed the location  and chose Sant Cristina, Val Gardena ski area. This area is good for its availability to different skiing areas for every taste and color: a large circular route Sella Ronda, and some "gems" such as Alpi di Susi and peak Secheda.
 
This is my favourite peak - Sassolungo, I think, my soul remained there:

And there is the best fun place for us - Snow park - at it's foot:

And this is one of the black slopes. We tried to survive there, so I with kids went down more than half of it  with some unusial way - "step by step" on the slope edge:

This is fork to the famous Saslong slope, a place for every year World Cup downhill in men. But the previous black descent was enough for me and I choose a more safety way to the right. And it was a wise decision, because I really ran out of power at the end of it:

Col Raiser and Secheda  - fantastically sunny and beautiful places:

 

The endless  Alpi di Susi:

It wasn't so good weather in this year. Only three of six days were sunny. Plus a temperature fell down to -20C in the mountains. But such small problems couldn't stop us in our desire to view new places!

I very rarely go back home with tears in my eyes, but now I dream about this places again and again...

Demonette 54mm

I am so glad to paint this miniature by Allan Carasco. It was my first chaos creature.  I tried to find my own solution because it's impossible for me just to close to the author's painting level. In addition, a taste of my customer was on the violet-skin side. So I chose  a fantastic Demon from Raffaele Picca as my inspiration. 
Finally I like this result very much because I was so afraid to start this work for  about a month.   It was my first experience of painting 54 mm miniature. And I can say that it is really difficult for me to blend colors on such large surfaces. 
Also, I've tried to mix metallics and HMM, and I like it. Metallics add natural shining for armor parts.Though it seems a  little bit  harder for me. And It was a first time I painted a blood on my miniatures!

CMON

A Winter Angel is ahead!

It's a great news: a new hobby project Russian alternative was born in the chaotic depths of russian miniature community some times ago. 
And its nearest plans are: 
      - 25.01.2012 - a painting competition on-line "Tatyanin day", female miniatures only. (And I had already sent my work for it!)
       - 17.03.2012 - a global painting miniatures competition "Winter Angel". This competition will be really ambitious, as invited to attend all comers. Now there are more than 40 people in a list of participants and  I see there such names as Cyril Kanayev, Natalia Melnik and others very, very good artists. And we're expecting a really star judging: Ben Komets, Matt Cexwish and Jose Manuel Palomares Nuñez. Of course, I and my husband will take part in it (what to do, what to paint?!!!), because it's impossible to miss such event in Moscow!

Paladins of Alahan. Confrontation.

When I hear the word "paladin" I always imagine a knight in a pearl armor, beautiful and bright, with a sword punishing an evil. That's what I tried to put in the atmosphere of this squad. And I like the result: