Dexter0015's WIP log

[Dexter0015]

Hi everyone.

The bigining of the year was pretty busy so unfornuately, I wasn't able to paint as much as I whish...

Anyway, first things first, let's take a look at some projects I manage to achieve in 2018.










And for 2019 now, I decided to work differently: one project at a time.

And for my first project I present you.... the sleeping minotaur!





I've got this mini from a KS campaign and it instantly catched my eye. I love the idea of this mystical creature at rest.
My idea is to place it under a tree, near a river. I really want to produce a restfull composition.

And I wanted to create the tree from scratch (what a fool!).

I've a pretty strong idea of the kind of base I want to do so it started pretty easily, until I start to work on the tree...







My first attempt wasn't really successful: the tree was too small and I tried to create the texture of the wood with toilet paper and pva glue which was a complete failure...





But it was a good experience though, and it helped me for the my second attempt.







As I was quiet happy with the wire structure, I moved forward and try another approch to cover the wire: I used a mix of earth dust and pva glue which looks more natural to me in the end.



At this point I glued the tree to the base, it will help me finish the roots with some miliput and help me add some more branchs after that.





In the mean time, i started painting the mini:

[gorb]

The second tree looks very good! Saw dust + pva glue, what a great idea!
This is going to be a cool build, looking forward to it.

[KruleBear]

Nice start on the base. This is going to be an interesting one to see come together.

[Dexter0015]

Thanks guys!

I made some progress on the tree.

First time I use seafoam and I've got to admit I'm not disappointed at all.

[Frogjimjaff]

That tree looks amazing

[Dexter0015]

I think the tree structure is done.

I managed to blend the seamfoam branchs on the tronc.















Now I'm just trying to figure out the best way to add some leaves to it.
I'm aiming for a fall scene, with the tree starting to loose its leaves...



I think maybe I could glue some of the leaves I cutted before (see the first picture of the project with the flashy green leaves once I've paint it).
But I'm still looking for the best approach for this step.
Any suggestion/advice is welcome.

Until I made some tries I will work on the minotaur.

[gorb]

Great looking tree there!
Sorry though, I can't think of a good way to add leaves. I hope you can find one, I'd be interested to hear it

[Dr. Bob]

Watching your project evolve is really fascinating. Thanks for posting all of the step-by-step pictures!

[Dexter0015]

Thanks guys!

I still have some branchs of seamfom so I'll try something with it first to avoid ruinning the tree

[KruleBear]

That seafoam looks great.

[Graishak]

Your tree is amazing. Within that kind of perfect terrain the Minotaur might be lost :-)

[BloodASmedium]

Genuinely beautiful work!!!

[Dexter0015]

Soooo, I tried to glue some leaves on a spare branch to see if it could looks good, and I'm no so convinced.







Just to be sure I gave it a black paint coat to blend things up. It is better, but still a little off I think.
And the fact that the leaves are too straight isn't helping at all.








Anyway I made another attempt with natural small "leaves" I bought some times ago and it turns out much better.
I just need to find a way to tint it.








In the mean time, I decided to paint my fake leaves, and I think I deserve a darwin award on this one because I tried to do it with my airbrush. Yes you read me right, I thought for a moment that I would be able to paint tiny leave by blowing paint on it...



Few minutes laters... (and after cleaning the conffetis...) I realised how idiot I was and move on...

Finaly I bathed it in washes of several paints and let it dry other night.
The result isn't enough yet, but not so bad either as the leaves doesn't stick to each other too much.
So I will repeat the principe until I'm satisfy (I may have an idea on how I'll use it in the end...).








Regarding the tree now, something bothers me: I like the shape of the trunc, but the fact that it has the same whight all along looks weird I think.
Nature doesn't work that way so I've widen it a little bit on the base which, I think is a nice improvement.

[Lone Lemming]

The result isn't enough yet, but not so bad either as the leaves doesn't stick to each other too much.

I was always afraid that the leaves stick together or cover each other and no paint will get on them.

What I seen in one video is to tint coffee filter paper and cut out the confetti afterwards. It definitely will soak the paint and much easier is to cut them afterwards.

[SaintToad]

Your project is looking great. The tree is starting to look like a bonsai!
One thing I do when using paper leaves is use the round wooden end of a brush to force a little roll into each leaf. It helps them look more nature and less like something cut from a flat sheet.

[Dexter0015]

Thanks for the tips guys! I will definitively try that.

[ekipage]

looks like the leaves were too big in your first try so it seemed kind of off. Maybe using the curling tip that SaintToad suggested might have helped them a bit. That being said, this tree/diorama is looking great so far.

[DaBeebs]

Looking good, man!

Keep it going!

[Lone Lemming]

For leaves you can check this diorama for reference, too.

[Dexter0015]

The idea of using coffee filter paper as the base material for the leaves really seduced me right away for several reasons:
1 - the original texture of the paper is more rough than regular paper, which, in the end, will help for the realism
2 - I can buy brown filter, then paint it with my airbrush without fear of white border once cut.
3 - it is lighter than regural paper and will be easier to bend and looks more natural at the end also

So I gave it a try, and first of all, lets me say that it's a really simple way of making leaves, and secondly, the reasult is really nice.

Here are the steps of the process in one picture (in case of need ):



Note : I used the same tints as pictured in a previous post to create color variations.

And the test result:


In the top right.



Way better, and I love the variations, exactly the effect I was after.

THanks again @Lone Lemming and @SaintTod !

And thanks for the excellent reference Lone Lemming, it remaing me that I still have alot of work to do