This weekend, I did nothing. It was glorious. I slept in after not sleeping much the entire week preparing for my job interview. I cleaned, read a book, and did some painting. I activated Whispersync on my phone & Kindle for a book called "The Wretched of Muirwood" by Jeff Wheeler. Basically, Whispersync is a feature through Amazon that updates your synced devices to match exactly where you are in your book. Also, if you buy a digital copy of a book, you get a discount on the audio book version and vice-versa. It's great for when I want to read and when I want to paint & listen. While I'm not crazy about the narrator of this audiobook, I'm enjoying the plot so far (I'm on Chapter 13 after reading Chapter 1-8 on my Kindle and listening to the rest on my Audible phone app).
While I listened, I painted and practiced TMM (True Metallic Metal/Shaded Metallics). I'm using Privateer Press's P3 "Blighted Gold" and Reaper's "Green Shadow" to paint the metals on the Ursula Silverbraid mini from Reaper. I want to experiment with painting a brass-like metal using subtle washes of Green Shadow. I've seen some really interesting things done with shaded metallics and dark colored washes of blues, reds, greens, and purples. This particular metal will have a slightly tarnished look and will expand my experience beyond TMM silver.
Base Coat of Blighted Gold
After a few thin layers of Green Shadow
Adding a few mid-highlights of Blighted Gold at the tip of the axe and edges of armor
I'm really pleased with the way that the metal is coming along. I plan on adding some extra-bright highlights in gold to accentuate the tips, edges, and rivets in the armor & weapon. I also plan on making the back panels of her cape (?) a leather color. It's primed in grey for now, but I fully intend on changing that soon! And frankly, I'm not sure if I'll keep the bright blue of her bodice. I thought it would add an interesting contrast to her hair, but we'll see how I can incorporate that bold color into the rest of her outfit.
In other news, yesterday we played D&D! We did our annual Christmas-themed one-off campaign. We rolled 4th level characters-- this year, consistent with 5th edition. Cookies, egg nog, coffee & wine flowed freely as we battled an ice dragon hell-bent on destroying the town of Everwinter. We successfully acquired the Shrub of Snoggletog and saved the townsfolk. My gnome bard sang a few songs (only one or two of them good). We even invited our friend who had never played Dungeons & Dragons before. He was stellar & we had an absolute blast. We also recorded the whole thing! I'll need to go back through and edit out the parts where we broke for refills, pizza, etc. I'll be doing some traveling Monday & Tuesday, but if I get the time, I'll post the link this Thursday on the blog. Otherwise, I'll work on it this weekend and have it up next Monday :)
*Update* I finished Ursula! You can find Part 2 here.